St. John’s Middle School

A Church of England Academy

I would like to sincerely welcome you toSt. John’s Church of England Middle School. Ihope you find our prospectus informative andhelpful and that it gives you an accurateinsight into all aspects of the life of our school.

St. John’s is an excellent school which offersthe children a warm, vibrant, lively, and safelearning environment where they can grow into confident young people, having developedtheir full potential during their four yearsat our school. The school fosters an ethosof personal achievement, responsibility,leadership and mutual respect for allmembers of our community. We are veryproud of our pupils who show a maturity andresponsibility above and beyond their years.They are polite, happy, and show a love oflearning.

Our staff are totally committed to offeringthe children every opportunity to enable themto develop both academically and socially.The plethora of enrichment and after-schoolactivities and clubs is testament to thiscommitment. Academically, our schoolachieves excellent results in terms of bothprogress and attainment, this was validatedby Ofsted in March 2012 when the schoolreceived a judgement of outstanding in allcategories.

The school has first-rate facilities including agymnasium, two I.C.T. suites, three Art andTechnology rooms, a music suite and twoscience laboratories. These are used as part ofeveryday curriculum studies but also for the

vast array of extra-curricular activities availablefor the children. We have a school orchestra,choir, rock band, an abundance of sports clubsand activities such as Yoga Club, Eco Club,I.C.T. Club and Drama Club for those childrenwho are not so keen on sport.

We are a church school and are extremelyproud of the strong links we have withour local church and the caring Christianenvironment we endeavour to nurture atSt. John’s, we also attained a judgement of‘outstanding’ for our Church Ofsted in June2012. We encourage a close partnership withparents, as it is only by working together thatwe will achieve the best possible outcomesfor our children.

Since gaining outstanding we have continuedto move forward. We achieved Academystatus in February 2013 and are now on thejourney to becoming a Teaching School,although initially we will be a strategic partnerwith South Bromsgrove High School in thisventure.

I continue to be excited and energised by thefuture of our school and would be delightedif you chose to visit us in the near future.

Very best wishes,

Headteacher

Welcome

Our mission statement aims to encapsulateour ethos, all that we are and all that we aretrying to be at St. John’s. We spent a greatdeal of time when writing this statement, welooked at those from other schools, hadnumerous meetings and a number ofworking groups, including a working partyfrom our Governing Body. Eventually it wastime to ‘bite the bullet’ and put pen topaper.

What you see below is written from theheart, it is also written with passion and adesire to fulfil our pledges to all those whoare part of our school community.

At St. John’s Church of England Schoolour mission is to be a school whereevery individual in our community

is valued and where care and concernfor others is key.

We will be guided by theChristian values of love, forgiveness,

justice, faith, integrity, peace,reconciliation and prayer.

We will expect all our pupils to‘Give of their Best’,

achieve their full potential,be good citizens and respect difference

in our growing global world.

Our pupils demonstrate these qualitiesin shed loads. We have House Captainswho take responsibility for organisingteams for various inter-house competitionsthroughout the year. School CouncilRepresentatives who take a lead role indecisions that impact on school life, ourprefects support staff to monitor behaviourin and around school and our YoungLeaders work out and about in our localcommunity of schools. These are to namebut a few.

When Ofsted visited, the confidenceand maturity with which our childrenconducted themselves was noted andone Inspector commented that he felthe had been interviewed and inspectedrather than vice-versa!

Ethos and Mission Statement

Academic attainment and achievement atSt. John’s was recognised by Ofsted in March2012 as being outstanding, achievementbeing the progress the children make fromentry to exit during the four years they areat St. John’s. Attainment is the levels theyreach at key points of assessment, namelythe end of Year 6 and the end of Year 8,although term-on-term and year-on-yearattainment are also equally important.

When children come to St. John’s we useFirst School assessment levels and our ownassessment tasks to set a baseline level inreading, writing and mathematics. Progressis then measured termly and children areexpected to make two sub levels of progresseach year – this is a very high expectationbut over 90% of our pupils achieve thistarget.

Progress is also measured in the foundationsubjects at school level but is not reportedon nationally.

While we recognise academic achievementis very important we also celebrateachievement in the Arts and on the SportsField. Our sports teams are very successfulboth at an inter-school level and at County

and Regional level. There are also a numberof inter house competitions which give allpupils the opportunity to participate andhave some fun – the house systemengenders a real healthy rivalry and teacheschildren to celebrate success but also to losegracefully.

