- Myton School

Dear Parents and Carers

It is with great pleasure that I take up the interim headship of Myton School. I would like to thank Mr MacIntyre for a smooth transition and for his work during 6½ years at Myton. Our school is highly successful and well-positioned to improve further, we are over-subscribed, and we’re forecasting high levels of achievement at both A level and GCSE. We are also finalising our recruitment process to be fully staffed for 2016/17.

I have been Deputy Head at Myton School for five years. In total, I have completed 11 years as a senior leader in three schools: in Hampshire, Essex and now Warwickshire. A previous Head I worked with once told me that I have a ‘face for behaviour’, which possibly explains why I have led the care, guidance and support systems in three schools including Myton! It is a role I have always enjoyed and I firmly believe that children like clear rules, consistently applied, so they know what is expected of them and can concentrate on their learning.

I have a clear agenda for my time as interim head: to implement our school improvement priorities by the summer of 2017. Following our own evaluation and the Ofsted inspection, we have written a comprehensive School Improvement Plan with ambitious targets. I’ve included a brief summary of the 10 strategic aims at the end of this message; however running through our improvement plan are these key themes:

High expectations of all students to work hard and achieve well.
High quality teaching matched to the needs of all students.
Seeking and responding to the opinions of students, staff and parents in meeting our School Improvement priorities.
Consistently excellent behaviour.
Making reading a priority.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be adjusting some of our systems to better support our students. At this point, I do not predict any whole-school policy changes over the next year; however we will be working to ensure our current practice is as good as it can be. We will also be working with students on panels to gain their views and feedback on the impact of actions we have taken. We select students randomly to take part in our panels though we do make sure the groups are representative of all our students. As students take part, we will be contacting you, their parents and carers, with similar questions to gauge your own opinions.

Finally, I would like to thank you for your continuing support of Myton School. Please remind your child or children to bring their reading book to school every day, and to select books which challenge them. Everyone has embraced the Drop Everything and Read initiative and it is a pleasure to walk through the school at 8.45am each day and see 1,400 children enjoying reading.

Best wishes

Andy Perry

Summary of the 10 strategic aims of our School Improvement Plan

1.	Further develop a culture of reading throughout Myton School, improving the reading skills of all students, especially the less able.
2a.	Improve the consistency of teaching, learning and assessment so that progress, teaching and behaviour in all lessons is at least good in all areas.
2b.	Provide staff with Continuing Professional Development which meets the needs of all learners, especially the disadvantaged, those with special educational needs and disabilities and the less able.
3a.	Ensure the curriculum and whole-school assessment strategies meet the needs of all learners.
3b.	Develop and implement a Personal, Social and Health Education provision which ensures all pupils are prepared for life in modern Britain.
3c.	Implement outstanding Careers Advice and Information for all pupils from Years 7-13.
4.	Improve the social and academic progress of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
5a.	Further improve the attendance, welfare and behaviour of all pupils.
5b.	Use the House System to lead a culture of confidence and ambition throughout the school.
6a.	Introduce clear systems of accountability throughout the school which address the needs of all pupils.
6b.	Improve the use of assessment and other information to rapidly intervene and avoid under-performance in all years.
7.	Develop the skills and knowledge of Governors so they can hold school leaders to account.
8.	Further improve the provision at KS5 ensuring consistently good or better teaching and outstanding outcomes.
9.	Ensure all pupils develop the relevant maths and numeracy skills to succeed in education and life.
10.	No disadvantaged pupil to make less progress than their peers, either academically or socially.