Beyond the classroom

Outdoor education plays a valuable role in our teaching and learning, and students experience this in their immediate surroundings and on longer residential trips. In every academy, our students gain confidence and build fantastic memories on camping, residential visits and by participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award. They visit sites across the country including the Lake District, Scotland and Oxford. Our younger students even camp out in their school halls to practise being away from home.

We are committed to providing regular opportunities for students to experience outdoor learning in each of our schools and confident in the role this plays in providing a well-rounded education that challenges students outside the classroom. Our teaching staff have considerable experience in providing safe and challenging activities for Dixons students: from climbing to cycling and canoeing.

At Dixons, we know that qualifications open doors and therefore we place high importance on delivering an ambitious and academic curriculum to all of our students. Of equal importance, is the necessity for students to build cultural capital and develop into well-rounded individuals who contribute positively to society. This permeates through our academies and provides students with experiences that sit beside, intertwine with, and compliment the academic curriculum.

At Dixons, we provide a varied and full programme of co-curricular and extra-curricular electives.

Several of our academies follow a curriculum including Stretch projects in Year 7 and 8; these help to develop students’ autonomy, oracy and love of learning. It is an important part of the curriculum. Each student explores an area of interest within a given theme and exhibits their work to peers, families and the community at the end of each cycle during stretch final day.

Stretch projects are complimented by Stretch lectures which give our students the opportunity to extend their knowledge far beyond the national curriculum on topics such as history of art, politics, economics and STEM. This glimpse in to university style lectures paired with topics not typically covered in the curriculum, supports our students to build a broad and deep knowledge base.