At Fortis Academy we are very proud of our personal development curriculum. We believe that it gives our students a solid grounding in all areas of their lives and supports their development into successful members of our wider community.
At Fortis Academy we are very proud of our personal development curriculum. We believe that it gives our students a solid grounding in all areas of their lives and supports their development into successful members of our wider community. An integral part of this education is the personal, social, cultural, health and careers curriculum. This also includes RSE (relationships and sex education) as defined by the Government to be delivered from September 2020. We call this curriculum ‘Edge’. Within our Edge program students have weekly exposure to quality careers based content and wider opportunities to explore potential careers and aspirations. Students have access to a comprehensively planned program of activities in their daily Edge form time and their weekly Edge and Enrichment lessons which help to develop their character and build their resilience. Within this carefully planned programme students explore British Values and Citizenship as well as developing their spiritual and moral awareness and understanding.
The purpose of this ongoing curriculum is to provide knowledge and understanding of safe and healthy relationships based on respect. This is to encourage the development of safe and healthy relationships throughout life. The subject is designed to help young people from all backgrounds build positive and safe relationships, and to thrive in modern Britain.
Students will participate in activities led both by trained professionals within school, their Edge tutors and external professionals such as ‘LoudMouth’ Theatre Company, Me and You Education, Street Teams, Barclay’s Life skills and alumni students. They will be signposted to additional services and sources of information and are supported within school at any time should they need further guidance. Parents are informed of support and guidance via our safeguarding items in our half termly parents’ newsletter and through our social media.
At Fortis Academy we follow a recommended program developed by the PSHE association. This is reviewed constantly and adapted to the needs of our students. We ask that parents support the curriculum by having conversations with their children regularly regarding topics such as online safety, healthy lifestyles and the importance of healthy and safe relationships that ensure that all young people feel valued and happy.
We pride ourselves on the diversity of our academy community. Diversity and equality are of paramount importance, which is a fact explored throughout our Edge curriculum. Students are reminded that we have a zero-tolerance approach to any incidents which do not support our equality values.
Throughout the exploration of the ‘Edge’ curriculum students will each complete a ‘confidence continuum’. This allows students to assess their confidence at waypoints through a topic, and tutors can then identify which parts of the topic will be revisited and explored in more depth.
The Edge sessions are delivered by the ‘Edge’ Tutor which is a significant strength of the programme. The tutor knows their students well, developing positive and supportive relationships and enabling students to feel secure and confident when discussing their opinions and seeking further support.
There is no right to withdraw from relationships education at secondary level and we believe the content of this curriculum – such as family, friendship, safety (including online safety) – are important for all children to be taught.
You do have a right to withdraw your child from sex education delivered as part of RSE in secondary schools which, unless there are exceptional circumstances, will be granted up to three terms before your child turns 16. At this point, if the child themselves wishes to receive sex education rather than be withdrawn, the school should make arrangements for this to happen in one of the three terms before the child turns 16 – the legal age of sexual consent.
Our British values are:
- Democracy
- Law
- Individual liberty
- Mutual tolerance and respect
Some of the student groups which represent and uphold these important values are described below.
Equality Experts
Meet our Equality Experts. It is their mission to uphold British Values and celebrate the diversity within Fortis. They do this by raising awareness through assemblies, Edge and Enrichment Activities and other special events.
Eco Representatives
In order to explore democracy all of our students across the academy can apply to be an ‘Eco Representative’.
Our Eco Reps are an elected body of students, voted into place by their peers early in the academic year.
Their role is to improve the Academy environment through work with the estates team and other organisations. Projects include
- regenerating the pond and wilderness area;
- encouraging a clean and tidy environment through visible campaigning and litter-picking;
- planting flowers and vegetables to increase the biodiversity in the school site;
- community charity projects with primary school partners to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’;
- preparing learning materials for students across the Academy;
- producing a blog to share with our wider community.
The Chair of the Eco Representatives is Alex Thompson
Alex was elected as the chairperson of our Eco Committee. Through this process students learnt about campaigning, how to make speeches and carry out a hustings to be a successful candidate within the electoral process.
Free 2 Be
As part of our commitment to mutual tolerance and respect we have created a special space which is open every day for all students to use called the ‘Free 2 Be’ space.
Justin is one of our Head Prefects in year 11, with responsibility for Equality and Culture
Hi, I am Justin Galbraith and I am a student in year 11 at Fortis Academy. I am a founder member of the Equality Experts. This is a group of students formed from every year group, who champion the celebration of our brilliant diversity throughout our academy, representing all genders, religions and races. It is our sole aim to make our academy community a better place for everyone so everybody can feel comfortable and safe. We have organised multiple charity events and been instrumental in raising awareness for our LGBTQ+ community, understanding and developing mental wellbeing, celebrating Black History and all the different faiths within our academy and supporting others with disabilities. I was involved in the creation of our Free2be space which is now open every day rather than just one day when it first started. I am proud to be an Equality Expert.
Citezenship
Our Citizenship Curriculum has been carefully designed to support students in being responsible members of society. For details of our curriculum, please follow the link below.
In 2012 the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues was launched in the House of Lords, with the aim of examining how character virtues impact on individuals and society.
The Jubilee Centre focuses on academic excellence in undertaking research and has gone on to produce a wide range of evidenced based reports on the value of character from 2014 to the present day.
This was – and still is – a significant organisation in the field of Character Education and really began to raise the profile and importance of character in the development of young people.
We have worked in collaboration with the Jubilee centre to develop opportunities to build our students’ Character.
Character is a set of personal traits or dispositions that evoke specific emotions, inform motivation and guide conduct.
Character education is an umbrella term for all explicit and implicit educational activities that helps young people develop positive personal traits.
Our Equality Charter has been created by our Equality Experts and our Student Academy Council. It works in partnership with the Academy’s Equality Policy.
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education (SMSC)
Spiritual
Our students have been integral in the creation of our first Prayer room. We are very proud that we now have a Multi-faith prayer room open to all every lunch time.
The prayer room has been a challenge for many students over the years, as our school hasn’t been able to provide a set room. However, now we have finally got one! It is of great importance that we respect this, as many students of different faiths will come here for reflection and peace’. We are proud of our Multi-Faith Prayer room.
– Imani Khanom Year 12
Moral
Character Development – Builds students Moral Compass.
Social
Student Leadership – we have a social responsibility to support one another within our academy community and in our wider communities with our families, friends and neighbours. Our student leaders ensure that everyone has a voice and can discuss how to make our academy society a better place.
Cultural
Meet Halima. She is one of the Equality Experts and works with others to ensure that we are celebrating a wide and diverse range of cultural and religious festivals.
NHS – Fortis Academy has a School Medical Officer who works in collaboration with wider NHS services.
We are a Thrive centre of excellence.
Me & You Education
Street Teams – Walsall
Loudmouth Theatre Company
Revd Alison Treasure HE Dip, BA (hons), MA, PGCE Dip Ed, Cert
Church of England: Curate
Hello, I’m Alison, a curate based at St Paul Hamstead, which is in Great Barr. Prior to training to become an ordained minister, I have had several roles: a mental health nurse, social work, health and social care tutor, pastoral manager, missional children and family’s worker, alternative provision teacher, a RE teacher and a few others. I have been involved in setting up and running community activities for children and young people including a youth club, summer school, football and boxing club, homework club, and support for student who have been excluded. My passion is to see children and young people thrive and achieve their full potential. I have many years of experience providing emotional support, which promotes mental wellbeing to adults, children and young people and hope to use my skills and experience to support the staff and students at Fortis Academy.
PC Manns 22970
I am the School Liaison Officer. My job is to visit secondary and primary schools in Oscott, Perry Barr, Lozells and Handsworth. During my visits I deliver assemblies, lessons and am available for students to speak to me. I can resolve low level crime through my partnership with Fortis Academy. In my work I very much believe in being a part of a neighbourhood and a community, so working with schools is an ideal job for me. Students are free to ask me questions and if there are issues, I will work with students and their families to resolve them. I want all students to be ready, respectful and safe.