Governors' Report to Parents 2002

01963 32368

It was with great pride that I took over as Chair of Governors in September this year. I have been involved with KA as a parent and governor for the last eight years. After the Ofsted report earlier this year and the designation of the school as a specialist Sports College, I am looking forward to the next phase of King Arthur’s development with great confidence.

Ed Hoadley, my predecessor, resigned at the end of last year. He worked tirelessly for the school, as a parent and governor and will be forever a friend. He became Chair of Governors just after the appointment of Ian Campbell as headteacher. It was a new era. The school went through a period of great change and progress in terms of exam results and the development of a ‘work ethic’. There have been major building projects – the new front entrance and reception area and of course, after long years of meetings and negotiating with other agencies in our community, the Wincanton Sports Centre on the school campus.

My perception of the school is one of growth and progress. This year’s intake was the largest ever and the school population is now nearing 800. Exam performance has risen steadily over the years and that reflects both the students’ attitudes and the quality of the teaching staff. We are now looking forward to the impact of being a Sports College. This should be an enormous benefit to the students at King Arthur’s and our partner schools.

I hope you enjoy reading this report : it is a summary of the last year. The governors now look forward to working with teachers and parents to ensure that the school continues along its path of success.

Graham Gibbs
Chair of Governors
October 2002

Governing body 2002

L.E.A. Appointed Governors		Teacher Governors
Mr. J. Smith, Wincanton (Nov. 01)		Mr. S. Matthews (Sept. 00)
Mrs. F. John, Milborne Port. (Sept. 00)		Co-opted Governors
Dr. P. Taylor, Bruton (vice-chair) (Nov. 99)		Mr. J. Flynn, Milborne Port
Mrs. P. Carroll, Wincanton (Feb. 99)		Mr. C. Holland, Wincanton,
Parent Governors		Mrs. J. Merron, Batcombe,
Mr. G. Gibbs, Wincanton (Chair) (Nov. 98)		(All Sept. 00)
Mrs. C. Hastie, Milborne Port. (Nov 98)		Headteacher
Mr. J. Stephen, Wincanton (Oct 99)		Mr. I. Campbell
Mrs. P. Brooks, Milborne Port (Sept. 00)		Clerk
Mr. S. Jones, Batcombe (Sept. 00)		Mrs. M. Fletcher c/o King Arthur’s

Governor vacancies : 1 LEA, 1 Parent, 1 Staff, 1 Teacher, 2 Co-opted.

The governors represent your interests as parents and members of the community. Should you wish to contact any of the governors their addresses are available at the school; you may contact the Chairman at 50 Dancing Lane, Wincanton. (Tele: 01963 32597) . From November there will be 3 parent governor vacancies : nominations will be sought shortly.

Somerset's First Sports College

More teachers, more coaches, more trainers, more courses, more people involved in more activities! The idea is that young people should be fit in body as well as mind. The long term vision is a society where the population is more active and healthier. Sports Colleges are about improving educational standards along with the fitness of the student population – in the end we want people who are happy, successful and healthy!

In September KA opened its doors as Somerset’s first Sports College. The next four years will transform the sporting opportunities for young people at KA and in our partner schools. The Youth Sports Trust, which administers Sports Colleges, will expect us to bring expertise and funding to primary and secondary partner schools, thus removing barriers to enhance the health and well being of the community.

Much good work has been completed already both at KA and in our primary schools and an ongoing programme will see developments in the curriculum and after school clubs throughout South East Somerset.

Students at King Arthur’s now have a chance to study martial arts with both Karate and Judo on the timetable. Girls’ soccer and mixed basketball clubs now operate and in a groundbreaking move swimming from Y5, in the primary school, to Y10, at KA, will follow a single national scheme. The teacher will be Janet Cox, Wincanton Sports Centre Swim Coach. This should ensure continuity and good progression.

And we’ve only just begun!