We have a school orchestra, rock band andchoir and during the Summer Term havean inter-house Music and Dance Festival.We showcase the winners of each class toparents at the end of the Summer Term inan Evening Performance – the standardpresented by such young performers isalways stunning. We also join with theorchestra from South Bromsgrove HighSchool at Christmas for a fantastic workshopwhich culminates in a magical performanceof Christmas music and carols.

Our pupils enter public speakingcompetitions, the district ‘Poetry Slam’, theCounty annual Voices and Visions eventand many other events where they canshowcase their talents.

Needless to say we are duly proud of themand they never let us down.

Academic Attainment and Achievement

Here at St. John’s we have opted to keep atraditional curriculum but deliver the individualsubject content very creatively. So for examplein English in Year 8 you might meet groups ofchildren script writing and filming in variouslocations around the school as they are in theprocess of producing their very own ‘SoapOpera’. If you were visiting Year 7 Englishduring the Autumn Term you might be met bya Dragon in a Den with children trying toconvince him or her to invest in their product!

In Maths there is a significant emphasis on highlevel investigational and problem solvingactivities in all year groups once children havegrasped the basics and are able to build onthese very important skills – learning tablesnever went out of fashion at St. John’s!

We have strong links with schools in Franceand the majority of our pupils have Frenchpenfriends. They get an opportunity to practisetheir French practically in Year 6 if they choseto go on the school trip to Paris.

Walk past the Music room and you will beoften welcomed by a cacophony of soundranging from African drumming, to key boardcomposition or wonderful singing.

In all the foundation subjects our children arefortunate to be given a vast array of excitingand thought provoking learning experienceswhich will endeavour to give them a love oflearning and depth of understanding thatcannot be learnt from a text book.

Curriculum and Enrichment

Subject Leaders

At St. John’s we have a subject leader for everycurriculum area. They are obviously passionateabout their subjects and they monitor,evaluate, and review the teaching and learningthroughout the year to ensure all subjects aredelivered to the very highest of standards.

Teaching and Learning

Pupils are encouraged to develop both asindependent learners and also to work ingroups, to lead group activities and to workcollaboratively. Teachers support the learningby high level questioning which ensureschildren are reflective, can give reasonedanswers and are able to evaluate their work –and are indeed able to enter into a learningdialogue with their teachers. The use ofquestioning to promote pupil understandingand communication skills was recognised byOfsted to be a real strength of the school.

Assessment for learning is built into all aspectsof the curriculum and while teachers use thisto assess the learning and progress of theirpupils, the pupils themselves are increasinglyable to self-assess and also assess and level thework of their peers. This is very empoweringand enables the pupils to understand the levelat which they are working and what they needto do to improve.

Extra-curricular Activities

All teachers at St. John’s believe it is importantto give pupils as many opportunities as possiblebeyond the classroom.

There are a vast array of extra-curricular activitiesthat our students are encouraged to try. Theserange across the whole spectrum, in addition tothe usual main stream sports there are moremarginal activities on offer such as Hoola HoopClub, Yoga Club and Cheer Leading Club.

For the non-sporty there are other options,French Club, ICT Club and Drama Club to namebut a few. For the musically able Choir, Orchestraand Rock Band Club are a well-established partof life at St. John’s.

A residential visit is offered in each year andthis gives our pupils the opportunity to testthemselves physically, emotionally and sociallyaway from the school environment. “That wasthe best trip ever!” is a phrase we hear regularlyfrom pupils.

All children have differing needs and thesecan range from those who find some aspectsof learning difficult to those who are consideredto be ‘gifted’. For children who may needadditional support to make good progressthere is a huge range of interventions,resources and expertise available.

How do we identify which children needadditional support?

Many children come to us from their respectiveFirst Schools already identified as having aspecial need. Before pupils transfer we aremade aware through:

• Liaison Meetings

• Our Head of Year 5 visits the school ofevery pupil to ensure we will understandtheir needs from the very start.

• The SENCo (Special Education Needs Co-ordinator), member of the SLT (Special Leadership Team) or our HLTA (Higher LevelTeaching Assistant) will aim to attend any Annual Review Meetings of Year 4 children known to be transferring to Year 5.

The PadNew to St. John’s is the new fabulous resourcebase, opened by Sajid Javid M.P. in March2013. This has state of the art ICT facilities,a comfortable teaching space, a cosy ‘chill out’area, the SENCo and HLTA’s office and a ParentsMeeting Room. Children can go to the ‘The Pad’for extra one to one or group support, bespokeinterventions or to relax in lunchtime club ifthey don’t feel up to the hustle and bustle ofthe playground.

