Thriving, Highly Inclusive and Exciting Place
There is no doubt that New College is a thriving, highly inclusive and exciting place to be. All staff at the college have their students at the heart of all that they do. New College has been on an astonishing journey of improvement over the past few years and is now an extremely supportive place for students and staff. Staff all have exceptionally high expectations for their pupils and deliver equally interesting and engaging lessons to enable these students to achieve.
The Headteacher, Jane Brown stated, “we are all one family here, we know our students well, we understand their issues and appreciate the backgrounds that they all come from.” She articulated, “we have to take the whole school with us”.
The school was inspected by Ofsted in 2017 and it was noted that, “This is a rapidly improving school. The Principal and Governors have established a culture of high expectations of staff and pupils. The four core values of Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Resourcefulness support this culture.”
Provide a Rounded and Inspirational education
The school’s mission is to provide a rounded and inspirational education for all their young people. Their curriculum is driven through 4 main strategies: The Teaching and Learning Strategy; The Arts and Culture Strategy; The Sports and Physical Activity Strategy; The Health and Wellbeing Strategy. Underpinning these 4 strategies are the school’s 4 main values of Resilience, Respect, Responsibility and Resourcefulness. These values are fully embedded throughout the school and understood by all staff and pupils.
The detailed Sports and Physical Activity Strategy works with innovative partnerships and enables all pupils to take on sporting activities. All students in Year 7, 8 and 9 take a Physical Education (PE) ‘Theory in Sport’ qualification. This enables them to deepen their understanding of their bodies and remain fit and healthy.
Leaders at New College have developed this as a way to start to tackle the varying health issues that occur locally. All students access this learning no matter what their learning needs or difficulties are. All lessons are adapted accordingly, enabling them all to achieve this qualification.
New College supports all its families and students. It runs Breakfast Club every morning where students can access food. Leaders at the school have driven this inclusivity to their staff as well and have their own food donation point where staff can exchange food parcels as and when required. Teachers and support staff alike can eloquently talk about all the students in the school. They talk about them fondly and professionally. This was evidenced through the lesson visit that took place where students were seen to be highly engaged in their lessons.
All students were fully integrated, accessing the same learning activity with clear adaptations taking place to enable this immersion. The student’s behaviour throughout the school was exceptional. They were consistently well managed with the leadership team undertaking duties to cover all breaks enabling this consistency.
Staff at New College are fully supported with their own development through a professional development offer of extensive training programmes. These are clearly labelled with school leaders having the ability to check who has completed what. This bespoke training is then linked to each member of staff’s appraisal processes.
Students Clearly Proud of Their College
Students were clearly proud of their college and were able to talk articulately. They were particularly vocal around the inclusive nature of their college and their lessons. They stated that they had really enjoyed their time at the college, how caring their teachers were and how their lessons had been adapted to meet all of their varying needs. They mentioned that the teachers encourage them with their learning and how they feel supported at all times. This was evidenced throughout the day of the Flagship review. At no time were any raised voices heard through the college, there was a calm working atmosphere in classes and there was an overwhelming feeling of care and genuine love for each other from the staff towards the students. One of the students from the Student Parliament said that, “I am really proud of my teachers and how they show love and care for us all”.
The Governing body are fully informed about the college and how it is managing the students. They visit the college regularly and feed back to the Governing body each time they visit. The SEND Governor visits once a term and uses this time to analyse the SEND student reviews and analyses the gaps between them and non-SEND students. She submits a written report annually to the board. This Governor was very aware of the Flagship project running through the college and was incredibly supportive of this citizenship programme. The SEND Governor said, “The project is all about citizenship, it is integrated in the school life. It is all about inclusion, it is integral to the whole inclusion faculty. The school is inclusion. It has to be”. The Chair of Governors has written a book about the journey that this school has been on called “New College, Leicester – The city’s best kept secret”.
An Incredibly Dynamic Leadership Team
New College has an incredibly dynamic leadership team who are given the skills to evolve and grow. The Director of Learning and the visionary Headteacher are the driving force behind this impressive college.
The Headteacher ensures that between herself and her leadership team they know exactly what is required to guarantee that their students learn effectively. They are resolute in their pursuit of this. The Headteacher stated that, “this is one family; we are a family”.
New College is an exceptional place where students, staff and leaders really do flourish. No student is left behind here.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: info@iqmaward.com for further details.
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