(Primary schools’ Cross Country Competition on the new playing field at KA)

And there’s even more to come. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is committed to the idea of a more active, and therefore healthier population. The Government intends to give children everywhere more opportunities to participate in physical activities. Hopefully the adult population will join in too.

During the course of this year the Sports College has already begun to support what goes on in our primary schools. We will also work with two secondary schools. But in the following year it is hoped that the Sports College will be the hub of a network of extra staff – School Sports Co-ordinators, Partnership Development Managers and Primary Link Teachers across S.E. Somerset and eventually all of Somerset.

At King Arthur’s we are working to ensure the highest standards in the school itself, and in our local federation of schools.

OFSTED

The government has always inspected its schools. There used to be Her Majesty’s Inspectors – who still exist – but now the inspections are carried out by teams brought together by Ofsted.

King Arthur’s has had two Ofsted inspections : both were very successful; both were full of praise for the school and how it serves its students, parents and community. You will remember how the key phrase from the first inspection was that the school had “a real buzz for learning”. This time, while noting the “buzz”, they stressed the “unique ethos”, the qualities to do with the ‘holistic’ development of our young people. What the team praised about our students was not only their success but also their maturity and humanity.

The team focussed on our students – your children – and their achievements and behaviour. Day by day as the week of the inspection progressed, the team reported to the Chief Inspector on how impressed they were by the students of King Arthur’s : they show unexpected maturity; they are independent; they want to do well and expect to do well; their relationships with each other and with staff are excellent! It was these aspects of the school which led Roger Holmes, the Chief Inspector, to tell the governors that ‘this school has a truly unique ethos’.

No element of the school’s life was reported as less than satisfactory, and so much was good and very good.

Exam Results In 2002

You will find the detailed breakdown at the end of this report. There have been some great successes both in SATs (National Curriculum tests) taken in Y9 in English, Maths and Science and at GCSE for Y11.

Very able students did extremely well. The star student was Ruth Gubb who achieved 7A*, 3As and 1B. But then, Emma Rowlands got 3A*s, 7As and 1C. And if you look at the rest of the top ten they were all very creditable as well!

As is true each year there were just as many, and just as great, successes on the part of those for whom education did not come easily. Some of them had extreme problems to overcome – in one case severe dyslexia – and they too made remarkable progress and achieved what people in education call “value added”: they did far better than they might have been expected to do when they arrived as 11 year olds in Y7.

Supporting Students' Needs

To support our students we have an ever-growing team of specialists. For that small minority which finds life in school, and indeed often at home, very challenging, we have sought non-teaching professionals to focus on them.

Mentoring

The mentoring scheme for older students was introduced at KA at the start of the last academic year. It was intended to offer support to our youngsters in the form of someone to talk to, someone to listen and, if appropriate, someone to offer advice and support.

Initially 15 adults, from the community, not our parents or teachers, responded to our plea for mentors for our students. They were more than enough at the time!

Support for students in Years 10 & 11 will continue until late June : after this half term we will be talking to years 9 and 10 to see who would like to participate in the scheme from September.

Counselling

We have this year employed a fully qualified counsellor on a part-time basis. When we recognise students are finding life difficult, perhaps because of problems at home, we may offer them the opportunity of having time with the counsellor on a weekly basis.

Beyond The Classroom

Much of this report is to do with the additional activities that are part of our life at King Arthur’s but which do not show up directly in statistics. There are the clubs, the after school activities, the sports, the competitions, the visits and the visitors. What we have tried to do in this report is to give you a flavour of what life at school is about outside lesson time.

Y9 Visit To Flanders

A journey back through time to visit the site of the battle of the Somme in 1916 - a poignant reminder of one of the last century’s most bitter conflicts.

It is so important to make learning relevant and real. For many students books and reading are not the best way forward. Wherever possible it is good to give them the opportunity to feel the reality of what they may have heard about or read about in class. The visit to the First World War trenches is an excellent example of this. The reality of the horror of war comes home in such a dramatic and concrete way when students see how the war was fought and, by visiting cemeteries, what the cost was in loss of life.

