Parent Forum - Thursday 19 November Staff present: Lisa Croke

Parent Forum - Thursday 19 November
Staff present: Lisa Croke (Headteacher), Fiona Eddie (Director of Inclusion and
Behaviour for Learning) and April Rosedon (note taker)
Parents: The meeting was attended by 14 parents.
Ms Croke welcomed all to the meeting and explained that she wanted to speak
about her background, ethos and vision for the school, and was also keen to hear
the views of the parents present, and their ideas about the future development of the
school.
Whilst speaking about her experience in her previous schools, Ms Croke suggested
that parents might like to take a look at the website of The Beacon School, in
Banstead, to see the ethos and some of the things Ms Croke aiming for here.
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Parent Forum - Thursday 19 November
Ms Croke has always worked in comprehensive schools which had a lot of work to
do to get to where they needed to be. Ms Croke’s success has been about creating
opportunities to develop the ‘whole child’ as well as helping them to achieve
academically.
Ms Croke made reference to the school’s strapline ‘Achieving Excellence Together’,
and how students, staff and governors voted for this among a number of other
suggestions. A parent voiced concern about how children who don’t see themselves
as high achievers can relate to this strapline, and a number of other parents said
they see ‘excellence’ as being the best effort from that particular child, and is also
about their interests and not just academic.
Moving on to her vision for the school Ms Croke described it as a jigsaw puzzle with
lots of pieces, there is lots to do, and the urgency means that we can’t work on one
thing at a time, but have to ‘spin lots of plates’ at the same time.
Ms Croke added that there are a number of current strengths that needed to be
recognised whilst formulating the plan to achieve her vision:
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Parent Forum - Thursday 19 November
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Maths - top 25% of schools – ambitions are to build on A’s and A*s.
Technology
o very strong
o unusual in the present climate in schools
o important subject for many students and careers
Ms Croke added that it is essential to recognise that we are not just a sports college,
and that, in order to demonstrate this she is considering a name change for the
school in the future, leaving out the specialism as it can be misleading.
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Geography very strong
Music really improved this year
Drama above national average
Art very strong
Careers – lots of advice, visits to Colleges etc.
Ms Croke added that the cohort were slightly below national average when they
came in so the above results are even better.
In moving on to new developments at the College Ms Croke drew attention to lots of
work which has also been initiated since she started in April:
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Parent Forum - Thursday 19 November
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KS 4 being taught in 9, 10 and 11 for a depth of understanding
Students now take lots of exams, but not early entry as it is better for them to
study longer and take when they are more mature
Options choices are supported by meetings with parents – begins in March /
April, so that it is not rushed
Increasing leadership capacity – recruited 2 more Deputy Headteachers. This
will enable responsibilities to be divided and increase the quality of teaching
and learning, which will be the focus for Mrs Hayes
Mr Beck becomes the Raising Standards Leader and will focus on groups of
students and how they progress
Mr Prankerd (when he joins us) will focus on KS3 - getting everything right
early on in the behaviour for learning, ready for KS4
Books – need to go home to do homework. The new marking policy includes
opportunity for student response and a dialogue between the students and
teacher.
Lead Practitioner in History starts in January. We are recruiting good quality
teachers to promote outstanding practice in the school
KS 3 exams, this will be good practice for students and should alleviate some
of the nerves when they get to GCSEs
Working with Wildern on A-A* master class, we will be sharing our good
practice in Maths
PiXL results are better among schools who are members. We share ideas
and strategies eg mentoring skills, walking talking mocks (for practice) and
use of data
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Parent Forum - Thursday 19 November
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Continuing with the new developments introduced at the school - Curriculum
Evenings designed to inform parents / carers, however, 60 to 70 parents
attended, which is disappointing. The evaluations from those who attended
have been good
Parent / Carer Q: Can we bring children with us? Response: Yr 7 found it
a really long evening. Older students really liked it though and found it
helpful, it’s good for parents to see it with their children. It’s also useful for
children to attend Parents’ Evenings with parents
The redesign of the website aims are two-fold, parents able to find info
quickly, and better quality info
The new entrance allows us to welcome students into the school, and check
they have everything they need, arrange calls home etc.
