EDUCATION WITH CHARACTER
At The Totteridge Academy, we believe that school plays a crucial role in developing and shaping our students for the future.
The opportunities we provide are essential for building character, and we are committed to ensuring that every child experiences these during their time in secondary school. Our Education with Character provision outlines our commitment to offering an excellent and diverse range of opportunities beyond the classroom.
Each academic year, we will strive to fulfil every aspect of provision.
Please read our full Education with Character Charter HERE.
EXTRA CURRICULAR
We offer a range of extra curricular clubs and activities at TTA. All of our students are able to access a range of opportunities and experiences outside the classroom.
A full list of our offer can be found here. Some of our most popular clubs currently are: Coding, Let's Get Cooking, Trampolining, Debating, Current Affairs, and Drama. Our sports teams have been incredibly successful this season, winning Barnet titles in Basketball and Football.
We also run regular trips and excursions, most recently to Barcelona and Paris, as well as an Easter ski trip to Italy. Check out our Instagram page here to see the latest pictures and news.
PLACE2BE
Place2Be is the leading national children’s mental health charity that provides professional counselling for young people in schools. We are thrilled to have Place2Be at TTA to ensure that students are getting the all-round support that they need. Place2Be offers the following:
-
1:1 counselling for students.
-
Self-referral drop in sessions for students at break and lunch time.
-
1:1 counselling and support services for parents and carers focusing on parenting, self-confidence, and relationships with children.
-
5 partnership sessions for parents and carers of young people receiving 1:1 counselling.
-
Partnership work with CAMHS, community groups, and voluntary sector partners.
For more information and to discuss further, please contact Frances.Steel@tta.org.uk
GROW FARM AT TTA
We are thrilled to be partnering with the charity, GROW, who run our on-site, agroecological Farm and outdoor learning site.
GROW provides early support programmes, after school and holiday clubs, and outreach and curriculum opportunities for TTA students, and local primary schools and youth services. Their sustainable food growing and outdoor learning programmes aim to support well-being and the development of healthy life-skills, and provide enriching and unique learning opportunities. The GROW Farm grows vegetables, fruit, and flowers that are sold to the local community and to our school canteen, helping to provide fresh and nutritious lunches for our students. The GROW Farm also hosts weekly adult volunteering and runs a veg box scheme from June - November.
For more information get in touch with hello@wearegrow.org or visit the GROW website
CATCH-UP AND WELLBEING
Ms Takopoulou, our Wellbeing and Academic Support Lead at TTA, is a qualified Educational Psychologist and Therapist.
Ms Takopoulou will be supporting students with any social, emotional, and mental health needs by offering 1:1 support, group sessions, support plans, and signposting according to individuals' needs. She will be working closely with key stakeholders for the students.
Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss further by emailing evi.takopoulou@tta.org.uk
DUKE OF EDINBURGH
We run the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme at TTA. This is a unique and valuable experience, enabling students to take part in a range of opportunities and volunteer in order to achieve their awards.
This scheme encourages students to explore who they are, grow in confidence, and develop the skills they need to navigate life successfully. It provides fantastic opportunities to take an active part in helping others, address issues within the local community, and be more active in day to day life with hobbies and sports.
CHEFS IN SCHOOLS
We are so proud to have partnered with Chefs in Schools who are working to transform school food and food education. Our Head Chef, James Fox, and our Kitchen Team provide students and staff with delicious and healthy meals every day.
Lots of the produce that we use comes from our GROW farm on site. Students are involved in the growing, harvesting and delivery of our fresh herbs, fruit and vegetables. They particularly using the trundle wheels to measure our food mileage and subsequent carbon footprint, which we are thrilled to report is very low!
Not only has our partnership with Chefs in Schools transformed the food we eat, but it has also been pivotal in educating our students about living healthily. We were shortlisted for the World's Best School Prize for Supporting Healthy Lives in recognition of this work - read more about this here.
LEARNING THROUGH HORSES
We run a termly twelve week ‘Learning Through Horses’ course at the Strength in Horses Centre in Edgware. This has been a phenomenal experience for our pioneering students who took part in the course last term. Over the twelve weeks, their confidence grew significantly and they learnt social, organisation, leadership and presentation skills. They were all proud to receive their certificates and awards at the end of the course.
Learning through Horses offers skills and employability training utilising horses to engage young people in learning. As it has been such a success, we are taking part in the course again. More information on the scheme can be found here: www.learningthroughhorses.org
OUR SCHOOL DOG: PEGGY
Peggy is a rescue dog who lives with Ms Steel and comes to school every day.
She loves the students and being at school. She is based in Ms Steel's office. If any students would like to come and visit Peggy, take her for walks, or see her during the day, they can speak to Ms Steel or any of the inclusion team to make a plan.
We also have 'Place2Walk' as part of our Place2Be options when the Place2Be session can be based around taking Peggy for a walk on the fields or in the woodland conservation area.