We became a Humanities Specialism School in September 2005 with English, RE and History as our lead subjects. Our specialist status is based on our plans to raise the achievement of all students at St Robert’s and offer new learning opportunities to our community.

The story so far….Specialist status has enabled the refurbishment of teaching areas, the extension of classrooms and the installation of improved ICT facilities. Mobile wireless laptops have been a popular new resource, as have the new digital cameras. A new dedicated reading room offers students a quiet place to read or work in small groups during lessons. Within lessons all Humanities staff are making greater use of ICT and strategies to enable students to understand their own learning and progress. Staff from the Humanities departments work with colleagues from across the whole school on sharing good practice and new ideas. Students have had some wonderful new opportunities as a result of the specialist status. These have included theatre visits, residential debates, tours of WWI Battlefields and much more.

A highlight of last year was the Holocaust Study Day when Year 9 was privileged to share the experience of a survivor of the Holocaust. The very exciting BBC Newsday project gave Year 8 students first hand journalistic experience. This is being developed this year with a new group of Year 8 students. As an RSC lead school St Robert’s has led training for schools in the area and our students have benefited hugely from the new approaches to teaching Shakespeare. 

Our Community Projects:

Our Adult Reading Group is a popular opportunity for adults to get together and share a love of literature. New members are most welcome.
Contact Mrs Clarke at St Robert’s for more details. 

Our Primary Drama is an exciting project involving our feeder primary schools and specialist drama teacher Jude Graham. Student confidence in speaking and listening is boosted hugely by this project and Year 6 feedback tells us they love the drama sessions. 

Philosophy and Ethics in the Community was a popular course last year attended by parishioners in our partner parishes. We hope to build on this success in coming months.

Director of Specialism
Gabrielle Reddington