Sidney Stringer School

Infobox UK school
name = Sidney Stringer School


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established = 1970
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type = Comprehensive
religion = Non-denominational
president =
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head = Brian Worrall
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specialist = Mathematics and Computing College
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street = Cox Street
city = Coventry
county = West Midlands
country = England
postcode = CV1 5NL
LEA = Coventry City Council
ofsted = 103739
staff =
enrollment = 1,141 (approx.)
gender = Coeducational
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
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website = http://www.sidneystringer.coventry.sch.uk
website_name = www.sidneystringer.coventry.sch.uk

Sidney Stringer School Specialists in Mathematics & Computing is a coeducational (mixed) community college for pupils aged 11 – 18 in Hillfields, Coventry, England.cite web|url=http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/103/103739.pdf|format=PDF|date=2001-02-15|author=Tom Comer|publisher=Ofsted|title=Sidney Stringer School]

History

Sidney Stringer School opened in 1971 as the first urban community school in England. Its mission as a community school was to serve the whole population of the community, not just the children, through open access to educational provision and all facilities seven days a week, for most of the year. Learners of all ages worked together, and a crèche supported those adults with young children.

The school was formed in from the merger of two secondary modern schools - Frederick Bird on "Swan Lane" (became a [http://www.frederickbird.coventry.sch.uk primary school] ) and Broad Heath on "Broad Street". It was one of the first Community Colleges in the 1980s and one of the first Technology Colleges in the 1990s.

The school was named after Alderman Sidney Stringer, a former mayor of Coventry who dedicated himself to the rebuilding of the city after the devastation of the second world war. The school was Coventry’s expression of commitment to one of its poorest communities, very much in the spirit of Sidney Stringer’s own vision of hope and renewal.

Thus was created a school with a unique ethos – that of a school which the community felt belonged to them. This attachment to the school has never wavered, despite some difficult times in the 1980s and early 1990s when hardship, deprivation and crime were all too common features of the local area.

Today the school serves a bustling area, close to the city centre with the most diverse population of any in the city. Numbers of students on roll, which fell to an all-time low of around 670 in the 1990s, have risen rapidly in recent years and the school is oversubscribed in some year groups.

Students enjoy their time at school and they say that they feel very much part of a family. The development of the school as the Sidney Stringer Academy will be an exciting new phase in the evolution of the school, still at the heart of its community.

About the School

Sidney Stringer School is a well-established city centre school, which has long enjoyed popularity for its commitment to meeting the needs of a very diverse population of all students. Our aim is to raise the expectations and achievements of every student whatever their needs, talents, strengths or weaknesses, by providing high quality inclusive education in every curriculum area. The school has grown rapidly in recent years and is now oversubscribed in two year groups and near capacity in others: the roll currently stands at 1180 with 148 in the sixth form. Diversity is a real strength of the school, with respect at the heart of our values: to be expected of and owed to everyone in our community.

The school has been a Specialist School for Mathematics and Computing since 2004. Contextual value added scores show the school as having one of the highest value added scores at Key Stage 3 and 4 of any secondary maintained school in Coventry and Warwickshire. In Mathematics, the school has been in the top 0% or 1% over the last three years. Investment in ICT has been high over recent years. Over 300 new computers have been installed in the new buildings. There are now ten ICT suites which are shared between ICT and Business with a substantial number of computers, as well as six laptop trolleys in key curriculum areas. All ICT classrooms and other subject faculties have interactive whiteboards. The planned roll out of the Virtual Learning Environment has been delayed slightly by the fire (see below) but do check our website for the latest developments.

Ofsted

The 2006 Ofsted inspection gave the school an overall grade of good, and noted a high capacity for further improvement. Standards in the sixth form, progress in mathematics and racial harmony were described as outstanding. Link to Ofsted report here [http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/pdf/?inspectionNumber=286741&providerCategoryID=8192&fileName=\\school\\103\\s5_103739_20070224.pdf] .

North West Federation

The school's headteacher is Brian Worrall. Along with Barr's Hill School and Community College and the President Kennedy School and Community College it forms the North West Federation of Schools, which are allowed to provide the International General Certificate of Secondary Education English course to pupils at the school. [cite web|title=The Coventry City Council and the North West Federation of Schools (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) Order 2005|url=http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2005/20051739.htm|publisher=Office of Public Sector Information|year=2005]

Academic Performance

The school works hard to ensure that students achieve their very best regardless of their starting point. Its best subjects at GCSE level are Mathematics, ICT (the school's strongest subject), art and design, and drama. Standards of pupil achievement at year 9 are well below the national average in English, the sciences, and mathematics.

"2007 Examination Performance"

Key Stage 3

English saw their best ever results showing a good improvement.

Performance in mathematics continues to be strong: the results are good when looking at the level of entry. This cohort of students had the lowest KS2 L5+ at 49% compared to any other cohort of students currently at the school. Therefore considering this lower starting point the subject still exceeded FFT B and D estimate.

Science continues to improve year on year. This year the conversion of 2 levels has improved greatly and although the results are below 60% they are still inline with FFT D estimates.

