Warbler 3rd Edition

A New Beginning
Moving Forward:
A Year of Progress at The Wilnecote School
On 1st September 2016 we joined the Community Academies Trust, a successful group of schools that
includes The Polesworth School. At the beginning of the school year we introduced a number of
changes – to uniform, the school day, our House system and to the leadership of the school – that
immediately heightened our expectations and created a very positive feel around the school.
Ofsted Inspection
At the beginning of November 2016 we received a two day Ofsted inspection in which the school was
judged to have made significant progress and no longer required Special Measures. The Ofsted team
highlighted many positive features, including:-
•The actions of school leaders have led to rapid improvements in behaviour,teaching,
pupils’ progress and behaviour.
•The Headteacher and his new senior team have been relentless in their drive to create
a strong and aspirational culture, which is increasingly shared by staff and pupils.
•Pupils are smartly dressed: they like their new uniform and are proud of their school.
They respond positively to the school’s ethos of pursuing excellence.
•Pupils feel safe in school and understand how to keep themselves safe.
Since the last inspection the quality of teaching has improved significantly across the curriculum.
Leaders have been effective in eradicating weak teaching. The school has recruited and retained well
qualified teachers who have added to its growing strengths.
Despite the many positives above, we are not complacent and we view the inspection as the first step
on our improvement journey and as a springboard to further progress.
Rewarding Positive Attitudes and Heightening
Expectations of Behaviour
One of our key areas of focus this year has been to further improve behaviour and this has involved
two main initiatives:-
•Rewarding positive behaviour. This includes Celebration Assemblies and lunches and the
introduction of Vivo Rewards in which students can exchange electronic points awarded
for good work and good behaviour for rewards purchased online. This is proving
motivational to many students and has created healthy competition between students and
between Houses.
•Dealing with poor behaviour and low level disruption. We have introduced a
‘consequences’ system based on high expectations and the principle that no student has
the right to disrupt the learning of others. The vast majority of students have responded
positively to this and an external review in March 2017 was clear that behaviour had
improved during the year.
Moving Forward
Our aspiration is to become an exceptional community school in which our students reach the highest levels of achievement and leave us as wellrounded
individuals with the skills to make positive contributions to their community. We seek to achieve this by providing high quality learning,
care and guidance within an ethos of trust and mutual respect.
We have made progress towards that aspiration but there is much more to do and further developments are on the way for next year:-
•We have recruited some excellent new staff, including a Deputy Headteacher, a Head of English and teachers of History and Modern
Languages. We are certain that these will improve the quality and consistency of teaching even further.
achieve
•We will introduce ‘Ensuring Excellence in Teaching’ which will heighten our expectations for learning and of what each student can
in lessons.
New systems will be in place for informing students and parents about the progress they are making in their learning.
Thank you for your support this year. Enjoy your summer holidays and we look forward to seeing you refreshed and ready to learn on the 6th
September
Stuart Tonks - Headteacher