2 March 2011 - Rydal Penrhos School
2 March 2011 - Rydal Penrhos School
2 March 2011 - Rydal Penrhos School
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Parents’ Forum<br />
2 <strong>March</strong> <strong>2011</strong>
Welcome<br />
• Mr Patrick Lee-Browne Headmaster<br />
• Ms Kathy Baines Director of Finance<br />
• Mr Tim Cashell Deputy Head<br />
• Mr Julian Noad Deputy Head (Academic)<br />
• Mrs Alison Hind Deputy Head of Prep <strong>School</strong>
Parents’ Forum<br />
• Welcome<br />
• Finance<br />
• Development proposals<br />
– Whole <strong>School</strong><br />
– Prep <strong>School</strong><br />
– Senior <strong>School</strong> Curriculum<br />
– Extra-curriculum and Pastoral<br />
• Refreshments and Questions
Finance - a strong financial position<br />
• Buildings - worth over £30 million<br />
• Only £550,000 bank loan & £1 million bank<br />
overdraft facility<br />
• Currently net cash in the bank circa £1 million<br />
• Full support of our bank
Finance - short term profitability issue<br />
• Annual accounts<br />
• Charitable status<br />
• Short term issue - reduced pupil numbers so<br />
reduced income<br />
• Financial loss in Academic Year 2010-11
Finance - what are we doing?<br />
• Reducing costs to match the reduced income<br />
• Planned programme of redundancies and cost<br />
savings<br />
• Proactive approach
Finance - a strong financial future<br />
• Time<br />
• Forecast loss for this year significantly reduced<br />
• Small loss Academic Year <strong>2011</strong>-12<br />
• Surplus Academic Year 2012-13<br />
• Strong financial foundations for the future of<br />
<strong>Rydal</strong> <strong>Penrhos</strong> <strong>School</strong>
The whole school<br />
• Development of identity as one school 3 -18<br />
• Day numbers have remained largely constant<br />
• Boarding numbers: have fluctuated.<br />
• Offering an education for the spectrum of academic ability<br />
• Best results for ten years<br />
• Two choices at Sixth form<br />
• Core values: driving academic performance, all-round<br />
education, sense of community
We are aiming for a school<br />
Where…<br />
It only goes quiet at lights out<br />
The choir sings once a week, not once a term<br />
Taking part is all very well, but achievement matters more<br />
Making do won’t do<br />
To contribute outside the classroom is taken for granted<br />
Parents are part of the picture, not outside the frame<br />
Everyone wants to be, all of the time
We are aiming for a school<br />
Which…<br />
Takes advantage of its amazing location<br />
Lives its founding tradition<br />
Turns children into aware, considerate, articulate young adults<br />
Gets its pupils into the best universities<br />
Engenders a real sense of passion in its pupils<br />
Competes and wins
The Prep school - the way ahead<br />
Constant Improvement<br />
Development ideas:<br />
• Meeting Individual Needs<br />
• Developing the Whole Child<br />
• Forest <strong>School</strong> – Taking Learning Outdoors
Meeting individual needs<br />
• Planning for and evaluating learning<br />
• Assessment and tracking
The Prep school - Music<br />
Development Goals<br />
• To develop further fine voices<br />
• To develop further practical musicianship and performance<br />
• To review music in the Foundation Phase
The Lyndon Library<br />
This year’s objectives<br />
• To create an environment that:<br />
– Supports children’s reading<br />
– Encourages children to cross the threshold<br />
• To renew the library stock
Forest <strong>School</strong><br />
Forest <strong>School</strong> focuses on providing a safe, outdoor environment<br />
where children and young people are freely allowed to explore,<br />
discover, take suitable risks and learn in a secure area of<br />
woodland, which acts as an outdoor classroom.
Forest <strong>School</strong><br />
• Increased self-esteem<br />
• Increased self-confidence<br />
• Team work<br />
• Motivation<br />
• Skills and knowledge<br />
• Pride in, and understanding of, their local surroundings<br />
‘Offers an alternative to our over-reliance on digital and<br />
electronic sources for recreation, learning, socialising’
Senior <strong>School</strong> Curriculum<br />
Background<br />
• 18 months observation and discussion<br />
• Estyn inspection report<br />
• Strategic Review<br />
• Parent Forums<br />
• Annual process of re-evaluation<br />
• Improved academic performance is at the heart of<br />
curriculum changes<br />
• Good, but want to be better…
Strategic Review & Parent Forum<br />
Recommendations to:<br />
• Review weekly routine and timetable to ensure proper balance of<br />
academic/extra-curricular programmes and sufficient teaching time to<br />
ensure best possible results.<br />
• Reduce the divisions between levels of the school<br />
• Increase quantity and quality of data gathering<br />
• Encourage a more holistic approach to teaching in the school<br />
• Develop integrated whole school curriculum, with languages policy<br />
review a priority<br />
• Reduce number of different subjects in Years 7 & 8<br />
• Increase teaching time for GCSE pupils: reduce number of GCSEs
Strategic Review & Parent Forum<br />
A balance:<br />
driving academic performance vs ensuring an all-round education<br />
‘Bring out the best whatever their<br />
strengths and abilities’<br />
‘The <strong>School</strong> will get the best<br />
from anyone’<br />
‘Not an academic hothouse’
Curriculum Policy<br />
Curriculum Policy is<br />
available on our website:<br />
www.<strong>Rydal</strong><strong>Penrhos</strong>.com
Curriculum Summary<br />
Curriculum Summary is available on our website: www.<strong>Rydal</strong><strong>Penrhos</strong>.com
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
Change weekly routine<br />
a. Distinguish between academic and extra-curricular:<br />
• Academic curriculum<br />
» Classroom-taught academic lessons<br />
