Hosted by Houlton School, Rugby 17th March 2022

On 17th March 2022 176 students from 30 World Class accredited primary and secondary schools across the UK came together at Houlton School, a brand new free school in Rugby, for the WCSQM Assessment Centre, in a bid to achieve World Class reaccreditation for their school.

The challenges

In the two weeks leading up to the assessment centre, and for one day on site, students worked together in teams across schools and year groups to fulfil a project brief set by the staff and students of Houlton School, with the aim of improving the substantial outdoor space on the new school’s grounds.

Students were split into 11 project teams, with each team given a brief to design and create an innovative, environmentally friendly and attractive product to represent Houlton’s core values of innovation, aspiration and excellence, with outcomes including eco-friendly seating, a sensory garden, a mural and a collection of tree hangings and sculptures representing each of the six Houlton colleges.

Houlton’s first ever cohort of Year 7 students worked alongside students on the day to support and advise them on their projects, ensuring all outcomes were in keeping with the school’s values. Teams were also supported by representatives from a range of Houlton partners including the Transforming Lives Educational Trust and the school’s developers Urban & Civic, construction specialists Morgan Sindall, and local business Palmer Pallets Daventry Ltd, all of which donated time, resources and funding to support the projects on the day.

Assessing World Class characteristics

Students were assessed throughout the process – on the day, and in the lead up to the event, on their demonstration of World Class characteristics, against WCSQM’s framework of skills and competencies. The framework measures characteristics across a number of key areas including leadership, learning, knowledge and understanding, community and the workplace, the development of which will help young people thrive in an ever changing global economy.

The Assessment Centre is the first of a two-part reaccreditation process for World Class schools coming to the end of their biennial two-year accreditation period, in a bid to prove their students, and therefore their school, continues to be World Class. The second part of the process requires students in the school to demonstrate a breadth of World Class characteristics using the WCSQM online application (free to use for accredited schools).

Schools that are successful in both parts of the reaccreditation process will be re-awarded the World Class Schools Quality Mark at the WCSQM Symposium in July 2022.

Thank you to Houlton School

Thank you to all the staff and students of Houlton School for your warm welcome, and a very special thanks also to Houlton’s partners that donated their time, resources and funding to making the biggest WCSQM assessment centre such a huge success, including:

• Diddu Communications
• Finham Park School
• Palmer Pallets (Daventry) Ltd.
• TLET
• Urban & Civic
• Morgan Sindall 
• Roger Marsh, photographer / videographer
• Morris Homes
• Lovell Homes

Contact us for more information on how your school can subscribe to the WCSQM app to support your students to develop World Class characteristics, and apply for WCSQM accreditation.