Neatherd High School: The Creation of Dereham Neatherd Sixth Form Frequently Asked Questions (Issued to students on Thursday) 1. When will this happen? September 2016. 2. Which students will it affect? Prospective students and current Year 12 students. Year 13 students will not be affected. 3. Where will teaching take place? Mainly at the College Site. Where specialist facilities will enhance learning, these will be used at the main site, as they are already for music and drama. 4. How will it affect current students? Students will continue to study the same courses. Our aim is to make the transition as seamless as possible so that students can continue to focus on their studies with improved teaching and support. 5. Who will be teaching students? Once we know which students will be in the Sixth Form and their chosen option, we will construct a timetable showing the teachers students will have. Teachers will come from Neatherd as well as those staff currently employed by Neatherd who teach full time at the College. 6. Who will be the tutors? Tutor groups will be arranged to support students along different curriculum pathways. Tutors will be chosen from Neatherd Staff currently at the Sixth Form and in the main school. 7. Who will lead the Sixth Form? A key leader in the Sixth Form team will be Mr J. Mallett, currently Assistant Headteacher: Intervention and Curriculum. Further appointments are being finalised. We will work with senior staff at the College, who are part of Neatherd’s staff to find the best solution. We have a very strong, stable leadership team at Neatherd, with scope to take on different responsibilities. 8. What happens next? We will see individual students to verify their commitment to Neatherd Sixth Form. This applies to current Year 11 Neatherd Students and Year 12 students on Neatherd’s roll. We will also write to each prospective student not on roll at either of the Dereham High schools to see if they wish to join the Neatherd Sixth Form. We aim to meet students who intend to join us. Year 12 students not on Neatherd’s roll will not be canvassed; it will be for them to approach the school for consideration. 9. What about the Curriculum? When we see students, both prospective and those in Year 12, we will confirm their curriculum options. We aim to meet all the needs of students that have been granted places to date and the Upper Sixth options for Year 12 students. 10. When will this happen? We aim to have clarified which students will be on roll, their options and their teachers before the Easter holiday. This is a very short timescale but we want to put students and parents minds at ease as soon as possible. 11. Are teachers’ jobs safe? In the short term there will be no change in staffing. In the longer term, the number of teachers needed will depend upon the number of students on roll. Until we know the commitment from students we cannot predict the staffing needs further. 12. Is there capacity to effect this change? Yes. There is a strong and effective senior leadership group. We have strength amongst our subject leaders with some in a position to take on wider roles with other junior staff able to take on more responsibility. We continue to attract high calibre teachers to fill posts at all levels. We are confident that we can manage a very successful Sixth Form without detriment to examination results at all levels. 13. What will happen to student numbers? We hope that students will remain with the Neatherd Sixth Form and that we will recruit other students who have currently chosen to go to other providers. We don’t know, until we ask students, how many will commit to the new Sixth Form. 14. How will the new arrangement be better? We can offer an excellent learning culture, with greater consistency and more timely support, building on what is already in place in the main school. This will allow students to truly aspire and fulfil their potential. 15. Why is Neatherd doing this? a. We believe we can offer a better education running our own Sixth Form, working with students from 11-18. b. Students’ results at the Sixth Form under current arrangements have ‘flat-lined’ in recent years. i. Value-added scores show how much impact a Sixth Form has had from a student’s GCSE scores. A value of zero means that there is been no value added. A value of ‘1’ means that a whole A level grade has been added. The Value-added score at the College has been: 0.05 in 2013; - 0.02 in 2014; and 0.02 in 2015. Compared with other Norfolk state schools, the Value-added is 11th in the County. For comparison, Reepham is currently 0.23 and Hellesdon, 0.18. Both of which are good schools with good sixth forms. ii. The Average point score measures the average grade per student. A score of 270 is an ‘A’, 240 is a ‘B’ and 210 is a ‘C’. This measure was 219.4 in 2012 decreasing to 207 in 2014 and 208.1 in 2015. This places the College only 15th in Norfolk. For comparison, Reepham is 232.6 and Hellesdon is 225.7. Given