News Stories

On 17th March 2022 Houlton School, a brand-new free school in Rugby, hosted the World Class Schools Quality Mark (WCSQM) Assessment Centre, welcoming 175 students from 30 primary and secondary schools applying for WCSQM re-accreditation. With President Kennedy re-accrediting to retain World Class School status this year, six of our students headed to Houlton school with a view to proving that they are #WorldClass. This opportunity allowed these students – Gracie Rolinson, Arya Bassi, Abshara Piratheeban, Finlay Lomas, Ethan Moongo and Cyrus Mathur – to showcase the skills and competencies that young people need to thrive in an ever-changing global economy.

This year’s assessment centre project that students were given two weeks to prepare for, and a day to complete, was to create innovative, attractive, and environmentally friendly outdoor and indoor spaces, incorporating the Houlton values. As part of Team 8, President Kennedy was tasked with creating a sign that represented the ethos and values of Dorsey college – one of the six inaugural Year 7 colleges at Houlton School.

This challenging real-life project gave students a unique opportunity to not only develop and demonstrate their World Class characteristics, but to enjoy a much-needed return to the social development, work experience and collaboration opportunities students have missed out on over the past two years.

“It’s so exciting for us to be able to bring students back together, to see them actively collaborating and forging a team bond across schools and year groups.” 
Miranda Perry, WCSQM Director

With an immense amount of planning in the two weeks prior to the assessment day, along with an incredible amount of resilience on the day, we are pleased to announce that our students passed the Assessment Centre with flying colours. A huge well done to the students involved who, throughout the day, showed fantastic drive, pride and determination. Our WCS assessor was impressed with the meticulous planning skills that President Kennedy School had shown prior to the day, along with our ability to collaborate with our team and the other teams taking part in other projects. 
 

Below are some of the comments that our WCS assessor made about our students work on the day:
“Gracie sent all of the necessary emails to convey messages to the whole group which enabled the team to get things done in an efficient and timely manner.”

“Arya formed a positive relationship with other research analysts before the meeting and was thoughtful of other students’ questions towards the group of student advisors.”

“Abshara explained how the tweets incorporated on the sign were diverse. They explained how this was important to the design as it ensured the sign catered for the diverse range of pupils who attend the school. This demonstrates a great understanding of the importance of valuing different people’s beliefs, values, attitudes and customs.”

“Finlay, who was the Presentation Coordinator, was agile in response to the changing needs of different members of the team. For example, towards the end of the project they helped the team complete the sign. Without this action, the sign may not have been complete for the deadline.”
“Ethan took on the role of adding the names of the inaugural students’ names to the sign as he had the most suitable skill set for this task. This enabled the project to be completed efficiently.”

“I was impressed by Cyrus who took it upon himself to communicate between team members when in different locations to ensure students knew what was happening in both the base room and the STEM room.”

As the assessment centre is one of a two-part re-accreditation process, the second part involves students using the WCSQM online app to demonstrate their World Class characteristics across a number of areas including learning, leadership, the workplace and community. 

Keep posted for the outcome of the final stage of our 
re-accreditation, which will be announced and formally awarded at the WCS annual Symposium on the 6th of July at Marylebone School! 

It is our students at President Kennedy that make our school #WorldClass.                                                     

Miss Tovey, Teacher of English