CAISTOR GRAMMAR SCHOOL PROSPECTUS 2019 Caistor Grammar School A Selective Academy Church St. Caistor Lincolnshire LN7 6QJ Tel. 01472 851250 [email protected] Headmaster: Alistair Hopkins M.A (Oxon), M.Ed Senior Prefect Team with the Headmaster Dear Parents, Thank you for reading this prospectus with your child. We hope it will enable you to find out all that you need to know about Caistor Grammar School. If you want any more information, we will be happy to provide it. You can also visit our website www.caistorgrammar.com. We also welcome visits from prospective applicants. Probably the two most important questions that you will ask are: ‘What does Caistor Grammar School stand for?’ and ‘What does it believe in?’ On the following pages you can find our School Charter to gain some idea of our philosophy and why we feel we are successful. These aims can be condensed in our mission statement: ‘We seek to use lively minds, to work hard, to develop our talents, to grow through sharing.’ Further on, you will gain an insight into the range of experiences we offer. Our greatest asset is our students. The OFSTED inspectors arrived at a phrase that sums them up: our students ‘relish their learning’. They are all above average in intelligence and are keen to take advantage of the opportunities which the school offers them to make the most of their abilities. Our dedicated staff all go that extra mile to help them achieve their aspirations. 2 Caistor Grammar School, A Selective Academy We were the first school in Lincolnshire to have been awarded four straight OFSTED awards of OUTSTANDING. In our last inspection, they gave us a ‘1’ in every category, a very rare occurrence. We are not a school to rest on our previous successes, and even though 2008 is some time in the past now, our drive to be better continues every day. We were awarded The Sunday Times Parent Power Secondary State School of the Year (East Midlands) last year. Our teaching and support staff are all committed to achieving enviable outcomes for the students who choose to spend their secondary education with us. We are proud of our academic record, which has placed us amongst the top schools in Lincolnshire for some years now. And although the teaching is outstanding, and even though we set challenging targets for our students, we are not an ‘exam factory’. Our pastoral care is exemplary. There is a wealth of sporting, musical and dramatic activity for all to develop their abilities. If you visited the school, or if you were to speak to any of our 690 students in the school, I hope you would detect that although academic excellence is important to us, we are much more than that. There is a collective purpose in the air at Caistor Grammar School; a recognition that we can achieve more together than we can alone. We are an orderly community in which there are high expectations for all: self-discipline and a concern for others are fostered; we also teach students to distinguish between right and wrong. We are a friendly, caring, tolerant and purposeful community; we are lucky that we are small enough for every person to be known and valued as an individual. Our house system ensures that no-one is lost in the crowd: we use this to foster music, drama and sport within the school. We are a Duke of Edinburgh Centre, which ensures that we have a large number of students participating in the award at Bronze, Silver and Gold level. We offer many leadership opportunities too: literacy leaders, sports captains, house captains and senior prefects. We frequently have students competing at county, regional and national level: some even have international honours. Building character and working as a team, a commitment to high achievement and a desire to build a happy community: these are the values that permeate the school and define our distinctive ethos. We cannot always live up to them completely, but we will always strive to do so by doing our best. I was appointed Head over two years ago and I view leading this very special, unique place as the highlight of my career: I am building on the school’s heritage and success but also being sensitive to the challenges that students face. We continue to be one of the country’s leading schools. My advice to students has always been clear: work hard, play your part and grasp the opportunities that we offer. We were founded by Frances Rawlinson, Rector of South Kelsey, in 1631. Our original building is still in daily use. We seek to build on that distinguished past to create our even better future. I hope that having read our Prospectus that you and your son or daughter will want to be a part of that future too. Yours sincerely Alistair Hopkins Headmaster 3 Caistor Grammar School, A Selective Academy The School’s Charter 1. We aim to provide a community which will enable all who belong to make the most of their abilities and be happy. Awards Evening 2018 2. We work particularly hard to help our students gain academic knowledge, learn practical skills and develop their power to reason. But we also try to promote learning in many other aspects of life, social, moral, spiritual, aesthetic and physical. We seek to achieve our objectives within a broad and balanced framework that gives a central place to the National Curriculum. 3. We want our students to be keen to learn and to be able to concentrate their minds on a task. We want them to respect accuracy; to be able to handle numbers with confidence and to express themselves effectively in speech and writing. They should be able to solve problems, look for evidence, consider both sides of a question and think independently. They should be able to work effectively either as an individual or as a member of a group. We want them to be confident in their use of modern technology. 4. We aim to promote a positive attitude to sport, healthy living and mental health within our school and in our community. We want our students to understand their bodies, their feelings and to value good physical and emotional health. We help them to develop physical stamina and skill. 5. We want our students to be able to balance the interests of the group with the right of each person to be respected as an individual; to appreciate why authority and rules deserve respect; to be able to work in a team and to take individual responsibility; and to recognise the claims of the wider communities to which they belong at home and abroad. We encourage a concern for the environment in which we all live. As a school, we seek to promote British values and community cohesion in our local and wider communities. 4 Caistor Grammar School, A Selective Academy 6. We assert the moral values of honesty, reliability and fairness. We teach self-discipline including sustaining positive mental health. We encourage our students to be sensitive to others’ needs and to be helpful. We seek to provide our students with many opportunities to develop their leadership skills and we encourage them to make good use of these chances. 7. We seek to open minds to questions of ultimate meaning and purpose. We ensure that all students hear the Christian message and are taught to respect other religions but we recognise the need for individuals to make their own judgement in matters of belief. Design & Technology 8. We help our students to respond emotionally and intellectually to art and music; to appreciate beauty and fitness for purpose; to enjoy what others have created and to create themselves. 9. We teach economic awareness and seek to provide effective guidance towards the choice of a career. 10. We encourage our students to have a positive image of themselves while remaining humble. We want them to move on from us to the next stage of their lives with a sense of direction and purpose. 11. We want all who are employed in the school to find fulfilment in their work. 12. We seek to cooperate closely with the primary schools whose children come to us and with other schools in the secondary phase with whom we share projects and expertise as teachers or students. 5 Caistor Grammar School, A Selective Academy School Buildings The school occupies an attractive site close to the centre of the small market town of Caistor. School buildings form two sides of a close around the ancient Parish Church. The ironstone School Hall dates from 1631 and is still in daily use. The School Library is housed in what was the Congregational Church built in 1842. Casterby House, once a large private house and now our Sixth Form Centre, overlooks the churchyard from the far side of the school gates. Our main teaching block dates from the 1930s but was extended and modernised in 1984. This work gave us good provision for science teaching. The building also contains our geography rooms. The Manning Building was opened in 1984. It provides teaching rooms for PE, modern languages, history and contains a large gymnasium. It has been enlarged to provide extra classrooms and a fitness suite and allows us to accommodate our on-site sports facilities. Year 13 Art lesson 6 Caistor Grammar School, A Selective Academy Two new Technology Buildings were added in 1993 and 1994. These contain rooms for Design and Technology, specialist rooms for computer science and a fifth science laboratory.