We’ve been awarded SMSC Gold status! + School Improvement Plan + Uniform Referendum Personal Development Days Mentoring Project ISSUE 37 + + Spring Term 2019 + Rock Challenge + Aachen + School Council and more... CELEBRATING Last Half Term Yet another amazing half term with so much to celebrate! It is with great pleasure that I look through the articles in this edition of Latitude and reflect on what a wonderful school community we are! #CapturingThe MemorableMoments As your Headteacher, I was thrilled to listen to the feedback that we received about the quality of the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) education that our students experience here at Admiral Lord Nelson School. Our Assessor was incredibly impressed with the ease and fluency of our students in articulating exactly how SMSC education can be experienced through all of the subjects that are taught here and through our wider Personal Development curriculum experiences. In particular, our deep commitment to being a UNICEF Rights Respecting School and our longstanding social responsibility work (locally, nationally and internationally) informed his statement that we are one of the very best schools he has visited and we easily met the criteria for the SMSC Gold award! Listening and responding to your feedback has been a key feature of our School Improvement work this year. I’m delighted by the response to surveys from our parents, students and staff that the school leadership (staff, students and Governors) are using to inform how we move our school forwards. The uniform referendum was conducted respectfully with students listening carefully to the views and opinions of others in the lead up to casting their votes at the polling stations. It was encouraging that so many parents who responded to the survey said that they wanted our uniform to remain focussed on their children’s wellbeing by being comfortable to wear and that they liked the fact that Admiral Lord Nelson School was prepared to be different to other schools by letting students and parents have a strong voice in this important decision. Additionally, the feedback provided by parents, students and staff was invaluable again this year in helping the Senior Leadership Team and Governors determine the School Improvement priorities for our school for the coming year. Developing our students as leaders has been another important aspect of our School Improvement work this year. You can see lots of these leadership opportunities throughout this edition of Latitude, which has a growing number of articles written by students. Look out for #StudentsTakeTheLead within this edition to get a sense of just how important our students are in developing our school community. With over 25% of our year 10 students recently submitting applications to be school prefects, far higher than in previous years, we really are empowering our students to believe that they can be the future leaders of our society. It is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job to work with the Senior Prefects each week and to have the opportunity to be questioned at our monthly School Council meetings by the 44 tutor reps about the issues that really matter to our students at ALNS. You have heard me say it many times before …. “Our school is for our students, they get one chance at secondary education and they deserve to have the very best school possible.” I hope that when you have finished reading through this edition of Latitude you will be filled with the same immense sense of pride that I was in the work of our fantastic school community over the past half term – great staff, students, parents, volunteers and Governors who work together in partnership to make Admiral Lord Nelson School a truly great school! Dare to Dream, Aim to Achieve! Nys Hardingham, Headteacher 1 #LookingBeyond ALNS is Gold Again! SMSC stands for the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education of young people and at ALNS we have always prided ourselves on our provision. Our commitment to Personal Development through the curriculum and beyond and being a Rights Respecting and an Artsmark school have been recognised at a national level. Earlier this year we decided to apply to have our SMSC assessed by the Citizenship Foundation who award schools at Bronze, Silver or Gold level for their provision. On the 18th January a reviewer came to visit our school and we were awarded the highest level and are now very proudly a GOLD SMSC school. On the day the assessor interviewed some staff, the Headteacher, a group of students along with governors and parents. He was really impressed with the school and said in his final report: “It became apparent very early on in the visit that the culture of SMSC is deeply embedded within the ethos of the school simply by looking at the many wall displays and also the general tone and demeanour of the students as they moved around their school. The students were able to use high level vocabulary to talk and explain about the ‘family’ atmosphere at the school.” “Admiral Lord Nelson School is a Unicef Rights Respecting school and this is known and acknowledged by every member of the school community. The wall displays are of a very high professional standard and also the rights and responsibilities of all members of the community are reflected in SMSC posters around the school.” “The very high importance given to pupil voice is remarkable in every respect and permeates the ethos of day to day life at the school. The number of subject ambassadors is clear evidence of this linked to the fact that the school council is run by the students during curriculum time and always achieves 100% attendance by tutor group representatives. Also needing to be highlighted is the fact that the day before my visit the students, after long discussions, voted on which new school uniform to adopt.” It always makes us feel very proud when the things we know we do well are recognised by visitors into our school. Thank you to all the staff, students, parents and governors who do truly make the “family” that the reviewer wrote about in the report. Written by: Mrs Wisbey 2 #LookingAhead School Improvement Planning 2019 In February/March every year the Senior Leadership Team work with the Governors of the school to identify our improvement priorities for the coming year. To inform our planning we conduct a survey of staff, students and parents so that we can ensure that we are focussing on improving the areas that are important to all of us. The Student Council also dedicated a whole session to discussing the views expressed to tutor representatives from their tutor groups. I am delighted with the response to the survey with 532 students, 132 parents and 32 staff contributing their views. There were so many positive, celebratory comments about our fantastic school, along with the identification of areas you would like to improve. The Senior Leadership Team then met with Governors on Wednesday 13th February for 3 hours and we synthesised all this feedback into some key themes for school improvement which we will then ensure that we factor into the annual writing of the School Improvement Plan, which will be finalised in March. Key Themes for Improvement: + Further improving student behaviour and tackling of bullying + Improving communication with parents + Improving mental health awareness for students. Key Themes for Improvement: + Improve mental health awareness and support + Improve breaktime facilities, including toilets and water fountains + Ensure homework is the right quality and doesn’t take longer than it is supposed to. 33 Key Themes for Improvement: + Improving student behaviour in lessons and self-regulation at other times + Greater focus on staff workload management and staff wellbeing + Improving student attendance. Written by: Mrs Hardingham #LookingAhead ALNS Expansion Plans I am writing to inform you that this proposal; the main we have now reached the end concern raised was for of the consultation period about the school leadership the proposal to permanently to ensure that we expand Admiral Lord Nelson do not inadvertently School. lower the quality of education in any way The PowerPoint presentation for our students by which was available at the becoming a larger Drop-In evening at the school school. I can assure all on Thursday 28th February parents that this is the which outlines the reasons for top priority for your the proposal and addresses school leadership too the main issues that had been as we embark on this raised during the consultation expansion plan. period. Drawings from our coming months but if you do Architects can be found on the Once we have approval from have any questions or concerns school website to show the our Trust Board and then from then please do contact me at proposed building works on the the Department for Education, the school using the contact us school site to accommodate the planned building works to facility on the school website this permanent expansion of the support the school expansion so that we can work together school from 1000 students to will commence in August 2019 to make this development of 1250 students by 2025. and we anticipate that they will the school proceed as smoothly be finished by August 2020. as possible and with minimal The online survey responses, disruption during the planned emails and paper questionnaires I intend to keep you regularly building works that the Trust received were updated regarding the progress 4 overwhelmingly supportive of of this proposal over the Written by: Mrs Hardingham #LookingBeyond Students attend Bill Gates seminar in London On the 25th of January we had the amazing opportunity to attend a Bill Gates seminar in London as we were invited by the ONE campaign (a charitable organisation).