St John’s Wood Community School, Cheshire
Winner, 2009
School award for best all-round approach to PFE
St John’s Wood is a special school for 11-16 year old students with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The school has an innovative, on-going and sustainable approach to PFE, suited to the specific learning needs of their students. A variety of events and initiatives brought PFE to life for its students and helped to make sure it was embedded in the core school curriculum. These included:
- an in-school voucher scheme to reward good behaviour and encourage saving. These can be spent on tuck or at the school breakfast club
- enterprise events
- charity fund-raising projects including budgeting which are timetabled into the school calendar
- a School Bank (80% of students have savings in their school bank account, 10% of students are actively involved with running the bank)
- work with pfeg to create a scheme of work for Key Stage 3 students in PSHE
- In Key Stage 4 work-related learning, students gain accreditation in the Preparation for Working Life Certificate and the Enterprise Employability Certificate (AQA). PFE is a major part of the course.
Judges felt this was an excellent model with high student involvement and evidence of a range of innovative projects.
