CT Day: Health, Well-Being & Skills for Success

Leeds East Academy students have experienced a very different day of learning through the school's highly-popular CT Day.

Coordinated by Ms Mumby, CT Days provide a rich selection of workshops and life-training sessions designed to expand our PSHE curriculum, offering students wide-reaching support in everything from personal well-being to an extended comprehension of British Values, careers development and more.

Connor in Foundation School said: “I like CT Days because we get to work with our coach all the way through the day and learn new things. It’s a good change to our normal timetable and everyone helps each other.”

CT Days also allow our students to fully express themselves through specialised workshops, supported by both Leeds East Academy staff and several visiting lecturers and presenters. A popular session is provided by Human Utopia, who help young people make positive changes and  reach their full potential in life.

Ms Mumby said: ""Human Utopia is always a very emotional process for our students and staff. Year 7 were talking about very personal experiences and we saw some tears at break time. What makes me so proud of our students is their confidence and honesty in being able to express themselves in this way, as well as providing support to each other as part of that process.”

Additional sessions included Phoenix Dance workshops in the hall, whilst Year 8 were fully engaged in Democracy Day by creating Party Political Broadcasts and unique presentations as part of our students' practical understanding of democracy.

"It has been wonderful watching the democracy groups going around school, passionately promoting their party and their values," adds Ms Mumby. "There has been chanting and banners paraded in the canteen at lunchtime. It has been phenomenal. Equally, Year 9 have been asking serious and mature questions surrounding sexual health and E-safety, with students sharing their experiences of social media. Some of our students have lots of friends on Facebook who they've never met, which has been very interesting from our safeguarding perspective."

Year 11 also made presentations to a panel of business professionals in a Dragon's Den task. "The winning group were two girls who were new to English," explains Ms Mumby. "They presented to an audience with remarkable confidence in a second language. It has honestly made me so emotional and proud of the achievements of our remarkable student community."

Mr Stokes added: "Throughout the day we have had a number of guest speakers in school who have inspired students to believe in their potential and be successful in whatever they want to achieve. Our students have been engaged in a number of different workshops and educational experiences which are aimed to educate, build confidence and engage students in our culture. Thank you to everyone involved in making the first CT Day of 2017 such a success and we wholeheartedly look forward to the next one."