The Students
- Duration: 15:00 minutes
- Subtitles available
- Published: 12 11 2007
- Licence information for The Students
- Part of the series Head for Success
Summary
Follow the headteacher of Kings Langley School through the spring term, focusing on his behaviour management system and drive to improve results at KS4.
Gary Lewis became headteacher of Kings Langley, a mixed comprehensive school in Hertfordshire, nearly five years ago. After a major relaunch he now presides over an improving and oversubscribed establishment.
Gary has introduced a behaviour management system loosely based on the football model of coloured cards, which has vastly reduced the number of exclusions at the school.
To boost GCSE results, a group of 35 students is identified who failed to achieve their predicted grades in the trial exams. They receive additional tuition and mentoring from Gary and his staff. Will the percentage of A*-C grades increase as a result?
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Videos from the series:
Head for Success
A school is only as good as its staff, so how do you recruit and retain the best in the industry? What can be done to reward and motivate key staff? -
The Staff
Retaining and recruiting excellent staff at Kings Langley School -
Waiting for Ofsted
Kings Langley School plays host to a Healthy Schools assessor -
Am I Stressed?
Kings Langley's headteacher recognises the pressures of his role -
The Challenge - Here We Go Again
A headteacher begins the year needing to raise GCSE results -
Secondary Support Staff - Raising Attainment
A range of initiatives that have improved GCSE grades -
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The Challenge - Taster Days
Headteacher Philips turns his attentions to future students -
Managing EAL - Secondary - Strategies Around the Clock
A life in the day of two early stage EAL pupils
Comments (1)
It would have been great to see the head pick up the litter himself (or invite the lads to do it with him) and show he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty!
As always in these videos, the intentions are good; in this case, booster groups, after school clubs etc. (not sure how they can be semi-voluntary - either they are or they aren't) and it's great to see the head leading the way but as I've mentioned before nobody is asking that vital question, "Why (is this happening in the FIRST place)?" "He/she is lazy, can't be bothered", or whatever else, simply isn't the answer to such a question - there are always underlying issues when things go wrong and generally they are overlooked. It's no good patching up cracks when the wall needs rebuilding - you just keep patching up year after year.
Until the real issues are addressed, they will be forever chasing after these kids who come into KS4 - no wonder they (teachers) get stressed. Who is going to drive these kids forward from here if they still have no intrinsic motivation? (To leave it until they get behind with coursework is clearly too late to do something - regardless of the results).
The head mentors three pupils; I get the impression that the answers they give him are the answers they think he wants to hear. Yes, exam results improve but it is sadly another statistics driven school. It doesn't have to be; if we properly understood the the wants and needs, the statistics would take care of themselves.
I am aware that many of the comments I have made in this and other posts may appear to be critical - I understand how our pupils feel to be in that position. E.g. it particalularly bemuses me when a pupil who throws a "wobbly" is put in his/her place by a teacher who throws an even bigger "wobbly". Hopefully my comments might encourage a little debate.