To encourage and develop relationships between home, parish, school and the wider community in order to prepare our pupils to become responsible, caring citizens.

Communications and Relationships

To develop an effective system of communications and relationships which is based on the Gospel values of mutual respect, tolerance, care and understanding towards all members of the school community. Individual Support and Development

To celebrate the unique nature of each person and to encourage their development as individuals. Curriculum

To introduce all pupils to a broad, balanced, relevant and differentiated curriculum and to equip pupils with the necessary knowledge, skills and Christian values required in a rapidly changing society. To provide a curriculum for our pupils which develops them academically, spiritually, morally, culturally and physically.

Our AimsIn accordance with our Mission Statement the School’s aims are:

Faith and Worship

To help us to grow spiritually as followers of Christ and as members of a Catholic community: to make prayer, worship and liturgy central to school life.

School and Community

To ensure that all pupils receive their entitlement to a first class education our school recognises that additional provision of support and guidance may be required to further enable some pupils who have particular needs. Our Special Educational Needs Policy is designed to precisely identify and match specific individual needs to appropriate help and support.

The school operates a staged approach to special educational needs in accordance with the Code of Practice document on the identification and assessment of Special Educational Needs as outlined by the Department of Education.

St Ambrose Barlow School fully endorses and adheres to the Government’s Inclusion Development Programme which focuses on supporting, training and empowering staff to identify pupils’ specific needs and support those pupils in the most effective ways in the classroom.

Whilst each pupil is at St Ambrose Barlow School, their progress is carefully monitored through our detailed assessment and reporting procedure and use of tests which can identify special abilities or difficulties.

At St Ambrose Barlow School we have a Learning Support Centre in addition to our Special Educational Needs Department, this is to support pupils on a short term basis who may have particular difficulties which prevent them from accessing the curriculum effectively at certain times throughout their school career. We also offer some alternative qualifications in key stage 4 to pupils who may have difficulties with traditional optional subjects.

If a pupil is identified as requiring additional support, an assessment is made in consultation with parents and all those concerned with that particular pupil’s education. An individual education plan is then devised where targets are set and a review date arranged to ensure that progress is being made. We regard the parental partnership as vital in ensuring that pupils are successful in achieving their targets.

In most circumstances our procedures and support occur in the classroom under the direction of the classroom teacher.

We feel that our experience of tactfully and sensitively responding to a wide range of different pupils’ additional educational requirements has contributed to the educational achievement at St Ambrose Barlow School.

Special Educational Needs Statement

St. Ambrose Barlow RC High School

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

NOVEMBER 6TH 2015 Issue 1

A National Teaching SchoolA National School of Creativity

ST AMBROSE BARLOW RC HIGH SCHOOL

open eveningdepartmental information

IMPORTANT DATES & FORTHCOMING EVENTS Year 11 Mocks November 9th - 17th Year 10 Mindfulness weekly sessions begin November 9th Headteacher’s Parent Surgery November 9th 5.00pm Presentation Evening (school closes at 2.00 pm) November 19th 7.00 pm Year 11 Retreats November 24th School Remembrance Service November 27th Careers Focus Week November 23 - 27th 6th Form Open Morning November 28th 10.00am Year 9 reports to parents & guardians December 11th Barcelona Trip December 12th - 13th

Advent Liturgy December 15th School closes for Christmas December 18th 12.00 pm School reopens January 4th 2016 8.45 am november charity appeal Co-ordinated by Mrs. Dwyer-Moores, Teacher of RE, we will be collecting goods for refugees over the coming weeks. Details have been given to pupils in forms. Year 11 prom The prom will take place on July 1st at the Etihad Stadium. Pupils have been given letters with details and standards expected to ensure participation. 6th form open morning (november 28th) In response to huge demand and success we are holding an additional open morning for the 6th form.

Celebrating 60 Years of Outstanding Learning

60

I love coming to work here each day.

Often it doesn’t feel like work. We are a Catholic community of faith where it is a privilege to see our young people flourishing, to speak with them, to learn their ways and watch them grow in confidence. They are an inspiration. Every day, every lesson great adventures and stories unfold born out of curiosity, imagination and creativity. Our equally inspiring staff are dedicated to nurturing every young person in their care. They may get outstanding results, but their commitment brings so much more to the education of our students. We believe in doing things differently so that every child can realise their gifts and talents and celebrate who they are. Doing this means that we are bringing to life the Catholic mission and ethos of the school.

There is great spirit and energy in this school. You can see it in the range of extra-curricular activities, in the array of research projects undertaken by staff and in the creativity that flows through our learning. There is also support and care: no-one is left behind, no-one is left out. Visitors often comment on the quiet sense of purpose they find in the school; this comes from outstanding relationships, particularly those between teachers and pupils.

