Leighton Park School’s students celebrated as ‘Future Ready’ by Independent Schools Association

Leighton Park School is delighted to have been recognised by the Independent Schools Association (ISA) as a Finalist in their Future Readiness Awards! The award aims to celebrate best practice in preparing students for their life beyond school and ensuring they have the skills and the mindset to thrive. 

As a values-led school, Leighton Park creates unrivalled opportunities for personal development and character education, while working with partners to create a better world. This focus draws on the school’s heritage as a Quaker school and the impressive history of Quakers who set up forward-thinking companies like Cadbury and Rowntree; extraordinarily successful businesses that also treated staff and suppliers fairly and created social good. Equally important, Quakers helped found leading charities and campaigning organisations, such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Quakers won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947.

Leighton Park’s vision is to prepare their students to be future change-makers through innovative and comprehensive educational approaches that extend beyond the traditional curriculum. Their goal is to nurture self-awareness and community engagement, empowering students to imagine a better world, and with the skills to make a meaningful difference.

The school does this by combining a number of approaches: 

Foundation of Self-Understanding 

Year 7 & 8 students enjoy a unique two-year curriculum called Approaches to Learning developing essential skills such as metacognition, harnessing artificial intelligence (AI), academic referencing, collaboration, presentation skills, coaching, and, most importantly, self-understanding.

STEAM Academic Approach 

Students are equipped to play an active role in tackling the global challenges facing humanity, such as Climate Change, Food Security, the 4th Industrial Revolution and Gender Equality.

Sector-leading Pupil Personal Development 

Our Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS) lessons in Years 8, 10, and 12 place an emphasis on transferable skills and developing a powerful sense of self. The objective is for every student to experience being a change-maker during their curriculum time, fostering a lifelong passion for helping others.

Oakleaf Diploma 

The Sixth Form Oakleaf Diploma prepares students for adult life, including through the Ethical Change-maker Speaker Series with business and community leaders and social entrepreneurs.

Climate Change 

Climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the most pressing issues of our times and are reflected in the school’s curriculum, with interdisciplinary, crosscurricular projects such as Sustainability Week and an expansive co-curricular programme. The school was joint winner of the Green Senior School Award 2023 by CityKidz Magazine, as well as being a Finalist for the Award for Environmental Achievement in the Independent Schools of the Year 2023 Awards. 

Impact and Commitment 

Leighton Park’s commitment to ensuring their students are ready for the future is evident in the tangible impact that their students have had. Over the past two years, they have contributed more than 272 hours of reading support and over 6,000 hours of volunteering.

Sally Saunders, Assistant Head: Pupil Personal Development, commented: “Students leave Leighton Park inspired and equipped with the skills necessary to improve the world, and we are confident that our approach is making a significant difference. We are delighted to be recognised in this category as one of our main goals is to prepare students for life beyond Leighton Park. Through our varied co-curricular and PSHE programmes, students have the opportunity to impact change and to make a positive contribution to the world around them.”