Chrysalis

London Academy of Excellence, Tottenham

LAET was founded in September 2017, following the successful model of the LAE in Stratford (LAES is also one of Highgate’s partner schools). Highgate serves as the principal education sponsor, working alongside Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, LAET’s principal business sponsor.

The London Academy of Excellence Tottenham is a sixth form free school and is Highgate’s flagship school partner. It provides an academically rigorous sixth form education to children in the Tottenham area, in response to an identified need for improved post-16 education in the borough.

Highgate provides governance and has an annual set of teachers who are employed by Highgate and seconded to teach full, or part-time at LAET. In the 2022-23 academic year 15 teachers, and 3 non-teaching Highgate staff members are officially seconded to LAET with other meaningful staff resources deployed throughout the year, i.e., for CPD training and joint planning.

Chrysalis Summer School

Juniors

July 2022 saw the return of Highgate’s Partnership Summer Schools for Years 4 and 5. Over 130 pupils from nine primary schools attended lessons in subjects including British Sign Language, Drama, Science, Maths and Design Technology & Engineering. Participants in Year 5 worked with members of the SpEx Department in a number of sports including Fives, Hockey, Orienteering and Street Dance.

Seniors and Sixth Form

Years 10 and 12 will enjoy a Summer School later on in August. This will include similar content to our Summer School of 2021 with academically rigorous tutorials alongside Higher Education talks from universities and careers workshops. For those entering Year 13, there will be added focus on applying to university. Through these sessions, we hope that more participants will apply to and secure places at Russell Group universities including Oxbridge, reducing underrepresentation of students from the state sector.

Arts and Humanities

• Our Band on the Run project involves the Highgate School Symphony Orchestra going ‘on the run’, touring local schools.
• Minimus: Starting Out in Latin is a unique course for 7-10 year olds, providing a lively introduction to the Latin language and the culture of Roman Britain.
• We have developed an innovative series of weekly Primary Debating Workshops.

Access to Higher Education

We build university access into all of our Chrysalis programmes. In addition,

• Our annual Oxbridge Conference, welcomed over 170 Year 12 pupils from our partner schools.
• 240 Year 13 pupils from our partner schools had a mock interview with a member of Highgate’s expert teaching or support staff.
• We provide access to weekly preparation sessions for the Maths and Physics Aptitude Tests required by the most prestigious universities.

Mathematics

• Our morning maths clubs, aimed to develop pupils’ problem solving skills and introduce the concept of methodical thinking through the exploration of the work of celebrated mathematicians.
• Our Royal Institution Maths Masterclasses have been developed in partnership with the Royal Institution to bring enriching Maths teaching to pupils from partner schools.
• Our programme of Maths Enrichment Days has become extremely popular with our partner schools. These sessions, delivered for pupils in Key Stages 3 and 4 from Highgate offer a day of enrichment around a central theme for example, Combinatorics, Possibilities & Impossibilities and Fluid Dynamics.

Science

Our Science partnership projects are highly varied and are designed to generate enthusiasm and result in pupils feeling empowered to engage with Sciences at the next level.

• As If By Magic, an innovative and engaging lecture designed by Dr Andrew Szydlo, is a central part of our partnership science provision.
• After-school Science provision in local primary schools has been a very well received project for a number of years.
• We continue our long-established weekend Science masterclasses in Chemistry and Physics for pupils in Key Stage 4.