Specialist Schools Steering Group
May 2007
The three-way action plan with Ivanhoe and Ibstock Colleges is now working very well and has led to an increase in joint working and planning. The last joint meeting was extremely positive. Local primary schools have welcomed the work being done by the three schools’ Design Technology staff to help raise awareness and attainment in Design Technology at Key Stage 2.
Science staff have also taken part in joint training sessions while teachers from all three schools have been involved in delivering specialist workshops for gifted and talented students.
We have reviewed all Technology College targets and are confident that we will achieve those identified for the end of this academic year.
Languages College
Ashby School has now appointed two additional Modern Foreign Languages staff who will take up their posts at the start of next academic year. As a result of these appointments, staff in the Languages Faculty will be able to provide more support and advice to colleagues in primary schools.
The number of students opting for foreign languages at post-16 has risen significantly. In all, 61 students have opted for AS French, 19 students for German and 19 students for Spanish. Sixth Form students will also be able to opt for introductory courses in Japanese, Russian and Mandarin. Mandarin is being introduced in August 2007
Iain MacLauchlan, Chair of Specialist Schools Steering Group
Tim Procter, Director of Technology College
Helen Hughes, Co-ordinator of Modern Languages Specialist College
March 2007
Technology College
It has been a busy time for the focus subjects of Mathematics, Science and Design and Technology, not forgetting ICT in the community.
The Design and Technology Faculty is already preparing for its end-of-year show which is an annual showcase of the impressive work produced both within the Faculty and with partner schools.
At the same time, work is underway to introduce three new primary schools to Computer Aided Design/ Computer Aided Manufacture (CADCAM) using the Fairground Project, which was a huge success last year. Work to enable the primaries involved last year to build on their experiences will be provided to maintain the CAD/CAM momentum. By next year, all primary schools in North West Leicestershire should have CAD/CAM activities built into their curriculum to enhance student progress
Ashby School has maintained its links with Holgate School in Nottingham to help improve Holgate's grades in Design and Technology (DT). To this end, Holgate DT staff will spend half a day at Ashby, working alongside Ashby Design teachers.
Meanwhile, Ashby students are taking part in the Green Power car challenge. Team members Ben Reeve, Jan White, Jonathan Plant, Joe Mattley, David McNair and Tom Canning are working hard to prepare the car for the first target race on 29 April. Very generous sponsorship has been received from Vehicle Wiring Products at Ilkeston and Just Bikes at Ashby.
During National Construction Week, talks have been organised through SETPOINT and the Construction Skills Curriculum Project. The lectures, which were aimed at Sixth Form Systems and Control students, made students more aware of environmental issues and sustainability in the 21st century and of future design considerations. The talks helped students to enhance AS/A2 coursework and meet an important specification criterion. Further talks on energy will take place in August and October. (Full details are available on the school website).
A programme of careers talks to highlight the range of undergraduate Art and Design courses available locally kicked off in February. The programme was piloted last year and was both informative and helpful, encouraging a number of students to continue their studies in Art and Design.
Representatives from universities across the Midlands are invited to Ashby each year to talk about the different undergraduate courses available to students. This year's talks have included insights into Graphics and Textiles at De Montfort University; Architecture and Visual Communication at UCE in Birmingham; Foundation courses in Art and Design at Loughborough University; and the work of the Technology Innovation Centre in Birmingham.
Dates for talks on Music Technology, Media Studies and Theatre Management Studies will be confirmed shortly.
(Details of the full time courses available at UCE are available on the school website).
The Design and Technology Faculty has once again been involved in mentoring trainee teachers. The school currently has two Design and Technology PGCE students from Loughborough University, an Engineering PGCE student from Nottingham Trent University and a GTP Music teacher from George Spencer Training School in Nottingham.
The Faculty's involvement with trainees helps to rejuvenate teaching and keeps existing staff up-to-date with developments.
The CISCO Security Networking Course, initiated and organised by Adrian Wright in collaboration with Loughborough College, has proved equally successful. Recruitment for this year's course has surpassed the original target of seven. Two students from the first intake have since secured jobs in high status positions.
Mr Wright's continuing work with Landau Forte City Technology College in Derby has contributed to its new status as a local Academy. So far, he has trained four Landau Forte staff and will deliver training to additional staff in the Summer term.
The CISCO Academy Teaching Programme and the associated equipment continues to be a bonus to all post-16 Computing, Networking and ICT courses.
