Extending services to rural communities

Case study

Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre in Kent is addressing the Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes in many ways, including offering a range of successful extended services to serve its rural community.

Summary

Homewood has specialist arts college status, which has helped the school develop extended services for its rural communities. The school operates successfully in a competitive environment alongside grammar schools.

Key learning/outcomes

GCSE results have recently increased, by 10 per cent, to 68 per cent of pupils gaining 5A*–C. The percentage achieving level 2 including English and maths has remained steady, at around 36 per cent.
Contextual value added (CVA) is very good: Key Stages 2–4 score at 1011.1 and Key Stages 3–4 score at 1014.3 and attendance is good.
About a quarter of the students take part in arts programmes in day centres for older people and residential homes around the school. Students assess these through interviews with the residents and use the findings to design choreographed performances back in school.
The school recently gained Quality in Study Support (QiSS) and Quality in Extended Schools (QES) Advanced status, reflecting its extensive range of well-managed services.
The numbers of children sitting the selective test in Kent’s many rural primary schools is declining, demonstrating that many parents approve of what Homewood has to offer.

Background

The majority of students are white. Just under five per cent of students have special educational needs (SEN) statements or are School Action Plus and a further 12 per cent of pupils with SEN are supported at School Action. Eligibility for free school meals is just under six per cent.

The community dimension of specialist arts college status has been a major factor in shaping how the school has developed as an extended school. The professional standard theatre that is widely used was built because there was no public performance space in the school’s 100 square mile catchment area.

Key challenges and issues

There is a lack of active involvement in the school among local residents. Many residents in the town, mostly middle-class and retired professionals, would not necessarily choose to have such a large comprehensive school in the town ─ even though many use the arts, sports and other facilities that the school provides.
Kent has the 11+ exam and the school is operating in a selective environment alongside grammar schools.
Many families live in rural communities a long distance from the school and it is therefore difficult to have regular contact with parents.

Approach

The school has made many changes over the past five years. These have been the result of internal drives to improve learning, and responsiveness to needs in the community.

For instance, the school takes a partnership approach, to increase the wider community’s active involvement:

a new group of key local people has been set up to ‘vision’ the future for the school as part of its community
there are sports coordinator links and partnerships with other schools
the school plays a leading role in an extended schools cluster of 23 primary schools
multi-agency meetings take place each term with between 20–25 professionals who discuss individual cases and agree targets.

As part of its extended services, the school offers:

study support, residentials and holiday programmes for pupils as well as family learning activities including art, pottery, cookery and sports
community access to its sports and arts facilities

Its approach to leadership includes:

a distributed approach, with a shared vision and delegated responsibilities among staff
student leadership, including student voice initiatives, including mentoring younger pupils.

Next steps

Leadership, well distributed among staff members, is increasingly shared with students. The next challenge is creating a real voice and opportunity for leadership for parents and local residents.

For further information see:

School leadership, Every Child Matters and school standards: case studies, NCSL