Weatherhead’s Sixth Form offers continued personal development through a variety of enrichment and study programmes.

Enrichment Programme

For ALL students (5 periods per week)

• EPQ – all subjects
• Silver Arts Award
• Debating club
• English speaking
• New Post 16 maths qualification
• Leadership opportunities – CSLA, Dance Leaders, Peer Mentoring, Literacy Buddies, Numeracy Buddies, Well-being Ambassadors, Sixth Form friends etc.
• Weatherhead Voluntary Programme
• Social Committee
• Charity Committee
• Claire House Legend Award
• Sign Language
• Sixth Form Magazine
• Football Coaching – boys football team
• FA Level 1 coaching award
• Well-being Book Club
• NCS
• Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award

Supervised Study Programme

Includes subject clinics. For ALL students (5 periods per week).

All students will be expected to take 5 study periods alongside their A Level and Enrichment Programme and subject clinics will be available for students to attend.

Extended Project Qualification

The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is a standalone qualification designed to extend and develop your skills in independent research and project management. The EPQ provides an opportunity for students to extend their abilities beyond the A-level syllabus and prepare for university or their future career. It can also be used to earn extra UCAS points.

The EPQ allows you to embark on a largely self-directed project. By taking responsibility for the choice and design of an individual project you will:

• become a more critical, reflective and independent learner
• develop and apply decision-making and problem-solving skills
• increase your planning, research, analysis, synthesis, evaluation and presentation skills
• Learn to apply new technologies confidently
• demonstrate creativity, initiative and enterprise.

The EPQ requires students to carry out research on a topic that they have chosen and is not covered by their other qualifications. They then use this research to produce a written report and, in the case of practical projects, an artefact or a production.

A student can take inspiration from something studies in class or something completely unrelated to their studies.

Our EPQ course prepares students for university study. It develops and provides evidence of the skills universities are looking for:

• experience of in-depth study in specialised topics, e.g. medical research, politics, astronomy, closer to university courses
• confidence to work independently and creatively
• practical essay writing and independent research

The EPQ and university offers

An increasing number of universities are including the EPQ in their offers to students.

“Nearly 1 in 5 successful applicants to Durham had completed the EPQ” – The Sunday Times 16 Feb 2014.

Assessment

All students follow the same basic process and you have to supply the following evidence for assessment:

• Project product, in the form of a research report, or a production or artefact accompanied by written report
• Complete log book
• Oral presentation findings to a small audience.