Year 9 Specialisms

Our Specialisms afternoon is an exclusive programme developed at Thomas Estley as part of our Leadership and Character curriculum. The programme, which runs throughout year 9, is designed to prepare our students develop as independent and confident learners who can apply personal learning and thinking skills (PLTS) across the curriculum and begin to prepare themselves for life beyond the school gates. All aspects of the Leadership and Character curriculum will be covered through a variety of contexts, and we allow students to indicate which of these most interest them. Spaces in each context are limited so we ask students to indicate four preferences, and we will allocate them to two of these. They will study each for half of the academic year, except for ArtsAward and ASDAN Specialism, which both run over the whole year. More information about each of the available contexts can be found below.

Specialisms: A personalised pathway

Tuesday afternoons for Year Nine include a range of specialist contexts, allowing learners to develop knowledge and skills specific to a chosen area in addition to the learning and thinking skills themselves. This is obviously in addition to the normal Year Nine subjects, timetabled across the rest of the week as usual. We know that this Tuesday ‘Specialisms afternoon’, in place now for several years, adds motivation and enjoyment for our learners, in addition to helping them pursue an interest which they may then choose to develop further through their GCSEs and beyond, in or out of school.

ASDAN Specialism

Some students who will particularly benefit from a targeted ASDAN life skills course will be spoken to individually before the options window opens.

Find out more

If you have any questions about a specific specialism, please speak with the relevant lead teacher or subject department; or if it is a more general question about Specialisms, you can speak with or email Mrs Young.