We were designated as one of the first six Arts Colleges in the country in 1997.
Arts Colleges raise standards of achievement and the quality of learning of the arts for all their students, leading to whole school improvement in performance. They nurture a lifelong passion for, and appreciation of, the arts. They promote enjoyment of many different artistic forms and encourage participation in a wide variety of artistic activity for all students.
The aim is to identify ways in which the arts can improve learning in other curriculum areas. They take a lead in using ICT as a means of enhancing learning in the arts and other subjects. They enable students to work in school with professionals involved in the arts and creative industries and to enjoy artistic experiences outside the classroom.
The priority is to maximise the opportunities for young people to achieve in the arts and gain access to employment, further training and higher education in the arts. They are centres of excellence, sharing resources and developing and sharing leading practice with other schools and their communities. They will be committed to the professional development of staff.”
The trust promotes school improvement by providing opportunities for schools to work to their strengths, enabling them to deliver effective teaching and learning in their area of expertise, as well as across the curriculum, and to drive innovation. Specialist schools engage in a thorough audit of their progress so far and set out plans and targets for specialist subject improvement as well as whole school targets. The October 2001 OfSTED survey of the programme Specialist Schools: An evaluation of progress confirmed that, for the vast majority existing specialist schools, specialist status has helped them to sustain or accelerate the pace of whole-school improvement and has acted as a catalyst for innovation.
The Specialist Schools Programme has become increasingly popular and successful since its inception in 1994. Specialist schools are an important part of the Government’s plans to raise standards in secondary education. The DfES document A New Specialist System: Transforming Secondary Education (February 2003) set out a long term vision that all secondary schools would become specialist schools. Fred Longworth High is proud to have been one of the first.
The Prince of Wales has always taken an interest in education and is particularly keen to recognise successful schools. It is immensely pleasing to report that, Mr. Colley was invited by the Prince to a reception at his country home, Highgrove, in recognition of the achievements of the school.
Our Arts College has been further endorsed with the award of Arts mark Gold - a recognition of excellent Arts provision in the curriculum and in the local community.
In May 2003 our bid for Sports Mark status was awarded the Gold standard, a level reached by very few secondary schools nationally. This recognises the breadth, variety and quality of our sport and P.E. provision and reflects great credit on our P.E. team.
In May 2003, the education minister Charles Clarke gave us a School Achievement Award for performing much better than similar schools over the past year. This 'cash prize' to reward all school staff for their efforts has been extremely well received in school as you can imagine! All team members, teachers and support staff qualify for a share in the windfall and should benefit before the summer.
We were named by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in his annual report as an 'Outstanding School'. Mr. Bell made his judgement based on our OfSTED report and performance data and ranked us with the best. This accolade from the very top is an acknowledgement of all we have have done over the last few years and is a source of great pride within the school.
In 2007 we were presented with the Healthy Schools Award to reflect the high standard of our Personal, Social and Health Education Programme. Miss Barton and her team put together a top class bid to secure the award.
In July 2004 we won the New Statesman New Media Award for Best Secondary School ICT Project for our website and use of interactive whiteboards to provide multimedia resources in the classroom.