957dcf27_dcbf_4da5_98c5_7b855c82b4cf_info for candidates doc

							                                BIRKDALE HIGH SCHOOL
                              INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

Birkdale High School is an 11 – 16 community school in Dewsbury. The school was
Wheelwright Grammar School for Girls and was opened in 1931. The building and grounds are
impressive. The school still has some of the original features and maintains an air of purposeful
education. The grounds surrounding the school are quite extensive; the school has a
community Sports Facility and good playing fields.

There has been an extension to the building, built in the late 80’s. This houses the Technology
Area and the Science Laboratories, which were refurbished during summer 2004.

The original school building has undergone refurbishment and has recently been updated to
allow full disabled access at the cost of £250,000.

In September 2004 a new Headteacher was appointed to the school, following the retirement of
the previous Headteacher. Many changes have taken place since this appointment, bringing
the school to the forefront in terms of educational thinking. Expectations of staff and students
are high, staff find the work rewarding.

On entry to the school most pupils do not attain in line with the expectations for their age, which
has led the school to be creative in terms of curriculum planning. Our curriculum is organised to
enable wider participation through project days. This helps us to overcome low community
aspirations and low self esteem. The school has a School Based Police Officer and works
extensively to promote community cohesion. We make a wide offer of subjects at Key Stage 4
to tackle disaffection and further personalise the curriculum.

The school has reduced, in the last four years, a deficit budget from £400,000 to a manageable
figure of £60,000. Much of the change which has taken place has happened without the
support of funding because of the need to reduce the deficit. We are very proud of our progress
and our ability to be creative.

Students are from White and Asian heritage, with an intake of 65% students with Asian
Heritage. There is a caring ethos within the school; this support extends to all. Students have
been very well catered for in terms of Special Needs and Emotional problems. The school has
a high proportion of support staff, as it has benefited from many funding streams and makes
good use of the additional adults through the Additional Needs Team.

The school was removed from Special Measures in October 2007 and in November 2008 a
further successful Ofsted removed the school from all categories. The decision to remove the
school from the category is a result of considerable hard work and commitment by the staff and
students who are proud of the school in which they work. The school has continued on an
upward trend with an identified capacity to continue to make rapid progress. Both staff and
students are highly motivated – parental support is high. The LA are very supportive and are
working with the school to ensure that development is sustained, making Birkdale High School a
positive environment in which to work.

In summer 2009 the school made continued progress in terms of achievement, building on the
previous years excellent results. These results are testament to the systematic capacity building
which has taken place in the last five years.

In December 2009, under the Building Schools for the Future, Birkdale was identified as a
school which would close. Although funding has been identified for the initiative we are still in
the early stages of the plans. Birkdale will remain functional within the plans until August 2012.