As usual this year there has been a French exchange, a residential experience for Y7 and the mountain walking expedition to the Picos Mountains for Y11.

Enriching Education Through The Arts & Cultural Variety

Artist In Residence

As you know from September 2002 we were fortunate to secure an ‘artist in residence’ through SPAEDA ( a regional arts organisation). Celia Smith, a sculptor, joined us and already we have impressive examples of her work with our students. The work is completed using mainly wire and reclaimed materials. The aim of term one is to make two or three life size sculptures which will live somewhere in the school grounds when complete. Groups of students from years 7, 8 and 9 have already been looking at ways we can represent these proposed figures, from the way our body moves in sports to the historical terracotta warriors of ancient China.

Here is an example of Celia’s work, a study of chicken sculpted in wire.

Many of our students are already working with Celia and there has been one Saturday workshop for adults.

Some of our Y11 students felt inspired to try their hand at making their own sculptures after seeing the techniques Celia used.

Celia will also work in our partner primary schools. This is a ‘partnership’ initiative. The other secondary school involved is Whitstone in Shepton Mallet : they have a dancer in residence – Chloe. She has already visited KA, as Celia will in time visit Whitstone. There will be great benefit from this sharing of expertise. For KA, Chloe’s arrival is most timely, since we have just taken on a new colleague, Helen Perrow, in the Physical Education Department, specifically to develop dance and fine motor co-ordination.

One of the concerns we have about education in our part of Somerset is the area’s lack of ethnic and cultural diversity. Modern society in Britain today reflects great diversity but if you are growing up in South Somerset you can be totally unaware of that reality. It is therefore important to encourage our students to travel outside of the area or to bring visitors from different cultural backgrounds into the area. In the past we have had African drummers, West Indian musicians and Japanese Chefs. This year we were able to welcome and sponsor a touring company from India, Kathakali.

Kathakali Comes to KA

We were extremely lucky to secure a booking in September with the Kathakali Dance Group from India. Some of the actors had visited the area to do workshops with primary students. The “CASS” group of primary schools (the smaller ones in our federation of partner schools) invited Kathakali to come to do a performance for their pupils. We at KA felt it right to sponsor an evening performance and open it to members of the community.

Kathakali is based on ancient Indian traditions and is very difficult for Westerners to penetrate. We are not used to the extremes of facial expression – in fact most of us did not realise that the face has so many muscles or can give so many different expressions. Make up and masks are essential as are gesture and mime. The stories are based on mythology and explore the origins of the Universe and good and evil.

Some of our partner primary schools were here during the day to experience a wonderful display from another culture. In the evening over 200 people filled the hall to watch and listen to an unforgettable performance. A group of our students helped with the make up and preparation work for the performances. It was a very different experience for us and the group were extremely complimentary about their reception and the hospitality they received.

During the ‘matinee’ performance one member of the audience decided that this was more than just ‘challenging’ and decided to watch from behind the curtains at the back of the hall! In the evening, although none of us hid, we were all stunned.

Few of us claimed to have understood the whole performance, but no-one who saw Kathakali will ever forget it!

A Weekend Of Music (and rain!) On Exmoor

Music is one of the many strengths of King Arthur’s. All of our students do music throughout KS3 (Y7, 8 & 9) and each year a small group chooses to do music as a GCSE subject. Music needs to be a practical subject and young people love listening to music and making music. About 150 students are learning to play one instrument or another.

Inspiration is key in all artistic creation. We are always looking for new ways to stimulate the creativity of our students. Some of you will remember “Confluence” of a few years ago : a group of professional musicians worked with our students on the theme of water and rivers running through the area down to the coast. (There was an item broadcast by Radio 4’s Open Country programme).

Recently 23 students, with their musical instruments, left KA at lunch time on Friday to spend a weekend on Exmoor. They were accompanied by Emma Fletcher (Head of Music) and John Biddle (Co-ordinator of Outdoor Pursuits).

