What are Electives?
St Albans School offers a rich variety of enrichment in the co-curriculum, including sporting, service, creative and academic opportunities. Most of these take place at lunchtime, after school or in the holidays and participation is voluntary.
For students in the Sixth Form, studying four subjects necessitates a narrowing of academic range, so timetabled Academic Enrichment lessons enable students to maintain the breadth of study that is the hallmark of a good, all-round education.
Timetabled Academic Enrichment encompasses:
the Extended Project Qualification (see earlier);
a two-term series of lectures from visiting speakers; and
a suite of diverse short courses in the Lower Sixth Form.
The St Albans Lecture Series
Students attend lectures every three weeks delivered by a range of external speakers. Topics range from working in the film industry to climate change, and students hear from interest groups debating contemporary social and political issues. Recent contributors include a high-profile author, a former judge, a charity fundraiser, and a Paralympian.
Elective Short Courses
Students choose from two lists of courses that may contrast with or complement their A Level subjects. We encourage students in the Lower Sixth Form to choose one course from each list.
To develop their creativity, they may choose one 10-week course from a list of ten ‘Skills’ courses:
They also choose one course from a list of ‘Ethics and Discovery’ courses.
Some aim to broaden and deepen their understanding, while others are an introduction to subjects not offered at A Level.
The ‘Ethics and Discovery’ courses include an opportunity to learn and use the research skills needed for academic writing.
Aims of the Elective Progamme
The different strands of the Elective Programme all aim to enhance students’ depth or breadth of understanding. They aim to widen the intellectual horizons of students though a focus on thinking skills, providing opportunities to consider wider issues in the world today. For some students, it will deepen their understanding of GCSE subjects or those being followed at A Level. For others, it will stimulate students to look beyond their GCSE and A Level knowledge, linking and critiquing new concepts, or by introducing new subjects offered at university.
Why are Electives so important?
Students may find the training from the short courses equips them to write better answers in their A Level subjects, to read text more analytically, or to perform better in the aptitude tests demanded by some universities; but the emphasis will always be on developing skills and the joy of exploration rather than exam preparatio