St John Fisher Catholic School

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by St John Fisher Catholic School's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from St John Fisher Catholic School is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.stjohnfisher.school

47ST JOHN FISHER CATHOLIC COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

Dympna Lennon, head teacher

Year 13 history

students

St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School is a secondary

school based in Chatham, Kent. Following poor GCSE

results in 2016, Dympna Lennon was appointed as the

new head teacher, which has led to more successful results

and significant changes in the way the school is led. Dympna

explains how her restructuring has changed the school for the

better and enabled the community to be proud once again.

Following the disappointing GCSE results of 2016, I quickly identified what went

wrong. In response, I worked with my staff to put a robust and strategic plan in

place to address the issues, and systematically implemented that plan. Overall, we

have aimed to implement the systems and structures that create the environment

for effective teaching andlearning.

Staffing and curriculum

Significant staff turnover was a key issue at the school before my arrival. Twenty-

eight staff left at the end of the 2016 summer term, while 22 left during the year.

This had an enormous impact on students’ learning; for example, some students

had ten maths teachers during their five years at the school. There were also

significant numbers of inexperienced or unqualified staff.

To address our staff retention issues, I articulated my new vision for the school. As

a result, staff bought into the vision and decided to stay. There is a strong culture

of support and challenge at the school. Staff are held to account for their work and

they, in turn, hold others to account. This “no excuses” culture permeates the work

we do every day.

REPORT CARD

ST JOHN FISHER CATHOLIC

COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL

»Head teacher: DympnaLennon

»Founded in 1964

»Based in Chatham, Kent

»Type of school: Catholic

secondary school

»No. of students: 900

»93.2 per cent attendance in

2016, which increased to 95.1

per cent a year later

»www.stjohnfisher.school

St John Fisher Catholic

Comprehensive School

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

48 | ST JOHN FISHER CATHOLIC COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL

Secondly, we improved the quality

of teachers at the school. The school

largely stopped working with teacher

training organisations as I recognised

the need to improve the depth of

pedagogical and subject knowledge

among our own staff. We invested

time and resources in a personalised

and differentiated programme of

CPD to develop teachers’ subject

knowledge and their ability to

communicate this to students.

Thirdly, we have focused on

supporting staff health and wellbeing.

We have introduced staff Christmas

and summer parties, praise letters, and

personal birthday cards so that staff

feel valued and motivated to go the

extra mile.

My early analysis also indicated that

there were no clear curriculum plans

and we did not liaise with the primary

schools effectively, therefore wasting

time at Key Stage 3. In response, we

reviewed our curriculum from year 7 to

year 13. New schemes of learning with

dynamic resources were put in place,

while quality was assured through both

good practice visits to other schools

and experts coming in to visit us.

We trialled a new approach to

assessment with year 7, ensuring

that students got quality feedback

and then acted on it to improve the

standard of their work. Following an

extensive review, this new system

was adopted across the school. It has

resulted in us reducing the amount of

time staff spend on ineffective marking

while increasing the time spent on

differentiated planning of lessons,

leading to much improved teaching.

Attendance

Attendance was 93.2 per cent at the

end of 2016, with poor attenders

being particularly concentrated in

the older year groups. Six different

members of staff had been responsible

for tracking attendance; I restructured

the system so that we had a single

accountable attendance officer.

We have also developed a far more

robust partnership with our external

attendance support partner, who takes

negligent parents to court when it

is necessary. As a result, our overall

attendance increased to 95.1 per cent

the following year.

Behaviour management and

exclusions

There had been 642 days of exclusion

during the year prior to my arrival,

as well as 13 permanent exclusions.

In order to create the right climate

for learning, we introduced a

challenging behaviour system to

manage low level disruption, making

students immediately aware of the

consequences of their poor behaviour.

Year 7 having fun

learning in music

Year 12 private study

period

New schemes

oflearning with

dynamic

resources were

put in place,

while quality

was assured

through both

good practice

visits and experts

coming in

“

49ST JOHN FISHER CATHOLIC COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

Our behaviour interventions were

designed to be targeted, to deploy

external agencies where necessary, and

to be clear to all students and staff.