We are working with the LA to look at ways of making the site more secure eg
fencing and entry gate on a buzzer. There would need to be a pavement in
Satchel Lane if the site was closed off to members of the public
This would also allow us to separate the site from The Hype – we have
concerns about the behaviour around Hype
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Parent Forum - Thursday 19 November
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There have been lots of comments on how uniform has improved – really
making progress. Want students to be proud, want people to get the right
impression of them
We will continue to move students out of the school and onto alternative
education to prevent poor behaviour hampering the learning of others
Breakfast offer from 8am to 8.20am – there has been a big uptake
Parent / Carer Concern: Big issue with queuing for lunch as when some
children get to the front, the last hot meal has gone. Response: HC3S have
put in a new Catering Manager who has identified issues with the food and
now, with queues, she is working on solutions eg notice boards as children
don’t always know which queue to join. Because the food offer has improved
eg pasta and roasts, the numbers queuing have increased and on some days
they are running out. ACTION: The Bursar is working with the Catering
Manager to ensure improvements continue eg screens around the
school? (MBE)
Parent / Carer Concern: Would like guidance to steer students away from
eg 2 pieces of cake and onto better choices. Response: The kitchen staff do
normally do this ACTION: Bursar to talk to Catering about healthy
choices (MBE)
Parent / Carer Suggestion: Would like to be able to come in and have a
meal with their child. Response: Unfortunately we have limited space, and
can only just get the required number of tables in the Hall, so regrettably this
is not currently possible. However, we are having a meeting with the LA
about facilities and dining areas
The menu is on a monthly cycle and is on Hampshire’s website, along with
nutritional content information ACTION: Put a link on HCSC website (MBE)
Lots of ideas coming from students about what they would like and when
There will be a 2 course Christmas Lunch over 2 days on 16 and 17
December at a cost of £2.50
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Parent Forum - Thursday 19 November
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Parent / Carer Q: Is the library closed on wet break days? Response: No,
books can be returned and exchanged etc. different buildings are assigned to
each year group for wet breaks and London is Year 11, so this could be
where the confusion comes from
Parent / Carer Suggestion: There needs to be more marketing of extracurricular clubs etc. Response: Ms Croke agreed that a booklet is needed
and the website should be kept up-to-date (NNN)
Parent / Carer Concern: There is no football for Yr 8 until next year? This
should be continuous. Response: In order to do that we may need to
bring extra football coaches in and there would be a charge, we will look
into it (LCE)
CPL – re entries for Karting competition - contacted Mr Curthoys said
he had to speak to the Head – not come back yet. Ms Croke to follow up
Students of the school were offered free tickets for Hamble Players but there
was no take-up
Visit to Shanghai, China for 10 to 12 students next year - cultural experience.
Parent / Carer Concern: Don’t like ‘achieving excellence together’
Response: Not about A and A* it’s about rewarding all things, eg citizenship
type things, progress, a wide range of things. We want to show an inclusive
ethos about the school – community school. Everyone should be included
and valued
Parent / Carer Concern: Feel that The Voice is targeted toward higher
achievers – eg A G & T. Response: The Voice includes all sorts of
achievements and information from every department, extra-curricular, and
interests that take place unrelated to school. There is no intention to direct it in
this way, however we will check this going forward
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Parent Forum - Thursday 19 November
Ms Croke drew attention to the plans for the future:
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Rewards system – students have been working on this, some very good ideas
around doing the right thing in lessons
Parent / Carer Q: What is your relationship like with local schools?
Response: I have reinstated Cluster Heads Meeting just last week. Our PE
staff go into the Juniors already, there are cross-country competitions etc. Mr
Stacey has been appointed coordinator of the primary / secondary
partnership. We are discussing doing joint productions, and are starting to
work much more closely
HCSC numbers are up for 2016’s Yr 7, and we will continue to build on the
good work that is happening. We are also sharing ideas, our teachers can
learn from primary and vice versa
A Parent /Carer commented on the disappointing turn-out for the meeting, and
it was felt that if more parents engaged with the Parent Forum the good
feeling would spread
Parents’ Evening can also be a disappointing turn-out. The school sends
letters, emails, text messages encouraging parents and carers to come along
Parent Carer Question: YR 10 English is now a mixed ability class, what is
the thinking behind this? Response: Current advice is that the higher ability
students will help the lower because they are listening to the talk in the class.
Our initial findings are good but we are watching carefully
Our Science teachers are all full-time permanent and the department are
doing really well, some children going up 2 to 3 grades
IT – HoD resigned on last day so we could not advertise at that point, it was
too late to recruit. We now have a new starter for January – excellent quality
ICT and Computing – lucky to get someone of this calibre
In January extra support for Yr 11 will be in place again
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Parent Forum - Thursday 19 November
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Parent / Carer Question: What is iGCSE – is there anything parents can
help with? Response: there is a power-point walk-thru of the exam. Ms
Croke said we will get something sent out from the department
It stands for ‘International GCSE’ – traditionally used by private schools but a
lot of state schools use it now
Parents / Carers asked if there could be some recognition for the hard work Yr
11 have been putting in, they liked the certificates we gave recently, and
stickers etc. Suggested something special for Yr 11
Parents said that their Yr11 children have been telling their parents that they
really enjoy the after school interventions
Ms Croke asked for suggestions of topics for future meetings, and was asked for
more sessions on changes and what parents can do to support their children in the
changes.
The meeting was brought to a close and Ms Croke thanked everyone for attending
and asked that they spread the word, to help us to increase numbers next time.
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