Celebrating Success

St Kentigern’s Academy – Celebrating Success Strategy

Purpose and Rationale

At St Kentigern’s Academy, Celebrating Success is central to our commitment to supporting all young people to develop, achieve and grow across a broad range of endeavours. Guided by our Catholic ethos, we recognise that every learner has unique strengths and talents and that success can be demonstrated in many different ways throughout a young person’s school journey.

While academic attainment remains important, equal value is placed on effort, progress, leadership, service, creativity, wellbeing, resilience and contribution to the school and wider community. Through consistent and meaningful recognition, we aim to build confidence, motivation and a strong sense of belonging for all learners.

Key Principles

Our approach to Celebrating Success is underpinned by the following principles:

• Inclusive – all learners should experience recognition, not only those who achieve the highest outcomes.

• Balanced – academic success is celebrated alongside personal development and contribution.

• Consistent – approaches to recognition are across departments and year groups.

• Visible – success is shared and made visible within the school community.

• Reflective – learners are supported to understand and articulate their achievements.

1. Whole-school approach

At whole-school level, we promote a positive culture of recognition through a range of planned and ongoing activities.

Whole-school celebrations

• Senior Awards Ceremony
  This annual event recognises achievement across a range of areas, including academic attainment, leadership, service, creativity, sport, community contribution and personal development. Awards are designed to reflect the breadth of achievement within the Senior Phase and to celebrate both individual and collective success.

• BGE Celebration of Success
  At the end of each session, the school will hold a BGE Celebration of Success to recognise the achievements of learners in S1–S3. This event celebrates success across a wide range of areas and curricular contexts, including progress in learning, effort, commitment, personal development, creativity, sport, leadership and contribution to the wider life of the school.
  This celebration ensures that achievement in the Broad General Education is valued, visible and celebrated, and that younger learners see their successes recognised alongside those of older pupils.

• Special Events e.g Christmas Crackers
  Christmas Crackers provides an inclusive, mid-session opportunity to celebrate effort, improvement, participation and positive contribution across the BGE. This reinforces a culture of recognition throughout the year, rather than success being acknowledged only at the end of courses or stages.

Ongoing recognition

Achievement is celebrated throughout the year through:

• Assemblies and House events

• School newsletters, website and social media

• Displays of learner achievement in school spaces

• Recognition of achievements beyond school

These approaches ensure that success is acknowledged regularly and in a variety of ways.

Partnership with parents

Parents and carers are key partners in celebrating success. The school will:

• Share achievements through regular communication

• Invite families to celebration events

• Recognise achievements beyond school

• Ensure reports reference contribution and progress alongside attainment

2. Faculty / Department level

At faculty level, departments contribute to Celebrating Success by:

• Recognising progress, effort and improvement within learning.

• Making high-quality work visible through displays, exemplars or digital platforms.

• Celebrating a range of skills, including creativity, teamwork, problem-solving and communication.

• Nominating learners for whole-school recognition events, including BGE Celebration of Success, Christmas Crackers and Senior Awards.

• Embedding positive, specific praise within everyday teaching and feedback.

This ensures that celebrating success is consistent across subjects and reflects the full range of learner achievement.

3. Classroom level

At classroom level, teachers play a central role in recognising success through daily interactions, classroom routines and feedback.

Teachers will:

• Use specific praise linked to learning, effort and skills.

• Recognise improvement and perseverance, not only outcomes.

• Acknowledge positive contributions to learning and classroom culture.

• Share examples of strong work where appropriate.

• Support learners to reflect on what they have achieved and how they have improved.

This ensures that celebrating success is embedded in routine classroom practice.

Through a consistent and inclusive approach to Celebrating Success, St Kentigern’s Academy aims to ensure that all learners feel recognised, valued and motivated to continue developing across a broad range of areas. In doing so, we support every young person to flourish, using their strengths and talents positively within the school community and beyond.