'In pursuit of excellence’ runs through the heart of Millais – every student should have the opportunity to participate actively and feel a sense of personal accomplishment in all aspects of their school life.
Secondary school - a 5-year journey at Millais - is a time of huge personal growth for all students. We want students to enjoy their time with us, and to feel a sense of belonging to our Millais school community. Our students should be aware of each and every opportunity afforded to them during their school careers; that they feel able to contribute to their community, and they are excited about getting involved. Millais supports every student in achieving their own personal potential, and in the development of character traits, such as grit and resilience, that will help them manage their own lives and their relationships now and in the future.
To ensure that our students are aware of all the personal development opportunities we offer at Millais, we use our Millais CAS framework. CAS allows us to draw together all the components of our school community under one umbrella.
The 3 Pillars of CAS are:
C – Community and Citizenship - We want to encourage students to think about how they can make a positive impact in their community – this is delivered through leadership, volunteering and charity work opportunities.
A – Action and Enrichment - We want students to enrich their experiences by engaging in all the fun and active clubs, CA weeks and additional opportunities we offer at Millais. Please see the Enrichment document (under the Extra Curricular tab) outlining the many exciting club offers at Millais.
S – Self and Wellbeing - We want to help students grow in self-awareness and to develop a mind-set that allows for happy, resilient, and successful lives and futures – this is delivered through a whole school approach to MHEW, including in our engagement with the 'Action Your Potential' programme.
CAS is delivered through our ambitious and challenging curricular programme alongside our broad co- curricular and extra-curricular Enrichment schedule; both of which afford every student the opportunity to develop in each CAS aspect. In addition, student voice (school council and student tutor roles), Millais CAS themed weeks, CA focus weeks, and a well-developed assembly schedule and tutor programme help support CAS delivery.
For the parent body, we provide a half termly CAS newsletter detailing upcoming events. There will be a number of parent information events running throughout the year also.
CAS - Student Voice and Leadership (SVL)
A community driven by strong student leadership and a service ethic is the student experience at Millais School. Student Voice and Leadership (SVL) is one of the main pillars of our Millais CAS framework. We hope that by engaging in such opportunities throughout their school career, our students:
- develop their personal skills and positive character traits allowing them to participate fully in society as active and responsible citizens
- have an awareness of their ability to create change and are empowered to do so
- add to the Millais community through their creativity, ideas, skills and their sense of fun
Personal and Character Development through SVL at Millais
Through SVL at Millais, our students can practice the nine core values underpinning our school ethos.
Whilst there are a wide range of skills and attributes that contribute towards leadership, we hope that our students are able to work on the following key areas through the SVL programme also:
- Collaboration - teamwork
- Creativity - problem solving and innovative thinking
- Organisation - planning and implementing
- Communication - the skill of oracy and positive use of influence
- Self-esteem - self -awareness and emotional intelligence
