specialist sports school: a case study
By
Chris Leach
The recent publication by Ofsted, Specialist
Schools: An Evaluation of Progress, has reopened
the debate on the roles and responsibilities of
specialist schools, specifically about the additional
funding they receive.
This issue has been and continues to be one that
divides the educational community with emotive terms such as “selective”,
“iniquitous” and “divisive” large in the vocabulary of the
anti-specialist lobby. Even those of us “on the inside”
are not without the occasional doubts, all the more so in Worcestershire where
lack of funding (we await with interest the promised revisions to the SSA formula
and the like) forces us to consider ALL opportunities for additional capital investment. About
Arrow Vale Community High School
I was appointed headteacher here at Arrow
Vale Community High School in September 2000,
a year after the school had achieved specialist
status. I am reaping the benefits of the work
of my predecessor John Smith and the recently
departed director of sport Phil Boulton, both
key players in the bidding process that secured
our specialist designation.
We
have recently been awarded the prestigious Sportsmark Gold award by Sport England
for the quality of our PE and sports programme. This coveted award is made to
schools that show a commitment to developing sport to a high level in partnership
with their local community. From 406 applications for this year’s award,
only 46 schools received the gold award. That Sport England
has recognised our achievements in building a progressive, well balanced PE programme
is testament to the hard work and dedication of all the staff and students at
Arrow Vale. Ofsted’s appraisal
The key points
from the Ofsted publication are: - 20 per cent of all specialist
schools have failed to use the funding allocated to achieve stated aims and objectives
of their individual specialist programme.
- Very few
of the schools have exercised the opportunity to select their intake by aptitude
in the chosen specialism.
- The community dimension,
the desire and ability to engage our local client base in lifelong learning and
participation in school-based projects, is the weakest element of specialist schools’
work.
How Arrow Vale fits in
Arrow Vale’s
place in this assessment is interesting. As we approach the middle of our third
year as a specialist sports college, we have completed the capital building projects
associated with the original tranche of funding and are broadly on target with
our other planned expenditure including enhancements to staffing and training
resources. It is inevitable that the original development plan,
now more than three years old, should have been modified and re-focused along
the way. This is normal good practice rather than an inability to meet our stated
aims and objectives. We have been well supported by Sport England and the Youth
Sport Trust at all stages and we are confident that we are on target. Like
the majority of specialist schools, we do not exercise the option to select our
intake by ability. There is, however, some evidence that our strengths in certain
focus sports (football, rugby, dance, basketball) as well as the breadth and quality
of our programmes across the PE curriculum is causing groups of sports-minded
youngsters in our feeder middle schools to make collective decisions about which
high school to choose. As for the community dimension, Ofsted
does qualify its comments by noting that, while this is the least well-developed
aspect of the work done by specialist schools, sports colleges are the leaders
in this field. Supporting the wider community
We
are currently involved in a number of programmes supporting specific groups in
our wider community. Our junior sports leaders and community sports leaders recruited
from our student cohort spend significant time working with other young people
in our feeder middle and first schools as well as other neighbouring high schools. As
well as reaching out to the community we continue to look for further opportunities
to extend our range of onsite provision for community learning and participation
both in sport and other aspects. We have exciting partnerships with youth theatre,
Yamaha Music School and hope to become home to a ladies football club later this
year. Equally, removing the barriers to community participation
(finance, child care, information, attitude) is high on our agenda and we are
working closely with all interested parties to move this forward. We’re
on course
In conclusion, I would argue that Arrow Vale Community High
School is on course to meet the targets by which our re-designation bid will be
judged at the end of the fourth year. In the wider context of the success and
equitability of the specialist schools programme as the vehicle to deliver world-class
education for our young people, however, further consideration is still needed.
The government seems to be committed to specialisation and
are driving towards one school in four having a specialist designation. Whatever
the proportion the challenges will remain: - To develop
approaches to effective teaching and learning
- To continue
the drive to raise standards
- To address the inclusion
and under-achievement agendas
- To provide a wider range
of enrichment activities alongside the statutory curriculum
- To
better use ICT to support learning
- To develop ways
of sharing good practice with local schools and the community
Chris
Leach is headteacher of the specialist sports college Arrow Vale Community High
School in Redditch, Worcestershire | 
