The Kimberley School Newsletter December 2016 | Page 2

A Message from the Head Teacher - Andrew George
As we come to the end of my first term, I thought it would be useful to update you on the work that we have been doing.
I was appointed by Directors and Governors to ensure that The Kimberley School is a high performing school that
underpins excellent examination results with a wider range of opportunities which allow students to develop the
personal attributes that they will needs for a successful adult life. You will know that our challenge from Ofsted is
to accelerate the progress that students make from Key Stage 2 to GCSEs. Following the Ofsted report
there have been significant improvements in A-Level success and Kimberley is now the highest performing Sixth
Form centre in the area. However, those improvements have not yet been achieved in GCSE grades. I have been
tasked with driving significant improvements in GCSE outcomes and, during the first term, we have fundamentally
changed the way in which we work across all subject areas to ensure that students achieve, or even surpass, the
grades that they are capable of.
I have the highest possible aspirations for your children. I want to give them the opportunities that they need to
develop the wider personal attributes and I want to make sure that they have the best possible examination grades
when they leave school. The Kimberley School’s main aim is to enable all students to achieve or surpass their
academic and social potential. Examination success means that, no matter what path they choose, no doors will be
closed to them. Poor GCSE results closes doors to what students can do after Year 11 and it is crucial that parents
and school work together to do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen.
Every child in the school has now been set an aspirational target for what they will achieve in each GCSE. This
is based on them making outstanding progress from Key Stage 2 to the end of Year 11. This target is called “The
Kimberley School Target” and teachers across Years 7 to 11 will ensure that their teaching will give each child every
opportunity to achieve their KST. Parents will learn more about these targets and what your child needs to do to
achieve them, when they attend parents’ evenings throughout the year.
Teachers and subject areas are now working towards a very clear set of accountability targets which are based on
more and more students making outstanding progress. Planning, teaching and assessment are constantly being
adjusted so that students enjoy learning and make outstanding progress. Support staff are making intelligent use
of progress information to enable them to work across the school and alongside teachers to remove behaviour,
attendance and welfare obstacles to students making progress.
As part of our work in improving the progress, the students make, we will be moving away from a house based
pastoral system to a year structure from January 2017. We are doing this because we will be able to have one person
in each year group overseeing the social and academic progress of every child. These will be the Year Performance
Leaders who, along with the tutor team, will stay with their year group as they progress throughout the school. The
Year Performance Leader will work with tutors and other staff across the school to ensure that there is a positive ethos
for learning within their year group. They will use progress and behaviour data to ensure that when problems arise
they are solved quickly. We believe that this reorganisation will mean that we are much better placed to work with you
and your children to ensure that they are safe, happy and successful at The Kimberley School. This will not change your
child’s timetable or who teaches them. This change does not impact on students in Years 7 and 11 because they are
already in a year group structure.
Finally, you will also be interested to know that we are looking to improve the way
in which we work and communicate with you over issues around behaviour,
attendance and welfare. Our plan is to introduce a Student Support Team from
Easter 2017 that will work across the school to pre-empt or remove any
behaviour, attendance or welfare obstacles to success. They will be a
team of full-time non-teachers who will work quickly and proactively
to ensure that issues and concerns are resolved efficiently and
effectively. This involves us reorganising some roles within the school and we will be drawing on the skills and
experience of current staff. I am confident that this
will improve the way in which we communicate
and work with you; and I will set out these
changes to you later in the year.
This has been an interesting term
for staff across the school as we
have driven significant changes
that will, I am sure, lead to
improvements in GCSE examination
results for this year and many years
to come. Thank you for your continued
support as we make these changes. It
has been an absolute pleasure for me to
meet your children this term – they are a
credit to you and I am absolutely determined
to ensure that they receive the very best start in
life at The Kimberley School.