Chatham Grammar Ambition is our academy wide programme to support students to strive for academic success and provide opportunities to engage in new and challenging experiences in our community, enabling them to reach their aspirations and beyond for the future. 

As an academy wide programme, Ambition will be embedded into the daily lives of our students from years 7 to 13. Our house system is based around five ambitious traits that we strive for our students to adopt during their time at Chatham Grammar. These traits are to be a pioneer, to have valour, to be erudite, to endeavour and to have affinity. 
Working in partnership with the University of Kent and reaching out to key professionals and organisations, we will offer students opportunities to take part in extra curricula activities, achieve additional qualifications and experience industry exposure to broaden their understanding of future career opportunities. This is with the aim of increasing academic success and following our curriculum intent that broadening curriculum opportunities through enrichment allows confident, inquisitive and creative learners to become critical thinkers. 

This will be embedded through 5 key areas: 

  1)    Extra-curricular Enrichment  

Our extra-curricular activities are available before and after the academy day and are aimed at offering students an opportunity to expand their knowledge of subjects they study and challenge them to diversify the content they access. Students are also provided with a ‘Super-curricular’ booklet which encourages them to go beyond the curriculum and to try out new activities.  

2)    Academic Opportunities  

Within the classroom students will experience teaching strategies that encourage academic success such as top-level modelled answers, opportunities to access A Level and academic articles, and regular tracking of achievement to provide targeted support. Students are also given the opportunity to become ambassadors during their time at Chatham Grammar to pursue their passions for specific subjects, sports, or to help Chatham Grammar’s overall ethos of Ambition.  

3)    Qualifications  

Students are given opportunities to achieve additional qualifications. Some of these include in Leadership gaining the LAMDA qualification, achieving the Arts Award in Art based subjects, additional languages at GCSE and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels. Students are also encouraged via the ‘Super-curricular’ booklet to undertake subject-specific courses that help to develop their passion and ambition for their subject areas.  

4)    Careers 

Our careers programme encourages students to look beyond the standard curriculum and aspire to gain additional qualifications as well as recognise the skills they develop inside and outside of the academy. They do this through using Unifrog, a careers platform used from Year 7 through to Year 13. We also hold two annual events that specifically focus on careers. Firstly, our careers fair where students get to meet a range of professionals and ask questions about career opportunities in their fields. Secondly, our Ambition Day where students get to meet alumni from Chatham Grammar and learn about the ambitious careers they went into, and how Chatham Grammar gave them the platform to help with these ambitions.  

5)    Ambitious Experiences 

We have a wide range of trips and experiences including onsite provision from the University of Kent who are involved with our students in every year group and offer academic mentoring, challenge days and visits to the Canterbury Campus. Trips are offered to stretch and challenge our students to experience their subjects in a real-life context or to build cross curricula links between their subjects. Guest speakers are invited to talk to targeted groups of students about aspirational topics and to challenge their perception of future careers.  

Delivery of these five areas will include:

• Whole group sessions: assemblies and PT activities focused on ambition and activities within department assemblies to promote subject aspirations.  

• Academic tracking: after each assessment point data will be analysed to enable targeted challenge of our students in our community. Ambition is also tracked via PTs to see how students are taking advantage of opportunities at Chatham Grammar and how this is aiding their future aspirations.  

• Trips and masterclasses: for example, KS3 History students and GCSE Art and Photography students visiting Chatham Dockyard to apply local knowledge to their courses, Leadership students taking part in the Youth Speaks debating competition or the students going to Greece as part of Global Action summer 2025. 

• University visits: our continued links with the University of Kent mean that all students will be offered a trip to the Canterbury Campus during their journey through the Chatham Grammar Ambition programme and will also experience lecturers and student ambassadors working with us on site including Year 7 Davinci days through to Year 13 UCAS applications.  

• Subject-specific extra curricula activities: Including enrichment opportunities that run before and after the academy day and events such as Year 10 Young Enterprise. 

• Weekly bulletins which follow-up on a wealth of academic opportunities outside of Chatham Grammar.  Our weekly Ready to Learn information will include opportunities from wider society including competitions from the NHS, career and work experience opportunities and local and national exhibitions.  

  These skills will enable students to continue into the UKAT 6th form where they will be able to access: 

  • An Oxbridge programme delivered by the University of Kent 

• A medical/dentistry/veterinary programme delivered by the University of Kent 

• Guidance on writing very competitive applications to Russell Group universities from professionals 

• Interview practice and advice 

• Academic mentoring in 1:1 and small groups with support from PhD students 

• Research projects and EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) 

The Ambition Programme is about widening student experiences. If you feel you have access to an opportunity, a guest speaker, master class or information that could be shared with our students via our Ambition scheme then please contact Jess Wantling, Associate Assistant Principal for Ambition using Wantling@ukat.org.