Learning Outcomes
The primary focus of all that we do is the continuous improvement in learning outcomes for individual students.
We are finding ways of gaining better GCSE and A level results, year on year.
We are developing and expanding the range of GNVQ courses to cater for a wider range of learning styles.
We monitor performance closely, and target students who are near grade boundaries for extra help, support and personal mentoring to make sure that they obtain the best results.
We celebrate success of every kind - with awards, presentations and whichever kind of public or private recognition seems most likely to further motivate the individual.
We are developing new examination courses, and new modules within existing course, to refine the range of available options, and to increase the range of skills that our students can acquire.
We are broadening the concept of achievement - to recognise and encourage all kinds of learners, and to identify relevant and ambitious progression routes for each student, whether they are building on traditional A level success, or an innovative Community Sports Leaders Award.
Above all we are building a community where all aspire to success for themselves, and value achievement when they see it in others.
Our High Achievement
Complementing our celebration of success is a determination throughout the school to maintain our excellent record of high achievement across a range of activities. Whether we are sending students to study at Oxford or Cambridge, or winning gold medals in the English Schools Athletics Championships; having our paintings hung by the Prince of Wales at Hampton Court, or winning study scholarships to Kenya, Hessle students are pushing back the boundaries of excellence with each successive year.
An they are supported in this by a team of staff who are equally committed to continuous improvement. Every department implements its own programme - whether of lesson observations to refine teaching skills; lunchtime coaching in specialist techniques to enhance individual examination performance; computerised progress mapping to refine target setting; or devising specific units of work to close a gender gap in a GCSE area.
Cutting Edge
At the heart of our development plans is a vision of the way in which we can use ICT to transform the learning process. Information Technology skills are taught in every year, so that all students - from Year 7 to Year 13 can take advantage of the networks of computers that give access to the Internet right across the school.
The East Riding Internet for Learning links the schools in our Sixth Form Consortium and will make it easy for students and tutors to contact each other, whichever site they are working on. And for face to face contact, a video conference can bring specialists from different schools together at very short notice.
Substantial investment in staff training has been aimed at building the confidence which will allow teachers and students to work and to learn side by side as the rate of technological change continues to accelerate.
School planning groups are consistently engaged in analysing current working approaches, and seeking opportunities for technology based learning which will bring added motivation alongside increased technical competence in managing the newest learning tools.
Conscious efforts are being made at all levels within the school to encourage experiment and innovation amongst both students and staff so that the whole organisation becomes more adapted to change and development, and to accommodating rapid technological progress.
Increasingly both teachers and students are finding real uses for the most up to date technology whether it is producing high quality detailed reports on progress; conducting a debate across Europe via the Internet; producing a school magazine; creating a school website; or manipulating images using industry standard software to design the next "Concorde" in the "Eurocollaborator Challenge".
Emphasis On Quality
Over recent years we have gained increasing national recognition for the quality of the service that we have offered to our community.
The TEC Award for partnership between education and business acknowledged our innovative and creative links with local companies, which subsequently provided the foundation for new and more relevant curriculum courses.
The Schools Curriculum Award focused on our links with the local community - local business again, but also the partner schools in the district; it also praised the way in which we help students to learn from their own surroundings, and the contributions we have made to local life.
The Sportsmark Award gives national recognition to the excellence of our sporting provision, particularly the links we have made with local sports clubs.
The Prime Minister's Charter Mark is our most recent accolade. This simply recognises excellence and acknowledges quality - quality of provision, quality of service, and quality of response.
Alongside these national standards we operate our own stringent measurement of our improvement - how much we have improved attendance; how many more double linguists we have produced; how many of our musicians are chosen to represent the county; how clear and detailed our reports to parents have become - because we are committed to keep on getting better in every sphere of our activity.
Traditional Values
Our primary aim is to provide the community of Hessle with traditional qualities - order, security, and real scope for individual personal development.
We prepare students carefully to cope with the pressures imposed by tests and public examinations.
We require - and are given - high standards of behaviour and consideration for others.
We channel this selflessness into support for charities and both national and local good causes.
We assist students to develop an international perspective with a range of curriculum links to Denmark, Kenya, Uganda, France, Germany, Austria and Spain.
We continue to invest in traditional library facilities - offering books for research and for pleasure, as well as the most modern electronic resources.
We provide a broad curriculum with access to over 23 A Levels and GCSE subjects, and we teach students in groups of similar ability.
We provide additional individual support to enable every individual to be the best that they can, whatever their disabilities or special gifts.
We have introduced a house system to encourage healthy competition and broaden the scope for extra curricular activities.
We create opportunities for team work and collaboration as well as the highest levels of individual endeavour. |