PROSPECTUS
CHARACTER
CONFIDENCE
CREATIVITY
2014 - 2015
An 11-19 International Baccalaureate World School
CHARACTER CONFIDENCE CREATIVITY
A LEARNING JOURNEY Welcome from the Principal Our vision at The Hazeley Academy is a simple one; we want all of our students to have a fulfilling education. An education which allows them to leave with the best possible set of qualifications and as rounded individuals who display the attributes of character, confidence and creativity, fully equipped to take their place in the world. We do not simply see ourselves as preparing young people for work, but also for family life, friendships and society at large. We do this by working closely and openly with parents and the wider community.
As a parent myself I know how important it is to be reassured that my child is socially, physically and emotionally safe and at The Hazeley we achieve this through our excellent personalisation team, skilfully led by Vice Principal, Miss T Whiteman. This team consists of tutors, progress leaders, learning mentors and other specialised pastoral staff including our matron and attendance team. Miss Whiteman ensures that every child gets the personalised support they need. The team’s good work can be seen in action as you tour the Academy, our frequent visitors often comment on the calm purposeful learning environment which our staff and students create and enjoy. The excellent exam results are driven by teams of dedicated teaching staff who very much work with the students on their learning journey. We do not apologise for our high expectations of both staff and students, but we try to ensure that all members of our community are supported to meet the challenge. We do not demand or offer perfection, but we expect everyone to truly do their very best and to keep developing to ensure that their best gets better, all of the time.
tuning our provision to ensure that our young people have access to the very best experiences both within and beyond the classroom. The newly developed house system is central to this as students have the opportunity to be part of a smaller community, competing, socialising and celebrating with other members of their House. Our most dedicated students will go on to represent the school in a range of activities including, music, drama and sport. Again our expectations are high and if you were privileged to see this year’s production of Grease, or have seen some of our athletes or musicians in action you will know that these aspirations are frequently met.
I understand how important the decision is when selecting a school. Your child is the most precious thing in your life, and you want to make the right choices. I hope that this prospectus supported by our website provides the answers to many of your questions. Others can be posed on our open evenings when you will get the opportunity to meet with many of our staff and students. You are also more than welcome to contact the Academy reception and arrange to join either myself or a member of the senior team on one of our daily learning walks where we visit a selection of subject areas, often chosen by the visitors, to look at the learning taking place and ensure every student is enjoying the best possible learning experience. Thank you for your interest in The Hazeley Academy, Yours sincerely
Tony Nelson
Principal (Acting)
Curriculum Innovation is led by Vice Principal, Mr R Boswell. His team are constantly reviewing and fine
02
A WELCOME FROM THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dear prospective students, parents and carers. On behalf of the Board I want to thank you for your interest. In its comparatively short life, The Hazeley Academy has grown to be a leading secondary school in Milton Keynes. This has been achieved by the dedication of our staff and through the hard work of our students, many of whom have achieved quite spectacular results. If you choose to join us on your learning journey, you will be part of our new five year vision. We have called this a “Leap of Faith”; to go beyond truly outstanding results and equip all our students with the skills to be self-aware, confident and creative, independent learners and to excel as young adults.
You can be confident that we will do our very best to identify and nurture each student’s unique talents. This will allow them to achieve their personalised objectives and to move confidently onto the next stage of their life. Yours sincerely
Malcolm Dobell
Chair of the Board of Directors
CHARACTER CONFIDENCE CREATIVITY
INSPIRATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE & FANTASTIC FACILITIES As you approach along Portway or Tattenhoe Street you are met by the impressive glass face of The Hazeley Academy with the teaching wings sitting along the ridge behind. It really is a truly impressive, well-designed modem building. Across all faculties and subject departments there has been a generous, front-loaded investment in technology, equipment, books and other resources as well as staff training. A better resourced Academy or school anywhere you will be hard pressed to find. Our most important resource of course is human. The staff at The Hazeley, teaching and support, are talented, hard-working and intensely loyal to our young people. The average staff turnover over the past three years has been significantly lower than that found
nationally. We have a coaching and training programme to provide opportunities for development and furtherance, enabling us to grow our own leaders and managers from within. We invest in staff and most importantly, we invest heavily in our core business which we never forget to be teaching, learning and support for learning. The Hazeley Academy is a non fee-paying school, independent of the local authority and directly funded by the Department for Education. We are not a sponsored academy. We work very closely with local businesses, the local authority, educational groups and with other schools and academies as part of the Milton Keynes Teaching School Alliance (MKTSA).
