Welcome to Homewood School & Sixth Form Centre Arts College!

We believe that the time our students spend with us is precious and that our duty is to assist them in preparing for successful lives beyond school. We feel immensely proud of the achievements of our students and are committed to enabling all to reach for individual excellence.

 OFSTED REPORT
“Homewood School and Sixth Form Centre is a
friendly school which provides a good quality
education for its pupils. The school has raised
standards for all students, whatever their
academic ability.

For more information about Homewood School & Sixth Form Centre visit DirectGov.

What is a Specialist Performing Arts College?

Homewood became a Specialist Performing Arts College in September 2002 and successfully re-designated in September 2006 as a High Performing Specialist School. This means we are now in our 5th year of specialist schools status and working towards a set of objectives that aim to raise achievement through the Performing Arts – Music, Dance and Drama.

It operates at four distinct levels:

1. Whole school – raising achievement across the whole student body of the school (not just in the specialist arts areas) through the development of creative learning styles.
2. Specialist departments – working to improve standards above and beyond the expectations of similar non-specialist schools and to broaden curriculum experience and curriculum enrichment programmes for students in the arts.
3. Partner Schools – helping to raise achievement in 5 partner schools (4 primary and 1 secondary) using teaching and learning styles developed through the specialist subjects.
4. Wider community – to engage the wider community I learning through Music, Dance and Drama, including local business.


What does it mean for Homewood?

Experience has shown that success lies in partnerships in which those involved share common objectives; the combined resources of the partners provides a creative, motivational and physical capacity which one alone is unable to achieve. It is this belief that has informed the thinking behind our current phase Arts College Status. Through it we aim to:

• Provide the capacity to continue school-wide innovation of teaching and learning styles.
• Continue the development of the whole school creative agenda through the further exploration and development of:

o New ideas.
o Increased confidence of both teachers and learners
o Opportunities for students to inform the content of their curriculum.
o Connections between and across subject boundaries
o Evidence of student enjoyment, excitement and energy
o A lasting legacy for students at Homewood


• Use the creative learning agenda to encourage:

o Divergent thinking
o Creative risk-taking
o Co-learning
o A greater respect for the school and each other as well as for the natural environment.
o New ways of collaborative working - cross-curricular; linking arts and non-arts subjects.
o A student-centred approach to learning
o Student engagement


Arts College status has also created the following opportunities:

Facilities:
• A purpose built Community Theatre.
• Dance studios
• Drama facilities
• Recording studio

Provision:
• Development of creative learning strategies across the school using teaching and learning methodology found in the Performing Arts.
• A wide range of curriculum choices at all Key Stages including a Performing Arts course at Key Stage 3 and traditional as well as vocational pathways in the Performing Arts for students at Key Stages 4 and 5.
• A variety of curriculum enrichment opportunities including:
o Dance groups
o Sinden Youth Theatre
o Music Makers – an after hours music school for students and community members.
o A number of daytime activities in the Arts for students of all ages and abilities.
• An increased number of specialist teaching and associate staff.
• Staff and community training programmes.
• A school internet based radio station.
• A wide range of performance opportunities within school, in the local community, nationally and internationally.


All of these exciting initiatives, plus the many other links made by the school enable students to discover their true potential in all areas of the curriculum and beyond.

If you are interested in getting involved in any way at all whether performing, helping with events or as audience let us know.

Home Farm Children's Nursery is a registered charity and a committee run nursery, which is set in the grounds of Homewood School & Sixth form centre. The nursery is registered & inspected by OFSTED Early Years team.

The Nursery offers full day and sessional care to children from 6 months to 4+ years. We are open from 8.00am until 18.00pm from Monday to Friday.

The nursery is open fifty-one weeks a year and will be closed on public holidays and for one week over the Christmas period.

After School Clubs
Homewood School & Sixth Form Centre runs a variety of activities and clubs. Below is a list of all the clubs/activities that are run for the students by Homewood School.