Key Stage 4

The progress is again good with all FFT B and D exceeded (5+ A – G, 5+ A – C, 5+ A – C including maths and English). The overall 5+ A* - C was just short of 40%

Key Stage 5

This year the points score improved despite a reduction in the %A-B grades from 52.9 to 36.1 and a drop in the number of entries from 104 in 2006 to 72 in 2007.

Other Improvements

The school has grown to its largest population (1200) for many years: a direct result of parental support. We feel we make a huge differenct to the educational chances of all the students who come here - as shown by our results.

CVASidney Stringer has one of the highest CVA - Contextual Value Added scores in the city. This is a new, complex Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 contextual value added (CVA) score designed to show the progress children have made. This is done by comparing their achievements with those of other pupils nationally who had the same or similar prior attainment in their test results at KS2 and KS3. It has one of the highest improvement rates in the country making their grade from year 7 to year 9 a whole two levels higher. In summer 2007, Sidney Stringer students produced their improved SATS, GCSE and A Level results. The SATs results in 2007 were the best ever for the school; GCSE results were up 11% on 2006 and 97% of A level students passed, with 48.4% of these passing with A or B grade – placing the school third in Coventry.

Local involvement

The school liaises with its feeder primary schools, with year 5 and 6 pupils from those schools attending Sidney Stringer to experience "taster" lessons. Other primary pupils make use of the school's ICT facilities, and teachers from Sidney Stringer run physical education clubs at the primary schools during lunchtimes.

The school is also the location for various evening courses run by the Coventry Adult Education Service. [cite web|title=Black History Courses starting January 2005|url=http://www.local-history.co.uk/Courses/newscourses.html|work=Local History Magazine|publisher=Local History Press Ltd]

Charity work

The school holds displays to raise awareness of World Refugee Day [cite web|title=Overview of Activities: International Refugee Day 2006|url=http://www.united.non-profit.nl/pages/act06rfc.htm#GB|publisher=UNITED for Intercultural Action] and in 2006 participated in the Motiv8 project. [cite web|url=http://www.groundwork-coventry.org.uk/index.asp?page=35|publisher=Groundwork|title=Motiv8|month=June | year=2006]

idney Stringer Academy

In 2006, controversial plans to merge Sidney Stringer School with Barr's Hill School to form a city academy were dropped. [cite news|url=http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=16756406&method=full&siteid=50003&headline=city-drops-plan-to-merge-two-schools--name_page.html|title=City drops plan to merge two schools|date=2006-02-28|author=Lucy Lynch|work=icCoventry|publisher=Midland Newspapers Limited]

Coventry Local Authority has decided that Sidney Stringer should become an Academy, opening in existing buildings in September 2010 and in new buildings the following year. The City Council is itself a major sponsor, together with the City (FE) College. The other two sponsors are Coventry University and Jaguar Cars. This unusual arrangement pays tribute to the school’s excellent record in providing for the education of local children, and is part of city plans for the regeneration of the city area of Hillfields – the Swanswell Regeneration Initiative. The formal consultation exercise undertaken in February 2008 revealed remarkable support for the school from the local community, with over 80% of respondents demanding that the name of the school remain the same: the sponsors agreed! The specialisms of the new school will be Mathematics, Design and Technology. [cite web|title=Sidney Stringer Academy|url=http://www.sidneystringeracademy.org.uk]

A Small Set Back! - Fire September 2007

A serious fire in September 2007 destroyed 40% of specialist facilities. But by February 2008 the school offered a full timetable for all year groups in the existing school and in high quality new accommodation. The response from the local community has been remarkable: support for the school was overwhelming and the school continued to admit new students throughout the period of disruption. Admissions for September 2008 stand at their highest for ten years. In December 2007 Coventry City Council Awarded a special prize to the school for outstanding commitment.

A fire started in the school gym at about 15.30 p.m. on 25 September 2007 and spread to destroy over 40% of the school buildings.cite web|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/7012958.stm |title = Fire at city school is suspicious |accessdate = 2007-09-25 |date = 2007-09-25 |work = BBC News] cite web |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/7013636.stm |title = Firefighters still at school fire |accessdate = 2007-09-26 |date = 2007-09-26 |work = BBC News] The school was evacuated and there were no injuries. Over 100 fire-fighters arrived to combat the fire, and about 30 were still at the school the following morning. Initial findings suggest that the fire might have been started deliberately. [cite web|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/7016878.stm |title = Fire school closed for two weeks |accessdate = 2007-09-27 |date = 2007-09-27 |work = BBC News]

As of April 2008, temporary accommodation has been built on site, and some may argue that the facilities in this 'temporary' accommodation are even better than those in the building destroyed by the fire.

References

Further reading

* — Morris, who used to teach at Sidney Stringer School, reports her experience of attending a school prize-giving ceremony, describing the school as "Like many inner-city schools, it's got the challenging part of the market: 44% on free school meals; more than 40 languages spoken. But, also like many inner-city schools, it has vision and ambition, and its kids have talent and character screaming to be recognised."

External links

* [http://www.sidneystringer.coventry.sch.uk Official website]
* [http://schoolsfinder.direct.gov.uk/3314038/school-profile/ Direct.gov.uk School Profile]
* [http://www.edubase.gov.uk/EstablishmentView.aspx?EstablishmentID=3735 Edubase]