A place where dreams grow. Year 7 Student
04
CHARACTER CONFIDENCE CREATIVITY
COMMUNICATION
THE OPEN-DOOR ACADEMY Excellent communication between the home and the Academy is essential and it is very important to us. It is a two-way process. It is critical should a parent, carer or student have any questions or concerns, that they are raised promptly, with the right person and in the correct way. The majority of our parents report that we make every effort to engage well with families. Individual contact details can be found on our website. As an Academy, almost daily we receive very positive feedback from parents, carers, visitors and members of the wider community. This is really important to the Academy - and it is always fed back to students - building their sense of well-earned pride in their Academy. Our website: www.thehazeleyacademy.com provides a wealth of information. This includes a weekly ‘blog’ from the Principal and the leadership team. There will also be a free school gateway where parents can access on-going progress, attainment and behaviour data and annual reports.
Parents/carers in years 7-11 can also be given electronic access to their child’s Vivo Miles™ rewards account. Vivo Miles™ is an online tool for collecting rewards made for outstanding effort, exceptional work, good citizenship, performances and sporting achievements etc. Each Vivo Mile™ has a monetary value of 1p and balances can be carried forward each year. The Vivo Miles™ platform itself and the associated rewards are paid for via other funding streams into the Academy e.g. site lettings. There are many other electronic tools available to parents to make life and communication easier - e.g. Parent Pay for loading up your child’s lunch account. We also make good use of a ‘bulk-texting’ and school comms tool to keep parents and carers up to date.
OUR CURRICULUM Faculties and Subjects The Academy is organised into seven faculties, each with a Director of Faculty overseeing the subject within. The seven faculties are: Core Faculties • English & Literacy • Mathematics & Numeracy • Science
Foundation Faculties • Global Citizenship (Geography, Philosophy & Ethics, History, Law and Modern Foreign Languages) • Well Being (Physical Education, Hospitality and Catering, PHSE, Psychology and Health & Social Care) • Enterprise (ICT, Business Studies, Enterprise, ASDAN and Design Technology) • Creativity (Art, Textiles, Performing Arts, Music and Media).
Every day is an opportunity. Year 8 Student
06
OUR LEARNING JOURNEY Key Stage 3 (Years 7-8) Developing a foundation of Character, Confidence and Creativity in every student. Our curriculum lies at the very heart of all that we do at The Hazeley Academy. It is constantly under review to ensure that it offers a modern, inclusive, personalised and relevant provision for all learners and has the student at the heart of provision. Our staff very much focus on teaching children rather than just subjects and seize every opportunity to develop character, confidence and creativity. Our Key Stage 3 curriculum is balanced to optimise your child’s progress in the traditional subjects while also providing them with the maximum opportunity to develop. Our aim is to unlock their natural love of learning by offering a more project based style delivery that mimics the best practice seen in some of our outstanding partner primary schools. We have a 50 period, two week formal curriculum timetable and although subject to slight tweaks from one year to the next, typically over this period our students will have the following lesson allocations per fortnight English, Mathematics & Science
7 periods
Modern Foreign Languages
4 periods
Creative Arts (Art, Dance, Drama, Music)
9 periods
PE
4 periods
Design Technology (DT, Textiles, Catering)
4 periods
Computer Science
2 periods
Humanities including Philosophy and Ethics (RE)
6 periods
Students are placed into ability groups during their first term with us for the core subjects of English, mathematics and science. These groups are not fixed and students can be moved into different groups depending on the progress they make. At the Academy we recognise that homework is essential to help students consolidate and extend their learning. Homework, especially longer projects, promote the skills of independent learning and research. Philosophy and Ethics includes the study of the major world religions and looks at their similarities and differences. Parents have the right to withdraw their child from this lesson. In this case, an alternative programme of study and supervision will be agreed with the Principal. For all other elements of the curriculum, a full engagement is expected.
