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News from the School
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The last 12 months have been a truly remarkable period in the long history of our school. In just
one year we have achieved numerous accolades, achieved stunning examination
results and in September we had a very successful OFSTED inspection. It has
been twelve months that any school in the country would have been extremely
proud of.
As mentioned in my last letter, we were delighted with the 2009 GCSE results.
Every one of the students achieved at least 5 GCSE passes. That
’s a remarkable achievement and I believe that we are the first non selective
school in Kirklees to achieve this. Our 5+A*
–C results of 82% are by far the best in the history of the school and they are
the best in the whole of Kirklees. In the other statistic that the government
uses, 5+A*
–C grades (including English and Mathematics), we achieved yet another record of
64%.
They were a wonderful set of results and the progress of our current Year 11
suggest that these newly achieved records could well be broken. We have made
extraordinary progress over the last few years and we are all confident that
this progress will continue for many years to come.
OFSTED visited the school on the 28th and 29th September. Their verdict was that
King James
’s was a ‘Good’ school whose capacity for sustained improvememt was also ‘Good’. The opening sentence of the report was ‘This is a good and improving school where students of all abilities and from all
backgrounds are happy and achieve well.
’
The following are other quotes from the OFSTED report:
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lStudents are well cared for and safeguarding arrangements are exemplary. As a
result, students feel safe and say how much they enjoy the friendly atmosphere
around school.
lStudents enjoy their learning and show respect for each other and their
teachers.
lAs a result of the good teaching they receive, students make good progress
during their time in school, reaching levels of attainment that are above the
national level.
lHighly committed staff provide well-targeted care and support to meet the needs
of all students.
lExtra-curricular activities are a strength of the school and participation rates
are high. In
particular, the many sporting activities are much appreciated by students and
make an important contribution to developing healthy lifestyles.
lThe school’s track record in improving students’ achievement, together with its accurate self-assessment, comprehensive and
detailed plans for further improvement and the whole-hearted commitment of the
staff, indicate that the school is well placed for further improvement.
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We feel that the report is a fair reflection of our school. It vindicates all
the hard work that our staff, governors and students have done over the last
few years. The Inspectors felt that we should be very proud of the progress
that we had made and they fully expect that by the time of their next
inspection we will be an
‘Outstanding’ school. You can all be assured that we will certainly be striving to achieve
that.
Sport continues to flourish at the school. Both the Year 9 and the Year 10
Football teams are having excellent seasons winning all their games quite
comfortably. However, probably the major news has been the success of our
Intermediate Girls Cross Country team who qualified for the national final at
Newquay. This was a major achievement considering that there are approximately
5,000 secondary schools in the country.
Finally I would like to thank you all for the wonderful support you give the
school and on behalf of the students, staff and governors I wish you all a
belated happy and prosperous New Year.
Robert Lamb
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