Meeting Individual Needs

Facilities

St. John’s School was built in 1903 but step insideand you will without doubt think you are mostdefinitely in the 21st century. This is due to theextensive refurbishment and buildings improvementprogramme which has been on-going for the lastseven years and which continues to be planned andimplemented.

The ICT infrastructure is second to none for a MiddleSchool, with two fully equipped bespoke ICT roomsand wireless Wi-Fi connection throughout the schoolsupported by two full-time technicians. All classroomsare equipped with interactive whiteboards and thehall boasts fixed stage lighting, an inbuilt musicsystem and a 4 x 3 metre ‘drop down’ screen –excellent for watching any world cup footballmatches!

The specialist teaching areas include an art room,music room, two science laboratories, a foodtechnology room and a design technology room. Addto this a superb additional needs facility with its ownextensive outside play area and a fantastic fictionlibrary – ‘The Pod’ as it is known by the pupils and youcan begin to visualise the super learning environmentavailable to our children.

Step outside and it is immediately apparent that thechildren have a great deal of outside space to enjoy.Football and rugby pitches in the winter, roundersand an athletics track in the summer and a very largeplayground with four netball pitches and 5-a-sidefootball areas. In addition to this, artificial grass areashave been laid, which can be used by the children allyear round.

On entry all pupils are assessed in Englishand Maths using various assessment testsand tasks and are CAT tested (Externallymarked Cognitive Ability Tests). Thesesometimes show something that has not beenidentified previously.

We do believe that partnership with parents isvital to a child’s success and we want to hearyour views about your child, involve you andyour child in decisions about their educationand will aim to keep you informed about theirprogress and what they need to do to makefurther progress.

There is a team of Teaching Assistants whowork with the children both within their classlessons, with small groups and occasionally ona one to one basis. Our Teaching assistants arehighly skilled and have chosen to specialise inone or more aspects of additional needs,including dyslexia, dyspraxia, speech andlanguage.

We also have our own Social Inclusion andFamily Support Manager who works closelywith our SENCo, CPO (Child Protection Officer),the teaching assistants and a newly designatedpastoral support mentor for KS2 pupilsexperiencing difficulties, specifically on entryand in Key Stage 2.

On entry

Our children come from a large number ofFirst Schools from both within Bromsgroveand also from the surrounding area, onaverage we take from between 16 and 22first and primary schools each year.

To ensure the children feel confident andexcited about the transition from first tomiddle school we have rigorous inductionprogrammes. These focus on making thechildren feel happy and secure about themove and also on knowing the children’sabilities and strengths before they arriveat St. John’s. We recognise it may bemore difficult for children from small ruralfirst schools so they have additionalopportunities and transition activities in theSummer Term before transfer. There arealso further events and visits for childrenwho have additional needs.

Invariably the children take to their newschool like a ‘duck to water’ and Mum andDad soon realise all their worries wereunfounded!

The children then spend their first two yearsin Upper Key Stage 2 in Years 5 and 6.

On entry the children are put into five formgroups with a form teacher who is usuallythe first point of contact for parents. Theirform teacher will try to ensure they have asmooth transfer to Middle School and helpthem to settle in and feel confident in theirnew environment. At the end of Year 6 theytake their Key Stage 2 Standard AssessmentTests, more commonly known as S.A.Ts.

Key Stage 3

At the end of Year 6 they move in to KeyStage 3 and go through Year 7 and 8, this inreality is a two year Key Stage because atSouth Bromsgrove High School and NorthBromsgrove High School the children beginKey Stage 4 in Year 9 , this gives them anadditional year for G.C.S.Es.

In Key Stage 3 the children change to a farmore secondary based curriculum inreadiness for transition to High School. Theyare in the main taught by specialist teachersin the foundation subjects, are expected todo more homework and tend to have littletime being taught in their form room.

Moving in...

At the end of Year 8 the majority of pupilsmove onto South Bromsgrove High Schoolwith about 10 percent of pupils choosing to goto North Bromsgrove High School. We alsohave a small number of our children who movein to the private sector and are delighted to saythat we are working increasingly in Partnershipwith Bromsgrove School and a growingnumber of our pupils have secured bursariesand scholarships to their Upper School whichstarts in Year 9.

And moving on...

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Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham, guest of honour at ourPrize Giving Evening with the winners of the Tomlinson trophies for 2013.

Watt Close, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire B61 7DH

Tel: (01527) 832376 Fax: (01527) 570258

Email: school@st-johns-bromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk www.st-johns-bromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk