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14/03/25

Congratulations to our Year 7 boys' athletic team! A fantastic achievement! https://t.co/msdqouEH3R

14/03/25

Year 12 students completed their training as Antibullying Ambassadors through the Diana Award this week and are ready to take over from the fabulous job the Year 13 team have been doing. pic.twitter.com/yL5pjOa59f

14/03/25

Congratulations to our new Year 10 prefects on their induction this week! pic.twitter.com/PCGvSZq4Mt

08/03/25

Happy International Women’s Day 💫 At Kinetic Foundation, we’re proud to recognise and empower our Kinetic Girls every single day 💛🖤 We’re also proud to be fully inclusive regardless of gender, ability, financial situation or ethnicity and can offer young people an education… pic.twitter.com/PATR8Y9UIV

07/03/25

Congratulations to our HCACP community for all their contributions to the food bank. pic.twitter.com/1qEpslitew

07/03/25

We had the fantastic lead interactive sessions today providing knowledge, fostering social awareness & decision making skills around underage drinking. It was incredibly engaging; teachers & students were captivated from start to finish pic.twitter.com/jyFYc1a6Io

06/03/25

Last Friday was Jamaica Day! We celebrated with patois quiz in the morning and information about the day. We had jerk wings for lunch and staff celebrated with our Jamaican teachers in the afternoon with Jamaican treats. pic.twitter.com/hlwqdDOJN9

06/03/25

Congratulations to everyone who donated to HCACP food bank! A worth cause! pic.twitter.com/AnQSNJjxc3

06/03/25

Last month we celebrated Chinese New Year and the year of the snake with interactive workshops, quizzes, and a performance. pic.twitter.com/y6M9swuvz2

06/03/25

Happy World Book Day! Teachers dressed up to celebrate some of our favourite books. The English team also organised a variety of activities, from poetry competitions, to 'Frankenstein' treasure hunt, to memory lane book wall... plus much more. pic.twitter.com/xqsIcCjOHK

06/03/25

Here are our fantastic 2025 £1/€1.50 authors and illustrators wishing you all a very Happy World Book Day! pic.twitter.com/qluWc2gfju

10/02/25

A superb last couple of week for the table tennis teams. With qualifiers for the team National semi finals and London individual and national finals!!🏓🏆🥇 pic.twitter.com/qJMQMAB4Ix

10/02/25

After being crowned London Simmonds cup champions. The Yr7 athletics team put in an outstanding performance to be crowned South London Sportshall athletics champions and qualify for the finals next month. 🥇🏆 pic.twitter.com/x1PnEXBI4b

24/01/25

Congratulations to the U14 boys were crowned Croydon schools Basketball cup winners earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/G1YBkfCiQr

15/01/25

Congratulations to the U16 boys basketball team who were victorious in last nights Croydon Cup semi final. pic.twitter.com/NUQErv6Pzg

13/01/25

One of our proudest moments — watching these talented young people shine at for 's Together at Christmas carol service! A huge well done to the incredible students of 👏⁠ ⁠ 📸 Barney Curran⁠ pic.twitter.com/Rzozr2gUw2

10/01/25

Congratulations to the U14 boys basketball team on their semi final win in the Croydon cup. Onto The final in a couple of weeks! 🤞🏾🏀 pic.twitter.com/WgwGVboOil

20/12/24

We wish everyone in our community a happy and safe holiday. Should any student need us for any support, they can contact us using our safespace.org.uk email.

20/12/24

Yesterday, we wore Christmas jumpers for charity, the canteen put on Christmas lunch and the steel pans regaled us with tunes at lunch to celebrate the penultimate day of the term. pic.twitter.com/ciWvoAh6Bb

19/12/24

The basketball teams see out the term strong with the U19 and U16 boys and girls teams picking up wins in the school’s competition this week pic.twitter.com/nmIx25Nkzv

Harris Academies
All Academies in our Federation aim to transform the lives of the students they serve by bringing about rapid improvement in examination results, personal development and aspiration.

Central Office

Bexley

Brent

Bromley

Clapham

Croydon

Greenwich

Haringey

Havering

Merton

Newham

Southwark

Stratford

Sutton

Thurrock

Wandsworth

Westminster

About Personal Development

Personal development at Harris City Academy Crystal Palace is built upon the foundations of the Academy ethos – and its five key values of contribution, community, courage, co-operation and courtesy – and our motto ‘All Can Achieve’.

These values underpin the Academy culture and every student's daily school life.

We also actively promote and develop students' understanding and appreciation for the four core British values (tolerance and mutual, rule of law, democracy, and individual liberty).

The Academy believes in the holistic development of its pupils, offering them more chances so they have more choices in the future.

Our personal development curriculum goes beyond the national curriculum. It offers unique learning experiences which provide students with enriched cultural capital. By offering a varied and diverse set of experiences, we help to prepare students for the culturally diverse nature of the society in which we live. 

The Academy ensures students are resilient, self-assured and challenging learners, both to themselves and within any other cultural context. The Academy intends to ensure through a broad enrichment curriculum that students develop the key skills to feel motivated in the face of adversity and confident to take on any challenge.

In order for the Academy to meet its personal development intention, it implements a curriculum for students to have significant chances to learn and actively engage in the following key areas: 

The personal development curriculum is developed in line with both statutory guidance and The PSHE Association's recommended curriculum.


Harris Crystal Palace 063Implementation

From Years 7 to 11, students engage in a 25-minute PSHE/RSE workshop each week, led by a senior, trained staff member. These sessions are further supported by tutors, who facilitate guided discussions with their tutees during the workshop. The knowledge gained is reinforced the following week during tutor time, allowing for consolidation of understanding and the nurturing of meaningful conversations. 

Click here for the RSE and PSHE Curriculum.

Twice a week, students kick-start their mornings with Book Club during tutor time, where they read and explore an age-appropriate text alongside their tutor. These carefully chosen books not only foster a love of reading but also spark meaningful discussions on important themes related to SMSC, PSHE, RSE, SACRE and broader real-world issues. This shared reading experience encourages curiosity, critical thinking, and a deeper connection to the world around them. 

In the Sixth Form, students benefit from two PSHE/RSE lessons with their tutors each week, as well as one career workshop. Additionally, we offer a vibrant and varied enrichment programme every Wednesday afternoon. This includes career-focused guest speakers, UCAS preparation, and a range of activities designed to foster creativity, curiosity, and mental well-being.

These sessions are further complimented by additional drop-down days, assemblies, activities, charity work, volunteering opportunities, external speakers, work experience and trips.  The curriculum is constantly being adapted to suit the ever-changing needs of the students and social contextual issues that arise.


Faculty assemblies

Every week students attend a Faculty assembly that is centred around important events, national events, celebrations, topical issues and

  • Holocaust Memorial Day
  • Black History Month
  • US versus UK elections
  • European Day of Language
  • Remembrance Day
  • Finance Matters
  • Children’s Mental Health Week
  • Comic Relief/Unicef club
  • Safeguarding assemblies

These assemblies incorporate our core values, careers links, character value and always end with the reading of homily by a nominated student.

Click here to see our Personal Development Assembly Programme.


Harris Crystal Palace 086Well-being

At HCACP, our wellbeing vision statement is that we are committed to promoting positive mental health for every member of our staff and student body, as well as our wider community.

We achieve this aim using a whole-academy strategy for all and specialised, targeted strategies for students and staff who need additional support. We ensure a safe and supportive environment for all, particularly those affected, both directly and indirectly, by issues around mental health. We are supported in this by having several members of staff who are First Aid Mental Health trained.

We are aware that everyone experiences a range of day-to-day and unforeseen challenges which can make any of us feel vulnerable at one time or another. We work to ensure that everyone knows where they can find additional support and when they should ask for it. We take the view that positive mental health is everyone’s responsibility and that we all have a role to play. We believe that good mental health is vital to ensuring we can achieve our overall aim, that ‘All Can Achieve’.


Student Council

The HCACP Student Council is a group of students who act as the official voice of the student body.

We pride ourselves on having a culture that is built upon freedom and equality, where the student voice is heard on matters of importance such as how the school is run.

The Student Council is spilt into two sections: Faculty Cabinets and whole academy Student Council. The Council discusses and decides on issues that matter to the students and are important to the whole Academy, giving students the chance to make a real difference to the smooth running of Harris City Academy Crystal Palace. It encourages students to be active citizens by building self-confidence, learning how to treat others, making decisions and developing leadership responsibility on behalf of the student cohort.

The Faculty Cabinets feed into the overall Student Council. They meet every half-term, chaired by the Faculty President and overseen by Ms Owusu (Assistant Principal) and their Faculty Directors.

To be elected to the Faculty Cabinet students must first be nominated in their tutor groups. The three top nominees are then entered into a ballot, with the election usually taking place in October.


Information for parents about safeguarding, PHSE and RSE