We worked to build relationships with

all parents and carers, especially those

who had been traditionally hard to

reach. Overall, we reduced the number

of permanent exclusions to just one

student, with an 80 per cent reduction

in the days of fixed-term exclusion

compared to the previous year.

The tracking and monitoring systems

were not fit for purpose as our data

was inaccurate and staff were not

intervening with the correct students.

We worked with external partners to

implement a new data system based on

sensible aspirational targets. Intervention

is now data led, so that staff use

accurate tracking to identify and further

support underachieving pupils.

Working with external partners

We have made considerable efforts to

build up our reputation, introducing

more community meetings as well

as a new parents’ association. The

governing body recruited new parent

governors and we have used our

pastoral care team proactively.

We started to build relationships with

other schools, establishing links with

our Catholic primary feeder schools

as well as developing a partnership

with St Paul’s Academy in Greenwich.

We work together on teaching and

learning, as well as developing middle

leadership. We are also part of a sixth

form consortium, and have, together

with two other providers, reaffirmed

our commitment to working together.

Leadership team

Prior to my arrival, the leadership

team was disparate and did not

have sufficient impact. In response,

a temporary AHT was appointed to

lead on behaviour and as designated

safeguarding lead. I shared the raising

standards leader responsibilities

between two senior colleagues. Finally,

I appointed an assistant head teacher

to be in charge of CPD as well as

teaching and learning. This ensured

that the team operatedeffectively.

We also restructured the school day; all

students line up in the playground with

their equipment, to show that they are

ready to start the day before moving

on to form time, with breakfast being

available to staff and students prior to

8.30am. Resources for each morning’s

registration session are accessible on

the school landing page, ensuring an

orderly start to the day.

Looking forward

It was a challenging year for staff

and students, but the systems

and structures implemented had a

significant impact, with our summer

2017 GCSE results being significantly

improved, resulting in an overall

Progress 8 score of -0.08. Having spent

my first year putting structures and

systems in place, I now look forward

to the future, when SJF will improve to

reach the potential that it promises.

We have begun

building

relationships

with other

schools,

establishing

links with our

Catholic primary

feeder schools

as well as

developing a

partnership with

St. Paul’s

Academy in

Greenwich

“

Year 9 design technology

students

www.stjohnfisher.school

This article was sponsored by St John Fisher Catholic School. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

This year’s Parliamentary Review reflects on a tumultuous and extraordinary year, globally and nationally. As well as being an MP, I am a keen student of history, and I am conscious that 2020 would mark the end of an era. It will be remembered as the year in which we concluded Brexit negotiations and finally left the European Union. Above all, it will be remembered as the year of Covid-19.

In our fight against the pandemic, I am delighted that our vaccination programme is beginning to turn the tide – and I pay tribute to the British businesses, scientists and all those who have helped us to achieve this. But the virus has dealt enormous damage, and we now have a duty to rebuild our economy.

We must ensure that businesses are protected. We have made more than £350 billion available to that end, with grants, business rates relief and our furlough scheme supporting more than 11 million people and jobs in every corner of the country, maintaining livelihoods while easing the pressure on employers. The next step is to work with business to build back better and greener, putting the net zero carbon challenge at the heart of our recovery. This is a complex undertaking, but one which I hope will be recognised as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Through the prime minister’s ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, we can level up every region of the UK, supporting 250,000 green jobs while we accelerate our progress towards net zero carbon emissions.

With our commitment to raise R&D spending to 2.4% of GDP and the creation of the Advanced Research & Invention Agency, we are empowering our fantastic researchers to take on groundbreaking research, delivering funding with flexibility and speed. With this approach, innovators will be able to work with our traditional industrial heartlands to explore new technologies, and design and manufacture the products on which the future will be built – ready for export around the globe.

And I believe trade will flourish. We are a leading nation in the fight against climate change. As the host of COP26 this year, we have an incredible opportunity to market our low-carbon products and expertise. Our departure from the EU gives us the chance to be a champion of truly global free trade; we have already signed trade deals with more than 60 countries around the world.

As we turn the page and leave 2020 behind, I am excited about the new chapter which Britain is now writing for itself, and for the opportunities which lie ahead of us.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy