Specialisms

Specialisms

St Edward’s College was designated a Specialist Language College in 2000 and has been successfully redesignated in 2004 and 2009. In 2004 the school was invited to take on a second specialism in Performing Arts, again this was successfully redesignated in 2009. As a High Performing Specialist School (HPSS), St Edward’s became one of only a handful of schools throughout the country to take on a third specialism; on this occasion it opted to become part of the Raising Achievement Partnership Programme (RAPP).

The impact of the specialisms is far reaching. Pupils and teachers have benefitted from improved facilities including a state of the art dance studio and Modern Foreign Languages ICT room. The community impact has been positive - the College has developed close links with local primary schools and supports them in the delivery of their languages, music and drama lessons whilst the prestigious Liverpool Mozart Orchestra use the school’s facilities to rehearse each week. A big emphasis is placed on the specialist subjects in the curriculum with pupils being given the opportunity to study a range of languages (including French, German, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin Chinese), Drama and Music at Key Stage Three, GCSE and A Level and Dance through the PE programme. In addition, the College hosts a number of cultural events each year, from which both St Edward’s pupils and those from other local schools benefit, including the annual Drama Festival and the Primary Languages Festival.

Through its involvement in the RAPP programme, the College has started to work closely with schools on a local, regional and national basis to share good practice and support school improvement.