Meanwhile, the school's work and involvement with Ashfield Healthcare goes from strength to strength. The Science Faculty has trained three more Ashfield trainers in 'Communication and Facilitating Skills' while Ashfield invited several Ashby staff to participate in a training programme organised for their emerging leaders.
Mathematics, a vocational Maths group has been set up to help a small group of Year 11 students work towards a Youth Achievement Award. The students, who are taking the course in addition to their usual Maths lessons, are required to carry out six challenges linked to everyday activities.
These include decorating - where students must calculate the exact area and volume of materials involved – and booking holidays and flights, where they must get to grips with currency issues, money management and budgeting.
Claire Jackson, Head of Maths, attended a two-day Specialist Schools Trust annual conference in December. She said: "The whole event was highly stimulating. It is exciting to hear and see what other Specialist Schools are doing. I came back with lots of ideas which I have shared with the Faculty. We hope to implement some of them in the near future."
Ashby is continuing to work with Ibstock High School on GCSE Statistics. Another cohort of Year 9 students will be sitting the GCSE examination two years early.
The Maths Faculty is also considering purchasing an electronic 'voting system', similar to that used in TV's ' Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'. The accompanying software is designed to make assessment and testing more fun and interactive.
A Maths Roadshow run by a team of experts from Cambridge University visited Ashby in December and was extremely successful.
Science teachers have been helping schools in Staffordshire and Hertfordshire to develop their ICT skills.
Plans are also underway for a series of primary school workshops. A workshop for Year 5 classes will be held in the summer term, followed by other workshops in the autumn and spring terms. The workshops are an attempt to boost SATs results at Level 2.
The new Science curriculum – called Investigating Sciences – means that Ashby staff have been working more closely with high school colleagues at Ibstock and Ivanhoe. This will enable high school staff to deliver some of the modules in Year 9, kicking off in 2007 at Ibstock. Mutual lesson observations between the schools will form part of the process.
Three one-hour workshops for gifted and talented students will also take place at the high schools. Each workshop will focus on one of the three Sciences – Biology, Chemistry or Physics. The sessions will reach about 60 students.
Revision classes in Science are scheduled for the Easter holidays in an attempt to boost GCSE pass rates. The classes are part of a massive push to ensure students reach their full potential. Teachers will be conducting interviews, writing letters home where necessary, and carrying out close monitoring of student progress.
Finally, more students than ever before have enrolled on Open University Science courses. This commitment is in addition to the normal school curriculum.
Languages College
Ashby School's commitment to help local primary schools introduce French to younger pupils is now having an impact for Years 3 and 4.
Following a planning meeting for local primary school teachers in February, many have now begun teaching French to pupils in Years 3 and 4.
The teachers will have three training sessions a year to keep them up-to-speed with latest developments and to support them with their language work.
The largest ever exchange trip to be organised by Ashby School took place in February. In all, 29 students travelled to Romans-sur-Isere in France to visit Ashby's partner school. During their stay, they visited Grenoble with French students and were given a tour of Romans with former Ashby Head Boy Nick Lackenby, who is spending his year out in France.
Eighteen students from Years 10, 11 and 12 will visit Germany in March. The GCSE and A level students will visit Ashby's partner school in the Saarland, staying with local families and visiting the area's main attractions.
Iain MacLauchlan, Chair of Specialist Schools Steering Group
Tim Procter, Director of Technology College
Helen Hughes, Co-ordinator of Modern Languages Specialist College
December 2006
Technology College
One of the most successful elements of the school's Technology College
work has been to broaden the curriculum subjects on offer.
Statistics is now available as a GCSE for Year 10 students. This year, 18 students took the course with a pass rate of 100 per cent. Of these, 90 per cent achieved an A or A*.
Meanwhile, 41 Year 10 students took GCSE Maths with a pass rate of 73 per cent. Many of these students will be encouraged to re-take the exam at the end of Year 11 to see if they can improve their grade.
Overall, 70 per cent of GCSE passes were at the top grades of A* to C. In Design Technology, this figure was 67 per cent with 64 per cent in Mathematics and 70 per cent in Science.
At post-16 level, Ashby School is bucking the national trend for declining numbers in Mathematics. This year, the number of students taking AS and A2 Mathematics has continued to rise. A record 107 students have enrolled for AS Mathematics.
The school is also looking at ways to encourage more students to take AS Applied Science and AS Textiles.
Meanwhile, Ashby is continuing its work with Ibstock and Ivanhoe High Schools. At Ibstock, students have begun two of their GCSE Science modules. Eight Ibstock students achieved an A* - C grade in Statistics by the end of Year 9.
