School Improvement: Salt Grammar School
One of a series of podcast discussions about school improvement, Dave Jobbings interviews Sue Mansfield, the headteacher of Salt Grammar School, to gain some insight into the effective school improvement that has taken place after GCSE results had been fluctuating for a number of years, prior to 2002.
Sue Mansfield took up her headship in September 2002. On her arrival, the GCSE results had just dipped to their lowest ever level with only 29% achieving the recognised standard of five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C. Sue took steps to stabilise and improve performance, to build the confidence of staff and parents and to raise the profile of the school within the local community.
Salt Grammar School is an 11-18 non-selective school with over 1400 pupils on roll, over 200 in the 6th form. This specialist school in maths and computing, is located in Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, UK.
This podcast covers the following areas:
- Immediate priorities on taking up headship given the dip in GCSE performance
- How she built the confidence of students, staff and parents at the same time as improving quality in teaching and learning
- Nature of the external advice, support and challenge she received and whether these were valuable
- Prospects for further improvement in school performance and how she knows that students are on track
- Opportunities and threats presented by the UK Government's New Relationship with Schools agenda and the recently published White Paper (2005)
You can listen to this podcast online with your browser using the Quicktime plugin or via our iTunes listing.
More background and information about Salt Grammar School via the links below:
- The school's website (www.saltgrammar.co.uk)
- The school's OFSTED report, published in January 2005 (available as a PDF document)
- An overview of the school's past performance in the DCSF tables
Other sections of our School Improvement Series ....
- The index for the school improvement series
- School improvement: Effective School Self-Evaluation
- School improvement at Newhall Park Primary
- An exclusive interview with a School Improvement Partner
- School improvement in the Halifax Excellence Cluster
- School improvement: the role of Aspect
Russell Educational Consultancy and Productions
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