All the news from St. Ambrose Barlow RC High School and Sixth Form College, Swinton, Salford, UK.
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To encourage and develop relationships between home, parish, school and the wider com Our Aim In accordance with our Mission Statement the School’s aim Faith and Worship To help us to grow spiritually as followers of Christ and as members of a C community: to make prayer, worship and liturgy central to school life. School and Community St. Ambrose Barlow RC High School WEEKLY NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 29TH 2016 Issue 11 IMPORTANT DATES & FORTHCOMING EVENTS Curriculum Evening March 2nd School Review Day March 7th Full Governing Body March 10th Easter Liturgy March 14th/15th Year 10 Parents' Evening March 16th School Closes for Easter March 18th Pupils return April 5th HOW GOOD IS OUR SCHOOL? This term has seen us increase the focus on evaluating our school as part of our 60th anniversary celebrations. We have been looking closely at a number of issues, gathering views and evidence (particularly from young people) and reflecting on our successes and areas for development. Monday, March 7th sees this process instensify as we hold a School Review Day. This involves a number of outside guests coming in to look at the school and give us their ideas and opinions. We are also meeting with groups of parents and will be issuing a number of surveys. We are very keen to hear from anyone who wishes to be involved in this process. 60 Celebrating 60 Years of Outstanding Learning 1955 - 2015
Transcript
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
FEBRUARY 29TH 2016 Issue 11
A National Teaching SchoolA National School of Creativity
ST AMBROSE BARLOW RC HIGH SCHOOL
open eveningdepartmental information
IMPORTANT DATES & FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Curriculum Evening March 2nd
School Review Day March 7th
Full Governing Body March 10th
Easter Liturgy March 14th/15th
Year 10 Parents' Evening March 16th
School Closes for Easter March 18th
Pupils return April 5th
HOW GOOD IS OUR SCHOOL?
This term has seen us increase the focus on evaluating our school as part of our 60th anniversary celebrations. We have been looking closely at a number of issues, gathering views and evidence (particularly from young people) and reflecting on our successes and areas for development.
Monday, March 7th sees this process instensify as we hold a School Review Day. This involves a number of outside guests coming in to look at the school and give us their ideas and opinions. We are also meeting with groups of parents and will be issuing a number of surveys. We are very keen to hear from anyone who wishes to be involved in this process.
Celebrating 60 Years of Outstanding Learning
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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
Very early on the first morning of the half-term holiday when most of us were safely tucked up, 35 intrepid Year 10 students and eight teachers headed off to New York. This trip has become a fixture in the school calendar and what a success it is. Students stayed in Manhattan, visited all the top galleries and museums, took in a show and a workshop on Broadway and still had time for shopping. It was a whirlwind few days and, as ever, our young people were outstanding representatives of the school. They were even treated to an audience with top artist John Burgerman.
They returned home after six days very happy and more than a little bit weary. You’ll be able to read more about it in our Easter magazine. Meanwhile, thanks to all the staff who led the trip and to all the pupils for being so good and such fun to be with. Oh, and you may have heard that they bumped into Kanye West.
NEW YORK TRIP
MANCHESTER CAMERATA We were delighted last week to welcome staff from acclaimed local orchestra the Manchester Camerata to the school to work with pupils from Year 9. The first workshop saw students sharing their skills and shedding their inhibitions with a variety of challenging and amusing activities. They also got the chance to try out various instruments and speak with professional musicians as a prelude to getting down the serious business of making music.
Year 7 Football Our Year 7 team are now the Salford Schools 6-a-side Champions, beating 16 other teams last week. This is the first trophy they have had to opportunity to win. Kanye Williams was crowned Player of the Tournament. Well done to their manager Mr Morrison.
The last day of term saw a very busy PSHE Super Day. Pupils from all years took part in a wide variety of activities looking at mental health, prejudice, healthy eating and lifestyles, careers and much more.
An enhancement this time was that a number of workshops were led by our students themselves.
Year 11 pupils led younger students through a variety of activities exploring mental health and welbeing, whilst students from our 6th form, who are currently studying towards a unit on Health and Nutrition, worked together to deliver several different sessions to Year 9 groups on the subject of Healthy Eating, including the topics of 'Under-nutrition', 'Sugar' and 'Fast Food'.
PSHE SUPER DAY
FORMER PUPIL SUCCESS
We were delighted to hear this week of the very successful start that former student Daniel Bateson has made in his career in the construction industry. Daniel has done 3 weeks of his 6 week Pathways placement with Laing O’Rourke and is doing fantastically well! Last week, he was on site at the United Utilities Davyhulme project. He produced some excellent work modelling a batching plant and even getting to grips with applying topography and levels. Impressed - you should be! Laing O’Rourke Global Director, John O’Connor said: ‘We are all extremely pleased with Daniel’s continued positive engagement and good progress. I am looking forward to seeing more good calibre entrants to the Laing O'Rourke team from St Ambrose.’
Josh Hart ROCKS You may remember in an earlier edition of the newsletter that we ran a piece on Year 8 pupil Josh Hart. This weekend he performed with his band Unknown Refuge and Band on the Wall in Manchester.They were the headline act and they absolutely rocked the house with ‘World On Fire’ by Slash and their original song ‘Wall of Lies’. The whole performance was full of energy and the response they got was very uplifting. They are already lined up for some charity gigs and we are looking at some appropriate festivals. Well done to Josh.
TEA WITH THE Mayor Representatives of our Student Council attended a special afternoon tea with Salford’s Mayor in recognition of the work we have done as a school to involve young people in democracy. We are at the early stages of becoming a Rights Respecting School and also have a candidate in the Youth Parliament elections. The students who met the Mayor were: Jake Rhodes-Clarke, Tamzin Palma, Grace Simcock and Oliver Webster.
My Ambrose Just before half-term we launched our new campaign to celebrate all that is good about St. Ambrose. Every month we will be publishing another instalment of the #MyAmbrose campaign where pupils past and present, as well as staff and parents, talk about the difference the school has made to them. You can view our first two contributors, Lauren and Logan here http://www.stambrosebarlowswinton.org/my-ambrose/
