Welcome
|
Dear Parents & Carers,
What a great year we have had at King’s Wood School & Specialist Technology College. From superb school shows to wonderful awards evenings it has been truly memorable.
I had the pleasure of attending the Year 11 Prom last month and it was a fantastic evening. I can still remember how small they seemed when they arrived in year 7. To see them socialising as young adults and discussing their future career and college plans highlights what a transformational period Secondary education is.
The staff, pupils, parents and everyone associated with King’s Wood School continue to produce an environment in which children are not encouraged to ‘get by’, but to excel in whatever they choose to do.
I am a firm believer in the idea that every one of the students at King’s Wood School has massive potential and our job is to support them and then steer them towards success when they leave. Our statistics show record numbers of our pupils continuing in education and those choosing to leave their studies entering employment with great prospects.
I have mentioned in previous newsletters the awards we have received three years running for being one of ‘The Most Improved’ schools nationally and the recent ‘Good’ Ofsted report. More than half our pupils now leave with five or more good GCSEs and our attendance figures have shown that pupils want to be at school achieving.
This has been a great time to be at King’s Wood School & Specialist Technology College and I am very proud to have led such a wonderful group of staff and pupils. Having lived and worked in Harold Hill I am glad to be part of this community.
In September we will become The Drapers’ Academy and I am sure the success story will continue.
I wish you all a wonderful summer and look forward to working with the pupils and their families again in September 2010.
Best Wishes,
Scott McGuinness
Headteacher
King’s Wood School & Specialist Technology College
09/07/2010
As we still have no catering facilities on-site we will be running a reduced timetable from Monday 12th July to Friday 16th July, school will open from 8:30am - 1:00pm. A fully staffed facility will be available on-site (upon request) should you wish for your child to remain in school until 2:15pm.
The timings of the reduced timetable will be;
08:30 Registration
08:45 - 09:45 Period 1
09:45 - 10:45 Period 2
10:45 - 11:30 Lunch (Pupils entitled to free school meals should use their ticket during this period)
11:30 - 12:15 Period 3
12:15 - 13:00 Period 4
Re: OFSTED INSPECTION
This continues to be an incredibly busy term here at King’s Wood School & Specialist Technology College and we continue to go from strength to strength.
On Wednesday 26th May and Thursday 27th May 2010 the school was visited by Ms Samantha Morgan-Price (Her Majesty’s Inspector) to carry out an Ofsted monitoring inspection.
I am delighted to tell you that the main judgements from the report concluded that…
- ‘The school has made good progress towards raising standards’ and that ‘Plans for the development of the academy are good’
This is superb news for all connected with King’s Wood School & Specialist Technology College and we have all been on a fantastic journey in raising pupil achievement in such a short space of time.
The report also comments that –
- The proportion of students who achieved five good GCSEs demonstrated an improvement on the two previous years.
- Specialist targets are set to be achieved and the school met its targets in 2009.
- Students worked well in groups and contributed to their learning.
- There were good examples of peer and self assessment.
- Students were firmly of the opinion that they felt safe.
- They remarked that student behaviour had continued to improve
- Attendance has also improved
- Students worked at a good pace on a variety of learning materials which resulted in them making good progress.
- A good range of curriculum initiatives have been implemented to respond to the varying needs of students.
- There are good strategies in place to boost the literacy and numeracy skills of students.
- Good support for students at risk of underachieving in the core subjects of Maths and English has enabled many students to achieve better.
- Good partnerships with external agencies and effective strategies have resulted in a rise in the level of student attendance.
- Students are of the opinion that the home school support workers are supporting them well.
- Students state that teachers continue to offer them good support.
- Staff in the school recognise it is ‘business as usual’.
- Students’ performance at GCSE is set to rise, there have been good improvements to the curriculum in both key stages and the level of students’ attendance and behaviour have improved.
The school is getting the rewards it deserves for the total dedication of our pupils, the commitment of our staff and the support of parents and families.
On the same day that I received the good news from Ofsted we received a framed certificate for being one of the ‘Most Improved’ specialist schools, due to our ever improving GCSE results.
The full version of the monitoring inspection report can be found on the school website.
I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of the progress made by this school and the achievements of our pupils. All of this has been made possible by the support offered by everyone involved within the school community.
Best Wishes,
Scott McGuinness
Headteacher
King’s Wood School
*For the full Ofsted report, please navigate to Documents page*
Make sure you ‘Surf’ Safely
At King’s Wood we take safeguarding of all our students seriously. Internet and email use should be safe both at school and at home. Please refer to our e-safety policy in the school policies folder for guidance.
If you need to speak to the someone about any concerns with cyber-bullying, please contact your child’s head of year.