The students stayed at the Exford Youth Hostel taking time to practise their music.

As well as playing music the group visited various sites on Exmoor. There was the dramatic scale of the coast, the ancient history of Tarr Steps, the tragic history of Lynmouth.

The rain was so heavy and so sustained it was reminiscent of the tragedy of 50 years ago but part of the pleasure of ‘outward bound activities’ is facing, coping with and overcoming adversity.

Continuing Staff Development

As well as the normal programme of continuing professional development (CPD) a large number of staff enrolled for The European Computer Driving Licence course. The good news is all students passed and now have their ‘driving licence’!

The course was sponsored and run by Somerset Adult Learning and Leisure, (previously known as Community Education). Jenny Chaudoir, who is now based jointly at King Arthurs and Ansford School, Castle Cary, organised a presentation evening. Dougald Sandeman, the Executive Director of the Somerset Learning and Skills Council, was invited to make the presentation of the certificates.

Additional And Special Educational Needs

During the course of this year there has been a full programme of events (weekly meetings or residential conferences) for ‘most able’ students. All subjects address the issue of how to ‘stretch’ the most able.

There is a team of six learning support assistants who work in Curriculum Support with Mrs. Hopkins and Mrs. Lemon. There are 15 students with educational ‘Statements’. In addition 60 students in KS3 and a further 20 in KS4 receive support of one kind or another to overcome the difficulties that they are experiencing.

There are some students with impaired sight or difficulty with hearing and there are individuals who suffer from dyslexia, dyspraxia, asbergers syndrome and so forth. It is a disappointment to us that the building’s design makes it almost impossible to be fully ‘inclusive’.

KS3 Strategy

Two years ago the government decided that much good work had been done in the primary phase through the introduction of the literacy hour and the numeracy initiative. They decided that these efforts should be extended into the early years of secondary schools. There was the belief that sometimes there is a ‘dip’ in performance and a slowing of progress in KS3. Initially we had the literacy programme. That was followed by the KS3 numeracy initiative. This year follows on with science, information and communications technology and the teaching and learning in the rest of the ‘foundation’ subjects.

OFSTED Action Plan

Following the Ofsted inspection a school has to produce an action plan which explains how it will address any issues that have been raised in the report. As with the first inspection King Arthur’s was not faced with a large number.

In common with the rest of the nation we will seek ways to support boys who often seem to under-perform. We will use the ever growing amount of data that we now have on students to help them and their parents understand what their targets could and should be.

As we develop the KS3 strategy we will focus on the development of ‘oracy’ skills. We will continue to develop our information technology. And finally we will extend our programme of monitoring to cover all aspects of our work and life at King Arthur’s.

Student Destinations

The students who left us in the summer of 02 have moved on in the following way.

Further Education	66.4%	Training	16.1%
Employed	13.7%	Unemployed	3.0.%
Not known	0.8%

After this many students go on to University and it is always good to hear of their degrees.

KS3 Results 2002 - Level 5 And Above

	ENGLISH	MATHS	SCIENCE
NATIONAL	64	66	66
KA	76	72	66

Finance Report to 31st March 2002

INCOME	£	Average income per student
Allocation from LEA	2091050	2857
Devolved capital grant	21127	29
Other income	12249	16
Total	2124426	2902

EXPENDITURE
Employees	1481177	2023
Premises	151168	207
Supplies & services	168147	230
Government Standards Funding	148818	203
Targeted reserves	175116	239

ATTENDANCE
The "unauthorised" absence is 0.3%. Authorised absence came to 8.3%.

School Performance Comparison Table

Figures in %	Achieved 5+ A*-C	Achieved 5+ A*-G	Entered 1+	Achieved 1+ A*-G	Achieved None
School 2002	46	94	98	98	2
National 2001	49.8	86.6	95.7	94.5	5.5