Holywell School Church of England School Cranfield Enjoy, Achieve, Excel... Prospectus 2017/2018 w. WWW.HOLYWELLSCHOOL.CO.UK e. [email protected] Welcome Michael G Simpson - Headteacher I am delighted to welcome you to Holywell School – a community-focussed Church of England School in the Diocese of St Albans providing a values-based education and serving the common good. Holywell is a 9-13 Middle School with 600 students in Cranfield, Bedfordshire. Holywell School is a distinctively Christian Church School welcoming of all faiths. Our vision at Holywell is to be an outstanding Christian community where unique individuals can develop spiritually, morally, intellectually and emotionally and work together to release their talents. We are a school where all members of our community Enjoy, Achieve and Excel and achievement is praised and celebrated. We are a learning community whose members are: • Safe and happy in a caring environment which nurtures confidence and creates positive memories • Inspired • Celebrated for their creativity, flair, imagination and innovation • Motivated to take on challenges • Aspiring to be the best they can possibly be • Confident, eager and responsible citizens who respect themselves and each other • A supportive educational family dedicated to serving others and the environment • All valued as individuals in a school that is inclusive, celebrates diversity, provides equality of opportunity and treats all with fairness As a school, we are a loving, caring community with high aspirations for all. We promote inclusion and value each individual. We are distinctively Christian and the Christian values underpinning our school are: Friendship; Equality; Courage; Happiness; Respect; Trust; Thoughtfulness; Empathy; Patience; Responsibility; Tolerance; Peace; Simplicity; Self-Esteem; Love; Forgiveness; Kindness; Appreciation; Sense of Community; Joy; Honesty; and Freedom. I am very proud and privileged to be the headteacher of this amazing school. Since joining the school in September, I have been impressed by the wonderful students whose enthusiasm for learning is only equalled by their care and consideration for each other. They are polite, industrious, aspirational young people who constantly surprise and delight us with their ideas, creativity and achievements. The staff are superb professionals who create exciting, challenging and inspiring learning experiences to enable students to achieve high standards. This is all delivered within a framework of clear and high expectations. We are consistent, insistent and persistent in our endeavour to secure outstanding standards of behaviour, service, care, appearance and courtesy for all. We also have lots of fun! We are a happy school where everyone has the right to feel safe at all times. We deal with disagreements and issues in a solution-focussed, systematic, supportive and peaceful way, treating others as we wish to be treated. We aspire to being the best we can possibly be and to make a positive difference to our community and beyond. We hope that you will join us on our exciting journey. Curriculum Our approach to curriculum organisation is based on a Secondary model with students being taught by subject specialists. Most subjects are taught in mixed-ability groups, however, Maths is taught in ability sets. Schemes of Learning cover the National Curriculum Programmes of Study. Lessons are between 55 or 60 minutes long and students have the following allocation of lessons during the week: IT PE RE Art Music Maths Drama French Option English History Science Geography Technology Y8 Lessons 1 4 3 3 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 Groups 5 6 6 6 5 5 5 10 6 5 5 5 6 6 Y7 Lessons 1 4 4 3 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 - Groups 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 - Y6 Lessons 1 6 6 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 - 1 - Groups 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 - 6 - Y5 Lessons 1 6 6 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 - 1 - Groups 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 - 6 - In Year 8 students have an ‘Option’ lesson in their weekly timetable. Students choose from a wide range of subjects – Maths in the world, Sports Leadership, Art in the environment, Drama and Making Movies. This prepares students for the very important choices they will be making about Options soon after arriving in Upper School. It was a part of the curriculum to which Ofsted gave particular praise. In addition, for students the option lesson also created a very popular variety to our KS3 curriculum. Outcomes KS2 HOLYWELL 74% Our KS2 students achieved higher READING than national standards in their CENTRAL BEDS 72% SATs in 2017. On average, they NATIONAL 71% also performed above the Local Authority average. We