Page 2 and 3

• Ofsted 2007—what the report is saying

Pages 4 and 5

• Ofsted quotes

Page 6

• French play

• Dates for your diary

Page 7

• Shoe appeal

• Comic Relief

• Sudoku Page 8

• Geography fieldtrips

• Sudoku solution

June 2007

OFSTED

2007 NOTICE

TO

IMPROVE?

PLEASE

NOTICE WE

ARE

IMPROVING!

OFSTED ISSUE

NB: training day—29th June 2007— Ofsted action planning

Background to the inspection

In January 2006, I outlined two priorities in my first ever newsletter as

headteacher:

‘There are many factors which affect a school’s improvement. Among

these, getting the behaviour and ethos right will be my first step’

and

‘… my first priority is to year eleven. There is much to be done to ensure

that all of these students leave us in the summer with the maximum number

of qualifications and feel that their time with Kings Norton High has been

rewarding.’

Those two promises were kept. In such a short period of time, it is

impossible to improve everything and so key stage three (years 7 to 9) had to

take a lower priority because we knew these students had a longer time with

us in which to meet targets.

What the Ofsted report tells us

It tells us exactly what we already knew:

• we have made some significant improvements

• attainment and achievement at GCSE is above average (60% 5 A*-Cs)

• behaviour has improved

• we have good capacity to improve even further

In other words, the inspection team said lots of really positive and

encouraging things about our progress.

OFSTED 2007—WHAT THE REPORT IS SAYING

They gave us a ‘Notice to improve’ however, because:

• our key stage three results last year were poor, especially English and

maths

• children’s attendance was far too low

Why was achievement poor for key stage three?

• because although we now have qualified staff, for some time there

were not enough strong and experienced teachers in school—indeed

until September 2006 we had only one qualified maths teacher and

only two qualified English teachers so standards suffered

• poor attendance always affects achievement

What needs to be done?

• we need to focus on achievement in maths and English, especially in

key stage three—and we are fully staffed for September 2007

• you need to ensure that your children achieve at least 95% attendance

SO WHAT NOW?

Please, please read the WHOLE report. You will then under-

stand why the Ofsted team were confident that when they return in a

year’s time they will see all of our targets met.

NB: We will be having an Ofsted action-planning training day on 29th

June to address our key issues and prepare ourselves for the summer break’s

lesson planning.

“Your children are stars” was just one of the com-

ments made by the lead inspector to Denise Burns,

Headteacher, during the recent Ofsted inspection.

Turn over to see more quotes from the report …..

STUDENTS and STAFF

“

”

SCHOOL

4th – 26th June GCSE exams

Friday 29th June training day—Ofsted action planning

Wednesday 4th July Year 6 induction day & evening

Tuesday 17th July Drayton Manor trip (years 7-10)

Thursday 19th July review day

Friday 20th July sports day (to be confirmed)

Friday 20th July school finishes for the summer

Monday 3rd September training day

Tuesday 4th September school opens for Year 7

Tuesday 4th September year 10 work experience

Wednesday 5th September School opens for years 8—11

Qu’est-ce que je vais faire? On the 19th of April professional

French actors came to school to

perform a play for all year 8 pupils.

The production was fabulous, very

visual and incredibly funny. The

pitch was

just right

and the

students are

still talking

about how

much they

enjoyed it! Students commented, "I

was so involved in the play I hardly

noticed it was in French!"

As well as an exciting change to the

schoo l day , the Language

Department hope that the

performance will have helped pupils

to further understand the use of

words and phrases learned in lessons

and develop their confidence in

using new expressions.

Year 8 pupils’ enthusiasm, conduct

and polite

manner was

noted by the

actors. Our

a u d i e n c e

g a v e a

s u p e r b

reaction and were a real credit to

the school.

M.H. Dione

Teacher in Charge of MFL

Dates For Your Diary

We want your old shoes and trainers. It doesn’t matter about the condi-tion they are in. Don’t put them in the bin because we can recycle them. H e l p t h e e n v i r onmen t , community, and others with little

effort. Please give them to your children to bring in, or you can drop them of f yourself to our lovely recep-tion staff at KNHS. Thank you

Shoe Appeal

9 2

3 1 9 7

9 1 5 5 4 6 9

7 4 6 5 3 2

2 6 1 7

1 3 2

5 9 2 3

7 1

All you have to do is use your powers of elimination to fill in the grids. Place the numbers one to nine in each vertical and horizontal line. Each number must appear only once in each line. But - and here’s the tricky bit - they must also appear only once in each 3x3 grid.

In the last newsletter, we mentioned our Comic Relief celebrations which took place on the 16th March. Now that the total of all the money raised has been calculated, we can reveal the exact amount that was given to Comic Relief. PE £9.27 Food £43.90 LSC £80.11 Total £133.28

Comic

Relief

9 7 1 5 6 2 4 8 3

5 8 3 4 1 9 2 7 6

4 2 6 3 8 7 9 1 5

3 1 5 2 7 4 8 6 9

7 4 8 6 9 5 1 3 2

2 6 9 1 3 8 7 5 4

1 3 2 8 4 6 5 9 7

6 5 7 9 2 1 3 4 8

8 9 4 7 5 3 6 2 1

Geography Field Trips

• Year 7 students enjoyed a trip to Bridgnorth. Their enthusiasm and un-

derstanding was commented on by one of the people working with them

who described them as ‘perfect pupils’. The highlight of the day was un-

doubtedly the cliff railway

• A group of year 8 student spent a day studying flooding and tourism in

Ironbridge. They worked very hard and behaved impeccably.

• A selection of students from year 9 and year 10 enjoyed a day in Much

Wenlock working with students from The University of Birmingham. Their

polite manner and hard work meant they were a real credit to the school.