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

MAY 13th 2016 Issue 17

A National Teaching SchoolA National School of Creativity

ST AMBROSE BARLOW RC HIGH SCHOOL

open eveningdepartmental information

IMPORTANT DATES & FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Year 7 Parents’ Evening May 18th

Year 11 Leavers’ Mass May 23rd

School closes for half-term May 27th

School re-opens June 6th

Year 9 Retreat June 7th - 10th

Year 10 reviews June 13th -15th

Y6 Transition Days June 16th - 20th

Sports Presentation Evening June 16th

Malham Trip June 20th - 24th

New Intake Parents’ Evening June 22nd

Year 11 Prom July 1st

Y7 Conway trip July 4th - 8th

Year 10 Plas Menai July 11th - 15th

School closes July 15th

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

School Day Consultation Outcome The Governors met last week and decided to retain the current start time of 08:45, adding ten minutes to the school day so that it finishes at 15:25 from September. A letter has been issued.

SCIENCE PROJECTS Ever wondered what zombies eat or whether or not you can make plants grow by talking to them? Thought not. But our Year 9s have been doing just that kind of wild and crazy thinking with Miss Moore as part of a research project with the University of Manchester.

A group of pupils have each taken on a different topic for scientific research and will be seeing through their enquiry over the next few months. The work is already advanced and shows just how tenacious and inquisitive our pupils can be.

PSHE SUPER DAY Our most recent PSHE Super Day saw a wide range of activities running across the school. Year 11s completed their Records of Achievement, while other pupils learnt about issues such as homelessness with charity Coffee for Craig

Robots A group of Year 9 girls have been working with Mrs Taylor to design, develop and build robots. This is part of a collaboration between the school and the University of Manchester called Tinker, Tailor, Robot, Pi. It explores the use of code in creating robots and brings together skills in a number of areas of the curriculum.

The robots that the class have created each have a unique design based on insects. Mrs. Taylor is also creating musical instruments using the same process for a Robot Orchestra.

6th form Volunteers A group of our sixth formers worked with the charity Disabled Living on their Kidz to Adultz Exhibitions project the other day. The charity provides impartial advice on equipment and services for adults, children and other people with disabilities.

Our students have been working in their Wednesday afternoon enrichment time to help with mailing out event tickets to build awareness amongst those who may benefit from attending.

Assemblies We have enjoyed a week of assemblies from various groups of pupils, led by Miss Byrne and Mrs. Grindley in Geography, on the topic of the forthcoming EU Referendum. The assemblies presented very detailed and unbiased information about the referendum to raise awareness in pupils about the choices facing those of voting age.

Waterstones TRIP We are well on our way to establishing the school library and this week we took a big leap forward. Already we have huge numbers of books donated by pupils, staff and families to augment our existing stock. We added to that on Thursday when the pupil group leading the library development were taken by Mrs. Feay to Waterstones on Deansgate, Manchester, to select stock for the library. They came back with hundreds of volumes and very fired-up about the next steps which include bespoke, pupil-designed artwork for the space. Mrs. Feay commented: ‘It was a lovely day at the book shop and staff were very help and friendly commenting on how excellent our pupils were. I can’t believe it’s my job to get to do something like this!’

Creativity Conference On Thursday we hosted a conference on the creative industries for pupils from St. Ambrose Barlow and Failinge High School. The conference was entitled Next Generation and encouraged pupils to consider the ways in which they could be part of the creative industries (which are worth £8bn to the UK economy) in the future. Speakers included representatives from the worlds of music, journalism, digital design, marketing, fashion and much more. Next week we will feature the pupils who attended evaluating the day.

Charity We’ve raised quite a lot of money for various different charities over the past few months. The totals are as follows:

Autumn Term: £1782.69Spring Term: £1683.43

Total: £3446.12*

OUR SCHOOL THIS WEEK above: the robots made by year 9s in mrs Taylor’s class; below: mrs taylor’s impressive robot drum powered by code.

OUR SCHOOL THIS WEEK hungry? you should be. this was made by roisin in year 7. A future bake off champion surely.

OUR SCHOOL THIS WEEK Years 7 & 8 leading assemblies about the Eu referendum; sixth formers helping out disabled living.

OUR SCHOOL THIS WEEK the pshe day. top: year 11 pupils leading activities through drama; middle: the office girls perform to year 8 and year 9; bottom: working with coffee for craig on homelessness