Alongside a substantial involvement in planning for the new school, there are various ways in which the school is seeking to improve the quality of education for students. These indicate the main focuses selected for this year. Your feedback is welcomed.

Developing uses of ICT
We want to capitalise on the availability of a variety of resources and embed ICT throughout the curriculum as well as improving the efficient administration systems of the school. The second school specialism, Maths and Computing, involves a development of resources and staff expertise.

We have already appointed a new ICT teacher, Mr Crook, who will work with Mr Garnett to ensure that courses remain abreast of rapid developments and that these increasingly relate to work in other curriculum areas. There is a particular interest in developing web skills, filming, animation (Mr Ali) and music technologies (Music department).

The new school website intends to communicate information clearly and be a vehicle for student writing, about their interests and aspirations. An electronic resources developer post has been created, to work with students on articles and pictures for the website and school blog and to support departments in developing materials for the new virtual learning environment (VLE).

Existing equipment has been upgraded in rooms 18 and 19 and an additional ICT room (room14) has been equipped with high quality ICT resources. There are plans to develop podcasting to experiment with hand held devices and to use some Macs with an experienced animator.

The new VLE (Talmos/Brittanica) resource replaces 'Digitalbrain' and enables students to store their own files and access helpful materials. It is is being developed to offer many resources so that students can study anywhere and at any time, especially in the build up to external examinations.

We are updating our policy on e-safety, involving students and parents in raising awareness of some dangers in using electronic resources. There has been an effort to more actively track and tackle inappropriate uses of the school computers.

Improving communication with parents and carers
Through various consultations, especially with parents, we have become aware of the need to develop communications to build upon the partnership between the home and school. Any concerns about student absence have been more speedily followed up by the introduction and use of 'Schoolcomms'. Communications about student progress are being developed so that, especially within the core subjects, more regular information is available - through parent's evenings, reports and interim assessments (awaiting the introduction of the VLE). A target setting day is already established as an important event in the school year, with individual targets reviewed in reports and in parent's evenings. We hope that communications will be mainly electronic (where this suits parents) when the VLE is established. We intend that this will lead to greater clarity about individual student progress, identify areas of concern, refine short term targets and indicate what can be done to assist improvements. We hope that as the website and blog develop, parents will be provided with a much improved source of information about school activities, practices and policies. We welcome suggestions for improvement as well as parental involvement.

Developing student responsibility
Students are encouraged to be organised by being prepared for lessons, bringing the right materials with them and with homework done on time and to a good standard. The planner continues to be an important tool in assisting good preparation and planning. We are grateful to the majority of parents who monitor their child's work and communicate via the planner. Many lockers have been purchased so that students have a safe place to keep their belongings.

We have introduced and worked with students to develop a policy limiting the size of bags to aid safety in moving around the school as well as keeping classrooms free from obstacles.

Prefects continue to play a most helpful role in the school and the work of the School Council has become an even more important vehicle for student views to be sought and discussed. The exceptional commitment of the team of senior prefects will have been apparent to you if you have ever visited the school for parents' or other occasions. They are a credit to the school and we are most grateful for their undertaking.

Improving assessment practice (AfL)
In common with other schools in the country we have worked over the past few years to consider how students (and their parents) can be encouraged to become more involved with their learning. A substantial focus has already led to clearer objectives and purposes to lessons being established with accompanying indications of grade and level criteria that will be developed and made available on the new VLE.

Six main principles of assessment that helps learning (AfL) are to:
. Involve learners in the development of ideas so that work is done with them rather than for them and they are encouraged to clarify their understanding;
. Share learning purposes and goals with students so they know what lessons are about;
. Let students know and recognise the standards they are aiming for;
. Involve students in self assessment (with clear success criteria) and peer assessment (commenting on the work of other students) so they know how to improve;
. Promote a view that every student can improve and enable them to do so;
. Involve teachers and students in reflections on assessments and data to see where individual improvements can be made.

Developing teaching
Through co-coaching (teachers observing other lessons in this and other schools), by developing criteria for effective lessons and by talking to groups of students about their experiences in school, we have been looking to develop an awareness of how to improve as teachers. In recent years there has been a focus on the range of questions that teachers ask in the classroom and how this involves students and provides oral praise and prompts. Through a revised performance management processes, all teachers are observed once a year. These lessons are discussed and targets for improvement identified.

Improving behaviour for learning
Nearly all students are generally cooperative in lessons and good relationships are enjoyed but there are some challenges to good working environments which we are keen to tackle so that learning is maximised. There are concerns that towards the end of lunchtime some students are becoming involved in over-physical activities, without this being appropriately channelled on the school field or in PE training sessions.

Developing writing skills
Writing is an important skill. The English department are leading work designed to improve student's writing and support individual needs across the curriculum. Guidelines are being prepared, based on work collected from all departments. These developments will be augmented by writing for the website and the school blog.

New National Curriculum (starts September 2008)
We are keen to embrace the changes that are being brought in this year in order to: extend cross-curricular work; more substantially develop creativity and effectively establish core skills. There is a wish to ensure that curricular changes maintain necessary skill developments in subject disciplines but to enhance these by making their application in other subject disciplines and 'real world' contexts clearer to students. We are also working to develop more independent work so that student's ideas and avenues of interest can be explored.

14 to 19 curriculum planning
New diplomas are due to be gradually introduced in secondary schools so that clusters of schools work together to provide work-related learning and a good foundation of basic skills (in English, maths and ICT). These developments are not due to happen just yet but we have taken advice, made connections with other schools involved at earlier stages than us and begun to consider provision in this school which is (at present) due to be a lead school for the IT and Media diplomas (building on our two specialisms). The 14-19 reforms intend to provide all students with the opportunity to select a mix of learning which motivates, interests and challenges them, and which gives them the knowledge, skills and attitude they need to succeed in education, work, and life.

Improving student attendance
We were criticised in the latest Ofsted inspection (May 2007) for the relatively low attendance of some students. We have introduced 'Schoolcomms' to send texts to parents about their child's absence and are keen to involve parents in discussions about taking holidays during term times and ways to help make sure their child does not miss the bus.

New school
There has been a further elaboration of the educational vision for the new school with details about room uses and subject adjacencies to enhance cooperation. More information is provided about this on the 'New Build' page of the website.