Sevenoaks School Diploma
The Sevenoaks School Diploma is a unique, bespoke programme designed to take account of the ways in which academic, intellectual, personal and emotional qualities are all inter-related: what happens outside the classroom is just as important as what happens inside and vice versa, because one influences the other in a very significant way within the school curriculum.
Students will be invited to see it as an opportunity to record many different elements of school life that can sometimes go unnoticed, but also to develop personal qualities and attributes that make them a more fully rounded person, and provide them with the means to learn more effectively.
The Diploma asks students to make formal record of their learning in the Middle School, both inside and outside the classroom. Provided they fulfil the core requirements, at the end of Year 11 they will be rewarded with a Diploma Certificate and a transcript that describes their journey through the Middle School years.
“I AM DELIGHTED TO SEE A SCHOOL TAKING SUCH CLEAR STEPS TO EMPHASISE AND CELEBRATE CRUCIAL ASPECTS OF EDUCATION… THE RECORDING OF ACHIEVEMENTS BEYOND THE CURRICULUM, AND PUPILS’ REFLECTIONS ON THEM, PROVIDE PUPILS WITH A SUBSTANTIAL BASE OF CONFIDENCE AND SELF-AWARENESS TO WHICH THEY CAN REFER FOR YEARS AFTERWARDS.”
Lord Lucas, Editor-in-Chief of Good Schools Guide
THE EIGHT CATEGORIES
To qualify for the Diploma students need to have participated in at least one thing from each of the eight categories described below during their time in the Middle School.
There are seven areas in relation to which activities in school can be recorded and recognised. Tutor Recommendation is the eighth category, and might embrace something that does not obviously or automatically relate to any of them.
- Making and Performing
- Service
- Physical and outdoor education
- Academic engagement
- Core courses
- Entrepreneurship
- Research project
- Tutor recommendation
Which activities would count?
To have an activity accredited, students must demonstrate a sustained commitment to it usually over period of at least one full term. Sometimes, at a tutor’s discretion, a one-off activity might be suitable, but involvement with it would have to be very substantial.
core values
There are seven Core Values that we seek to nurture in the Middle School, and these underscore all elements of the Curriculum and the activities with which students are engaged – whether inside or outside the classroom. They are defined below.