Ashby's work with local primary schools has been similarly successful. Ashby is also drawing on its expertise to support Science initiatives at Burleigh Community College, Minster College and Thomas Boughey Schools, and Textile Technology at Holgate School.
Ashby also continues to train other schools and colleges in CISCO, adding to the already successful and community element of the Technology College action plan.
Languages College
The work carried out by Ashby School with local primary schools has received
national acclaim and is having an obvious impact on language learning
in the Ashby Family of Schools. This work is now being developed in the
Coalville and Ibstock areas.
Iain MacLauchlan, Chair of the Specialist Schools Steering Group
Tim Procter, Director of Technology College
Helen Hughes, Co-ordinator of Languages College
July 2006
As a high-achieving Specialist College, Ashby has begun to work on its second specialism in Modern Foreign Languages.
Since its redesignation as a Specialist Technology College (TC) earlier this year, staff in the TC focus subjects have been working hard – both in school and the local community – to ensure that all targets are met.
Revision and coursework catch-up sessions have featured heavily in all focus subjects, giving the students every opportunity to fulfil their academic potential.
In the Maths Faculty, 27 students who sat GCSE Maths in Year 10 will be attempting GCSE Statistics this June. Staff from Ibstock have attended workshops run by Ashby staff to help them to introduce GCSE Statistics to Year 9 students. A further 15 students from Year 10 will be sitting their GCSE Maths this term – a full year early!
Students have also visited Loughborough University and are looking forward to visiting speakers from the Maths Faculty and Cambridge University.
Year 11, 12 and 13 students show further commitment to Maths by helping the Tip Tops (a group of gifted and talented children from local primary school schools) at their weekly after-school meetings.
Ashby is also working with local primary schools – which are all teaching French – in its capacity as a Language College. As the school develops its language work further, Ashby students will also have an opportunity to take a vocational language course in Business Spanish or Business French. Plans are also underway to introduce Russian and Mandarin in 2007, as well as Japanese in 2006.
Iain MacLauchlan, Chair of the Specialist Schools Steering Group
Tim Procter, Director of Technology College
Helen Hughes, Co-ordinator of Languages College
Technology College Steering Group
March 2006
We did it! Ashby School has become one of the first schools in Leicestershire to be granted joined Specialist Technology College status with its two feeder high schools.
Ashby School, which became a Specialist Technology College (TC) in 1998, put in a three-way bid with Ibstock and Ivanhoe to renew its TC status. The application was approved by the DfES in January. All three schools will now be designated as a Specialist Technology College until August 2009.
By becoming a joint Specialist TC, one of the aims is to increase student participation in the specialist subjects of Design and Technology (D & T), Maths, Science, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Heads of Faculty for D & T, Maths, Science, and ICT have now started putting their plans into action. Recent developments include:
- The ordering of new 4-Axis router equipment for D & T to help students with Product Design;
- Introducing staff training to Community Partner Schools in Staffordshire and Herefordshire on the subject of 'ICT in the Science Curriculum'. The Science Faculty has also finalised a fast track Science programme with Ibstock (Ivanhoe will come on stream in 2006/7);
- The ICT Faculty has already fulfilled its first year community targets of training and recruitment of adults into its Network Security course which is running in partnership with Loughborough College.
Each Faculty is working hard behind the scenes to ensure that the extremely tough targets for A* - C grades are achieved.
(There is a proposal to change the name of this committee to the Specialist Schools' Steering Group to encompass Ashby School's recently-acquired specialism in Modern Foreign Languages).
Iain MacLauchlan, Chair of the Technology College Steering Group
Tim Procter, Director of Technology College
December 2005
Ashby School has submitted a ground-breaking bid to renew its Technology College status. Like all establishments with specialist school status, Ashby School must re-apply to the Department of Education every four years to retain its status.
This time, Ashby has made an unprecedented joint bid with its two feeder high schools, Ibstock and Ivanhoe High Schools. Staff from Maths, Science and Design Technology have worked together with all three headteachers to ensure that the bid is a genuine collaboration with continuity across the key stages.
The bid included setting targets for school improvements in the specialist subjects and for working with partner schools and the wider community.
Iain MacLauchlan, Chair of the TC Steering Group, said: "Everyone at Ashby School is extremely enthusiastic about the future and sees fantastic benefits that, if successful, the joint bid will bring to the students of Ibstock, Ivanhoe and Ashby."
Iain MacLauchlan, Chair of the TC Steering Group
Tim Procter, Director of TC Steering Group