the intake, we would expect to have scores in this region. iii. Furthermore, the proportion of students who achieved at least AAB in facilitating subjects places the Sixth Form only 11th in the county. These results have been consistently low, at between 9 and 12% over the last three years, given the quality of the intake. For comparison, Reepham is 20% and Hellesdon is 18%. c. In our recent OFSTED inspection, HMI noted that the weakest part of our school was the Sixth Form, with some aspects that might be graded ‘Requires Improvement’. This confirmed our recent concerns, supported also by an external consultant report in Spring 2015. d. HMI further noted that students are not currently engaged sufficiently in their learning, in many cases, unlike students in the main school. e. We have listened to the concerns of parents, students and staff regarding aspects of current provision. f. There has been a significant drop in applications by Neatherd students. This is estimated to be over 25% down on last year and with the loss of over thirty of our most able students, signifying a lack of confidence in the current arrangement on the part of our students. g. The College is in greater competition with other institutions and needs to improve to retain more high calibre and aspirational students. h. Collaboration takes significant time and energy, resources which we feel could be better spent in in classrooms ensuring learning is of the highest calibre. i. We feel that the reason for this current performance is a systemic problem to do with accountability and leadership structures in the College, with many layers of duplication. 16. Why now? There have been on-going concerns about results at the College and there is an action plan in place to address these with some limited evidence of improvement. However, we feel that the improvement is not rapid enough. The Neatherd Governors have therefore decided that it is time to take decisive action to ensure that Dereham has a Sixth Form which can offer a high quality education. 17. Are Post-16 collaborations common? No. There are only 22 in England and The College is the only one in Norfolk. Collaborations require a huge amount of communication and commitment in order to function effectively. 18. How did the decision get made? Governors and the School Leadership Team have had intense discussion in recent weeks, culminating in a Full Governing Body Meeting where the final decision was taken on 11th February. The decision was unanimous. 19. Is the decision linked to the school’s Multi-Academy Trust Lead School application? The process of becoming a MAT has both focused governors’ minds on the effectiveness of what we deliver at every level, and given us added autonomy to take decisions in the interests of the young people of Dereham and the surrounding area. However, it is likely that a similar decision would have been made even if the MAT application had not been put forward. 20. Do other successful schools run their own Sixth Forms? Yes. Highly regarded schools in Norfolk such as Reepham, Thorpe St Andrew, Wymondham High, Hellesdon and Notre Dame run their own Sixth Forms. 21. How will this affect Sixth Form Funding? The funding depends on student numbers and will stay the same if numbers stay the same. 22. How will the site be run? Facilities will be shared. There will be a Site Services Group that ensures essential services are maintained. Key personnel will be involved in managing the site on a day-to day basis. We envisage shared services for caretaking and cleaning staff, IT support, reception and library services. Classrooms and specialist facilities such as laboratories will be shared and timetables resolved to avoid clashes. 23. How have people been informed? a. Colleagues were informed of this decision at simultaneous meetings held on Wednesday 24th February, at the end of the school day at both Neatherd and the College. b. Students were informed in extra-ordinary assemblies during the morning of Thursday 25th February, at both Neatherd (prospective, Year 11 students) and the College (Year 12 students). c. Parents have received a letter, sent home with students on Thursday 25th February. Parents have also been e-mailed and texted, where contact details are available. 24. Will there be any more opportunities to ask questions? a. Yes. The Frequently Asked Questions will be updated on the website. Link: http://ift.tt/24wYuGS Parents can ask further questions by emailing hds@neatherd.org . b. The Chair of the College Council has been offered an opportunity for Neatherd Senior Leaders to meet with Council. This meeting took place on Monday, February 29th and we thank the College Senate for their attendance, and for the mature and professional manner in which they put forward their concerns. c. There will be a question and answer forum to be held at Neatherd, on Tuesday 1st March at 7pm, in the Sports Hall, where the School Leadership Team and Governors will be available.