We thrive on connections: with parents and carers, with parishes, with businesses. We love to look out and have give our pupils a global perspective on learning. By doing this our students can see a higher purpose in their learning. It isn’t just about passing exams, getting a job or going to university. It is about pursuing passions, developing new skills and building character so that life after school can be rich and fulfilling lived in the service of others. Our pupils go out into the world with the capacity to contribute, to lead and to play their part in the community with joy and hope. The greatest measure of our success is seeing students who have the capacity to take charge of their future (at a time when the world is changing faster than ever), to be curious, make change and be comfortable in their own skin. As a parent myself I hope for the same for my own children.

If you like the sound of this, please come and see us. Everyone is welcome here. I look forward to meeting you and saying, ‘This is Ambrose...’

Ben Davis

Headteacher

Celebrating 60 Years of Outstanding Learning

1955 - 2015

REMEMBRANCE Next week sees us mark Remembrance Day with a week of special assemblies led by Year 8. Pupils have also been leading the collection of money through the sale of poppies and commemorative wristbands.

Thursday saw us host a conference of local teachers and business leaders looking at careers in the creative and digital industries. There were six speakers from different companies presenting on the opportunities in gaming, communications, fashion, design, animation, marketing and PR. Pupils were at the heart of the conference working as greeters and servers as well as benefiting from hearing about the industries. We focused particularly on how schools can work more closely with business and parents to plan the curriculum and ensure pupils are prepared for work. the conference was the brainchild of Miss Furey in partnership with the Comino Trust and the Ideas Foundation. CREATIVITY CONFERENCE

Tom Higgins from Laing O’Rourke spoke with Year 10 pupils about the opportunities available in the construction industry and fielded questions about the routes into employment. LAING O’ROURKE VISIT

PUPIL LEADERSHIP We have an extensive and talented pupil leadership team which is made up of the Head Boy and Head Girl and the Deputies. As of this week the team meets weekly with Mr. Davis, HT, to discuss issues and agree actions for change and improvement. This week we looked at ways of raising awareness of mental health and promoting pupils’ leadership across the school. November will be a focus month on mental health and associated issues.

We were pleased to have our long time collaborators Liz Forrester and Alison Watson of Class of Your Own in school looking at the work of the Design Engineer Construct course and the Year 7 architecture club. They were blown away by the pupils’ work. DESIGN ENGINEER CONSTRUCT!

Huge congratulations to the Year 11 Girls Hockey team who took top honours this week in the local competition. Sadly it was the last match of the season for the girls. year 11 girls hockey

year 7 & 9 cat tests Well done to all Year 7 and Year 9 pupils on completing their CAT tests this week. The staff who co-ordinated the tests were very complimentary about the behaviour and attitude of both groups of pupils.

Year 8 pupils begin their music project on World War 1 running in conjunction with the BBC Philharmonic, who will perform a new piece composed by Professor Davismoon on the evening of the 1st of July 2016. It is hoped that the pupil’s compositions will be played during lunchtime on the same day. Professor Davismoon, Director of Music and Dance at Salford University will lead this project in school. This exciting project will run over five forty-five minute sessions on Friday mornings. SALFORD AND THE SOMME MUSIC PROJECT

Sixth form work experience Students studying BTEC Health and Social Care begin their work experience next week with some pupils undertaking work at local care homes.

Congratulations to the pupils who undertook their speaking tests this week. Staff were very impressed at the quality of speaking and the depth of ideas on display with one teacher commenting that she would have awarded 12 out of 10 in many cases. Some Year 11s have volunteered to perform their speeches at assembly. year 11 english speaking tests

T H I S W E E K I N P I C T U R E S

LAING O’ROURKE VISIT; CREATIVITY CONFERENCE;

DESIGN ENGINEER CONSTRUCT! From top down: our team of ‘meeters and greeters’ on the door of the creativity conference on Thursday; Alison Watson with pupils looking at DEC and architecture; Tom Higgins of Laing O’Rourke with Year 10 pupils looking at plans and designs and talking construction industry careers.

I just wanted to say how impressed I was with the session yesterday, it was one of the best network sessions I have ever attended. I was truly inspired by everyone, it was so refreshing to see the ‘creatives’ being celebrated!!!

- participant in our Creative and Digital Industry Network Conference

“

PARIS TRIP In the last edition of the newsletter we reported on the half-term visit to Paris led by the Modern Languages department. Here a two pictures to give a flavour of the trip. The next jaunt is to Barcelona on December 12th.