• Extra-curriculum<br />
» Tutor meetings<br />
» Enrichment<br />
» Games<br />
» Clubs and societies<br />
b. More academic lessons in the prime morning time (25 vs 18)
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
Languages<br />
Feedback from parents of pupils in Year 7 indicates that programme of 18 different<br />
subjects, is probably too broad, particularly in the area of languages, so we are<br />
revising the curriculum to provide better coherence and connection with the<br />
curriculum in the Prep school<br />
Welsh is taught in the Prep <strong>School</strong>. Welsh and Welsh Culture will be addressed in<br />
accordance with Cwricwlwm Cymraeg, in all of school life. As an academic<br />
subject, Welsh continues to be offered in the Senior <strong>School</strong> extra curriculum for<br />
general interest or pursuit of qualifications<br />
Latin will no longer within the academic curriculum but opportunities to study<br />
Classics will exist in the extra-curriculum for Years 9 and above
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
Music<br />
Intention to develop further music in the extra-curriculum<br />
Low historical take up at Sixth Form<br />
GCSE options reduced, fewer would choose as one of top two<br />
Music remains at the heart of <strong>Rydal</strong> <strong>Penrhos</strong>; its value cannot be overestimated<br />
Delivery in the academic curriculum is not the only or best way of<br />
developing musicianship or musical appreciation.<br />
Music will be taught as an academic subject to Year 7 only
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
ICT<br />
• is best delivered in context, through other subject areas<br />
• should be utilised to support the curriculum, used whenever<br />
appropriate in all teaching at <strong>Rydal</strong> <strong>Penrhos</strong>.<br />
• will earn a qualification in Year 9
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
Years 7 – 9 will focus on preparation and bridging the gap;<br />
Prep school to GCSEs.<br />
• Simplified Year 7 (18 different subjects reduced to 14)<br />
• Core of Maths, English, and Humanities (inc. RS)<br />
• Creative and Practical subjects in Years 7 – 9 as carousels to give<br />
opportunities for all<br />
• Science at Year 7 becomes specialist-taught<br />
Physics/Chemistry/Biology in Year 8 and above<br />
• Languages: French only in Year 7; German introduced in Year 8; and<br />
Choice (French/German) in Year 9<br />
• Latin and Welsh in extra curriculum
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
GCSE<br />
• Fewer subjects studied in total<br />
– 11 becomes 10*<br />
– 3 options rather than 4<br />
• More time allocated to subjects<br />
– Each option receives 33% increased teaching time<br />
– Mathematics teaching time increased by 25%<br />
– core curriculum of 8 GCSEs plus ECDL<br />
– extension delivers 10+ GCSEs plus ECDL<br />
– top universities want only 7 A/A* GCSEs
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
SIXTH FORM<br />
• Two different academic curriculums offered: IB and A-level<br />
• Both give opportunity to work independently as they prepare<br />
• Both give opportunity to work independently as they prepare<br />
for university and beyond.
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
A-LEVEL<br />
A-level options will be reduced from 5 blocks to 4.<br />
• Some restriction of choice<br />
• Benefit up to 33% increased contact time<br />
Each option subject receives one extra ‘plus one’ lesson.<br />
• ‘plus one’ is a lesson for reinforcement or extension
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
A-LEVEL<br />
• ‘Enrichment’ block for non-examined or broadening<br />
subjects is an opportunity to do something ‘extra’:<br />
– An extra qualification? GCSE Geology/Astronomy<br />
– An interest? Politics/Law<br />
– A new skill? A new foreign language?<br />
– A space for other study? EFL/Rugby Academy/Extended Project?
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
A-LEVEL<br />
• Drama and ICT offered to AS-level only<br />
• Modern Foreign Language study at Sixth Form will appear<br />
only in the IB programme.
Curriculum <strong>2011</strong> proposals<br />
Summary<br />
• A Whole <strong>School</strong> curriculum, with a coherent languages<br />
policy<br />
• Quality preferred to quantity<br />
• Other options in the extra curriculum (e.g. Welsh, Classics, Music)<br />
• Sixth form choice (IB or A-level) and increased teaching time<br />
• Academic focus to mornings
Extra Curriculum and Pastoral<br />
A draft Weekly Routine proposal for <strong>2011</strong> is also on our website: www.<strong>Rydal</strong><strong>Penrhos</strong>.com
Extra Curriculum<br />
• Building on strong foundation and tradition<br />
• But….throughput and range?<br />
• Clubs and societies<br />
• Academic lessons in morning, reduced lunchtime<br />
• Improved blocks of time to deliver extra-curriculum<br />
• Involving all teachers’ expertise in extra-curriculum<br />
• Blurring the end of the day : ‘24 hours a day school’<br />
• Aligning experience: boarders and day<br />
• Continued weekend activities development
Pastoral<br />
• Review ongoing<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Academic monitoring – systems and personnel<br />
Pupil welfare – school counsellor, wellbeing centre<br />
Boarding – numbers, fabric, academic house tutors, weekend programme<br />
• Single point of contact based on vertical, competitive houses<br />
• Vertical boarding houses<br />
• House Bases
The Way Forward<br />
The extra curriculum is:<br />
‘not just Sport, Music and Drama<br />
but Sport, Music, Drama, Outdoor Education, Trips,<br />
Community involvement, Chess………..<br />
inclusivity, enthusiasm and excellence’
Refreshments and Questions
Parents’ Forum<br />
2 <strong>March</strong> <strong>2011</strong>
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