CHARACTER CONFIDENCE CREATIVITY Key Stage 4 (Years 9-II) Embedding – Character, Confidence and Creativity in our students leading to excellent examination results For our three year Key Stage 4 programme, well-informed choice is the key and we go out of our way to ensure that the important choices made during year 8 & 9 are supported by what Ofsted inspectors have recognised as an “outstanding” offer of support and guidance. (November 2009). All students follow a common core curriculum of English, mathematics, science & core PE. Our curriculum has a strong academic focus, leaning towards most students achieving the English Baccalaureate at Key Stage 4 and having access to a wide range of courses at KS5. However, it nevertheless remains inclusive by offering a range of additional BTEC vocational courses.
As many parents will no doubt be aware, there has been a significant shift in the national picture regarding qualifications traditionally awarded at the end of Year 11. Our Key Stage 4 (Years 9-11) structure provides maximum flexibility whilst ensuring that we deliver on those subjects most highly regarded by employers and education providers alike.
Key Stage 5 (Years 12-13) Equipping our students with the qualifications, character confidence and creativity to take on the world!
Our sixth form curriculum, we believe, is also second to none. The offer includes a broad range of academic and vocational courses. There is a separate prospectus for our sixth form provision - this is available to downloaded from our website.
Allocations (subject to review and slight changes, year on year) are as follows: Core Subjects (per fortnight) Science (many do triple award GCSEs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics in this time)
8 periods
English (many do both English Language and Literature in this time)
7 periods
Mathematics
7 periods
Core PE (accredited PE/Sport is also)
4 periods
Humanities (study either History or Geography (or both) & another Humanities subject
8 periods
Modern Foreign Languages (choose from French, German, Spanish, Italian) - a minority do BTEC IT or ASDAN in this time
4 periods
Philosophy and Ethics
2 periods
The remaining time is allocated to a broad variety of option subjects; most students study three of these over KS4. The English Baccalaureate [EBacc) (achieving A*-C GCSEs in English, mathematics, at least two GCSE sciences, a language & either history or geography) although not compulsory is considered as the best way forward for the majority of students. The percentage of students in Hazeley who achieve this academic ‘qualification’, comprising the facilitation subjects most sought after by the top Universities, is around twice as high as the national average. During 2014/15 we will be exploring the further the evolution of our KS3 & 4 curricula. Our GCSE programme will not change but curriculum pathway would become even more holistic, values-underpinned and focusing on nurturing highly qualified, confident, creative and characterful young adults. Our excellent curriculum already provides an excellent foundation for this.
The Hazeley Academy helps us every step of the way. Year 9 Student
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CHARACTER CONFIDENCE CREATIVITY
OUR COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS An Inclusive Academy
At The Hazeley Academy, we celebrate success and stretch and challenge our students who have special gifts and talents.
We want all of our students to have access to as much of the curriculum as possible. Regardless of their starting points upon arrival we always aim to cater for all students in our community.
We provide a programme of stimulating activities to encourage our students to make further progress and to help us produce the leaders for the next generation.
A team of specialist teachers and Teaching Assistants in our “Excellence Department� provide in-class and withdrawal support for those students who require it and we also work closely with outside agencies.
Our Return to Learn (R2L) provision, led by a the Vice Principal for Personalisation, responds to those young people facing difficulties in their lives that occasionally manifest themselves in behaviour that cannot be supported in the mainstream Academy. A team of welltrained Learning Mentors support young people with such difficulties - reintegrating them as soon as possible.
Support is offered according to the level of need. This ranges from children who are new to English as a language (EAL), or those who require minor help with literacy and/or numeracy to those with a Statement of Special Educational Needs and those students who are recognised as having a gift or talent. The Hazeley Academy is a fully inclusive one. One of the ways in which we seek to achieve this is by ensuring that it is physically accessible to all people - students, staff and visitors - with a physical, sensory or other type of disability.
We also ensure that the ways in which we communicate and our curriculum take full account of the needs of learners and others.
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1) 42 (A
D INGHAM R O A BUCK
Emperor Drive, Hazeley, Milton Keynes MK8 0PT Tel: 01908 555620 Fax: 01908 508357 Email: enquiries@thehazeleyacademy.com Web: www.thehazeleyacademy.com