Specialist School and Partnership work at Camp Hill

Since September 2005 we have been a specialist school for Mathematics and Computing and in April 2009 we became a High Performing Secondary School with an additional specialism in languages.

Through our specialist school work, we have a strong belief in:

• Innovative teaching and learning practices and habits

• The value of the high degree of subject expertise which our specialist departments have in stimulating the learning of our own students and the wider community

• The value of partnerships and collaborative working. We seek always to be outward- looking in our approach to learning.

• The value of international/ global approaches to learning

• The value of using specialism and partnerships to promote leadership skills and opportunities for our students

What does this mean in practice?

Mathematics is one of the most popular subjects in the school. Maths GCSE is taken early so students can then study Additional Mathematics or Statistics. All pupils take the appropriate level of the UKMT Mathematics Challenge which presents mathematical tasks in an interesting and challenging format which helps improve pupils’ problem-solving ability. The School holds an Annual Further Mathematics Conference to which schools from all over the country are invited. The ICT department also enters students for an early GCSE. An AS Computing course also runs in Years 10 and 11. The department runs extra-curricular activities and develops links with companies to encourage the girls to widen their knowledge of the uses of computers in the world of work. Another feature of the department’s work is the annual A Level Computing Conference in conjunction with the Computing at School group and the British Computer Society. We have also volunteered as a regional ‘hub’ for CAS to provide a regular forum for local computing teachers.

In Languages, Spanish has been added to the Key Stage 3 curriculum. Trips abroad include a regular Year 9 residential to Normandy and last year there was a joint Mathematics and Languages trip to China which included the opportunity for pupils to visit two schools in China and participate in Maths lessons. Enrichment activities throughout the year have included a joint French Apprentice Day with pupils from Sheldon Heath Academy and Camp Hill Boys during which pupils used their French in a business and marketing context to design and sell a new brand of chocolate for the French market.

Pupils in Year 10 have the opportunity to complete a Language Leaders qualification which includes planning and delivering lessons to one of our partner primary schools. Chinese and Russian clubs are well supported and last year 25 pupils in Years 9 and 10 passed their ASSET language qualifications in 8 different community languages (Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Panjabi, Tamil and Urdu). A further 3 candidates attained GCSE Russian and 2 pupils gained AS level Chinese.

Partnerships

The development of partnerships is a key focus of our specialist school work.

We currently work with 7 main partner primary schools:

Colmore Primary School, King David, Moseley Church of England Primary School, Kings Heath Primary School, Stirchley Community School, St Mary’s Selly Oak ,and Dame Ellen Pinsent Special School .

Staff from the Mathematics department run projects with Y6 and Y5 pupils at King David, Kings Heath and Moseley C of E School encouraging them to develop further Thinking Skills in Mathematics and supporting primary pupils with their financial capability skills. A range of ICT training days are organised for staff from these schools as requested and the department welcomed pupils from several of our partner schools during the summer term for sessions on robotics for Year 5 and 6 pupils. Our languages department works closely with Moseley Primary and King David schools with their primary languages strategy offering them language teaching and classroom support.

Maths department staff currently work with pupils from Years 7-9 from a range of local secondary schools including Alderbrook, Queensbridge, Baverstock and King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy. The after school sessions include a range of enrichment and problem-solving activities to extend the pupils’ experiences of Maths. The Languages department organise a range of sessions for pupils from KS3 and KS4 in schools as diverse as Camp Hill Boys, Kings Heath, and King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy, with a focus on increasing the awareness of the usefulness of languages and increasing participation in languages at KS4.

Wider partnership work

Our work with partner schools both primary and secondary now extends beyond the specialist school subjects to include a range of other academic departments. For example, in June our Science department welcomed 5 local primary schools, King David, St Mary’s, Kings Heath, Moseley and Stirchley to join us for a Forensics Day in which the pupils had the opportunity to examine a crime scene and learn about the way in which the science of forensics works through an understanding of blood analysis, fingerprinting, footprints and fibre analysis.

In June and July 14 pupils from Year 8 joined pupils from Sheldon Heath Academy on a joint English creative writing project in which they had to write the opening of a novel and pitch it to potential publishers. Last year we also visited Sheldon with our sixth form debating club and helped them set up debating in their sixth form.  

Developing partnerships with schools, employers, higher education and the wider community: How can you help as a parent?

We would like to continue to build up a database of employers and contacts in a range of institutions including Higher Education who would be willing to help us in our activities. These could range from a Business Enterprise day, to Careers Fairs, Sixth Form mock interviews, informal visits to speak to pupils and providing Work Experience Placements. We also have a regular programme of after school lectures on a variety of topics: you may know someone who could contribute a talk. Any contacts would be useful so if you, the company you work for, or any friends/relatives you know might be able to help us, please could you contact the school.

New partners

School wishing to form partnerships with the school should contact Mr A. Wager , Specialist school and Partnerships Co-ordinator, ( email: a.wager@kegschg.bham.sch.uk) or Miss S. Preedy, Deputy Headteacher ( s.preedy@kegschg.bham.sch.uk)

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