continue HOLYWELL 81% to focus on standards and hope WRITING CENTRAL BEDS 74% that students will do even better in subsequent years. NATIONAL 76% HOLYWELL 77% “Teachers establish consistent MATHS CENTRAL BEDS 73% classroom routines with their NATIONAL 75% students and, together with their high expectations for behaviour, HOLYWELL 63% this leads to students learning R&W&M CENTRAL BEDS 58% effectively.” COMBINED NATIONAL 61% - Ofsted 2014 KS3 Our KS3 students take nationally benchmarked tests for English and Maths (GL Assessments). These graphs show that they performed well in excess of the national averages. Values-based Education Our curriculum is underpinned by our Values-based education. The fundamental guiding values for Holywell stem from our character as a Church of England school. “Which commandment is the most important of all?” “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself’.” Mark 28-31 Simply put; we aim to treat others as we would like to be treated. ‘Values-based Education’ moves away from a presumption that we simply catch and acquire our values somewhere in our lives. Instead, Values-based education takes a systematic approach to developing a deep understanding of a core set of values. At Holywell we have identified 22 key Christian values which are explored on a 2-year cycle. Each month we have a whole-school focus on a particular value. The values are: Friendship; Equality; Courage; Happiness; Respect; Trust; Thoughtfulness; Empathy; Patience; Responsibility; Tolerance; Peace; Simplicity; Self-Esteem; Love; Forgiveness; Kindness; Appreciation; Sense of Community; Joy; Honesty; and Freedom. We encourage all members of our school community – including parents and staff – to explore the real meaning of each value and to shine a spotlight on each one in turn through our ‘Value of the Month’. The Value of the Month is shared with families through the school newsletter and through the Student Organiser. Families are thereby enabled to continue the discussions and reflections outside of the school day. Research shows that when a school seriously develops the moral and spiritual aspects of the curriculum (that is, those that positively contribute to the inner world of thoughts, feelings and emotions of the teacher and the student), the school community becomes more reflective and harmonious. The effect on individual students of developing Values Education is that students take greater personal responsibility for their learning and behaviour. This has certainly been our experience at Holywell School and we are proud to be a Values-based School. House Structure The celebration of student achievement is centrally delivered through the House system. House Points are awarded for good work and effort. (We also put stickers into student organisers for a wide range of reasons – good effort, helpfulness…) All students are placed in a House on entry into the School. The Houses are named after the four patron saints of the British Isles. Each House has its own colour which is incorporated in the School badge. When a student has a sister or brother already in the School s/he is normally placed in the same house. Requests can also be made by parents who are ex-students. Parents who are ex-students of Holywell, who would like their child to be in the same house, should make this known when returning the Student Information Sheet, which will be distributed to parents as part of the Welcome Pack at the beginning of the summer term. There is a wide range of Inter-House sporting activities - Netball, Hockey, Football, Rugby and Cross- Country run in the Autumn and Winter; Athletics, Rounders and Cricket during the Summer Term and trophies are awarded for these competitions. House Point certificates are awarded in House Assemblies to children gaining 25, 50, 75 and 150 house points. The 100, 200 and 300 house point certificates are awarded in Main School Assembly on a Friday. Additionally, each week and each term the House Point Cup is awarded to the house with the greatest number of points. House Head of House House Colour St Andrew Miss Warren Blue St David Miss Hawkins Purple St George Mrs Simpson Red St Patrick Mrs Zarei Green Pastoral Support All students belong to a year-specific Tutor Group. The Year groups are led by Heads of Year and there is a team of tutors who support students on a day-to-day basis. The tutors provide the direct pastoral care for their tutees, they are the main home-school link, they teach students for PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education) and they deal with rewards and sanctions. The team of Year 5 tutors specialise particularly in looking after students on transfer from Lower School and only tutor students in Year 5. From Years 6, the Form tutor will, where possible, remain with the tutor group throughout Years 6-8.