Riding Club
The School currently has a riding school club and takes part in a variety of riding tournaments around Britain.
We currently field the following teams
1. A Novice Team
2. An Intermediate Team
3. Open Teams
4. Individual Teams
These prestigious events are demanding, requiring very accurate riding. The Show Jumping phase, Cross Country phase and the Dressage phase exhibit an extremely high level of performance.

Help with Homework Club - everyday in the KICC Centre before & after school.

Monday

Textiles, Junior Boys Dance, and MAC

Tuesday

Graphics in Word, Art, ICT, Basic Drawing, German, Netball, String Instrument, ceramics,Badminton, Basketball Junior Choir.

Wednesday

Book, Senior Boys Dance, Girls Dance, Ceramics, Graphics, Music Makers, Netball,Adobe Photoshop, Trampoline, Table Tennis.

Thursday

Da Vinci, Art, Ceramics, ICT, Duke of Edinburgh, Photography, Spare Reed Saxaphone Group, Senior Choir, Hockey, Girls Football, Gymnastics.

If you would like more information about any club please contact Miss V English on Extn 279.

The Learning Support Department

All students are welcome to apply to Homewood for a place and we have an excellent record of admitting students with a range of disabilities, including visual and hearing impairments, brittle bones and Down’s syndrome.

There is a very close liaison with feeder schools often over a period of several years before a child is due to be admitted to Homewood. The relevant attached Governor, Vice Principal and Director of Special Needs are involved in planning for the students’ needs and work closely with parents/carers.

Further details can be found in a number of our policies, including Accessibility, Equal Opportunities, Special needs and Admissions, all of which are scrutinized and where necessary updated and discussed by the Governing body each year.

The Team

Mrs. Moira Young – Director of Learning Support, Teacher of PSHRE
Mrs. Jo Powell – School-based Specialist Teacher, Teacher of Science
Dr Frances Fawkes – Key Skills, Teacher of Maths
Mrs. Gill Whittaker, Key Skills, Teacher of History
Mrs. Liz Martin – Learning Support Administrative Assistant

We have a team of very experienced Learning Support Assistants, who support the most vulnerable children in the classrooms - including vocational programmes at Key Stage 4, where appropriate.

SEN Policy

Our policy is updated as necessary every year. We have a renowned SEN department which has expertise in a number of areas and our Governing body takes an active interest in our work in this area. Our attached Governor attends meetings with our staff where relevant and the Governors and staff are updated on the academic progress of all our SEN students every year. Progress of these students is also part of many of our staff’s Performance Management targets. Changes in the last year have included an increase in the provision of extra tuition for those Year 7 students who are not achieving level 4 in Maths and English. In addition to extra timetabled lessons in Literacy and Numeracy we also offer Literacy Progress sessions and extra input during the mentoring period. The success of these sessions is constantly been evaluated and parents/carers are kept informed of progress via letters home as well as termly reports.

Student Development Centre

This centre is there to provide additional support structures for particular areas of needs such as students with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.

Key Skills

Our Key Skills groups in Years 7 and 8 are smaller classes with an intense focus on developing Literacy, Numeracy and self-confidence within a highly differentiated National Curriculum framework. Key Skills in Year 10 and 11 are smaller groups in place of 1 and 2 option blocks. These groups focus on further development of Literacy, Numeracy and ICT as well as a range of skills for life.

The Dyslexia Friendly School

Homewood’s objectives are to raise awareness of the needs of pupils with SpLD/Dyslexia in the classroom and to share good practice. We hope to increase the range of strategies and resources that staff can use to make the classroom more ‘dyslexia friendly’.

Mrs. Jo Powell, Mrs. Gill Whittaker and Dr Frances Fawkes are all fully qualified in Dyslexic Screening Testing. This allows students who are ‘at risk of dyslexia’ to be identified.

At Key Stage 3, students who have Specific Learning Difficulties/dyslexia are offered a place on the Touch Type Reading Spelling (TTRS) programme. As well as improving word-processing and key board skills, this also has been shown to improve spelling ability.