Atherton Community School is utterly committed to equipping the children of this community to achieve long-lasting success.
By seizing this opportunity to create a new type of school in which all children can grow and develop, Atherton Community School will help to change the educational landscape and demonstrate a model of community learning that transforms the lives of children and their families by building confidence, celebrating achievement and generating exciting futures through academic attainment.
Atherton Community School is a response to the overwhelming cry of parents and carers, leaders and the local community for a new school in Atherton. In 2010, led by the chaplain of Hesketh Fletcher CE High School, community leaders invited Chapel St to help explore a new educational future in the face of the school’s closure.
Over the past year the Chapel St team have had the privilege to work with hundreds of local teachers, families, employers and stakeholders. The Chapel St team and ACS Steering Group have worked hard to foster a spirit of partnership across the whole community. We are working with an array of organisations to ensure that Atherton Community School has the support of the community and access to local resources.
Raising the aspirations and attainment of local children is our key priority. As one Headteacher observes, “The first challenge in this community is to engage children and improve attitudes to learning.” We acknowledge that many local families have lost confidence in the education system and fail to appreciate education as a result.
Atherton Community School will be a dynamic educational hub, transforming the lives of children, enhancing the prospects of families and providing a catalyst for community regeneration. Through quality provision and dynamic partnerships with other providers Atherton Community School will offer personalised pathways to higher education, vocational training and the workplace.
For 11-19 year-olds, this proposal offers a route of progression that is currently unavailable to local families. Atherton Community School plans to grow to a student population of 450 secondary students combined with 200 Sixth Form students. Deliberately smaller than the average UK setting, it will offer a more intimate learning community addressing the specific needs of families in Atherton. To ensure smooth transitions for new students and families, we will develop a comprehensive orientation programme for children in Year 6.
Atherton Community School will combine recent learning technologies with a highly personalised approach in order to optimise the impact of learning on children and families. Working with Fred Longworth High School and other partners, Atherton Community School will provide a broad range of courses while ensuring that staff and governors can draw on high-level expertise. As a result, Atherton Community School will offer quality, individuality and sustainability to students, families and the wider community.
1. Atherton Community School will offer a distinct education in a dynamic environment for teaching and learning. Our teaching methods move beyond the mastery of mere information, inviting students to be challenged and changed by their learning. We will teach children to delight in knowledge: to move from, ‘Whatever!’ and ‘So what?’ to wonder and wellbeing. Lessons will come with a license for adventure, learning will be integrated across subjects and disciplines and teaching will be applied to real life.
Inclusion. Inclusion is central to our vision and ethos, under-pinning educational opportunities and sponsoring success and achievement for all. Atherton Community School will be open to all regardless of faith, ethnicity, educational need, gender, or sexual orientation. We will invest in children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and develop students who are especially gifted or talented in certain areas. ACS will have exemplary differentiation including SEN provision that includes parents and carers, identifies children’s needs and assesses and monitors progress.
Behaviour. Our guiding principle is the golden rule. Staff and students will treat others in the same way that they wish to be treated. This will form the basis for positive behaviour management at Atherton Community School. While clearly addressing the factors that cause children to make poor choices, we will refuse to identify children by their negative behaviour and rather build on their personal strengths and abilities.
2. Atherton Community School will develop skills and build knowledge and confidence. We believe that confidence and self-esteem are essential if children are to learn and develop. Atherton Community School will accelerate students’ learning, personalising education to fit the needs and fulfill the potential of every child. Personalisation will be the foundation of teaching and learning at our school.
Curriculum. We believe that a curriculum of core subjects combined with access to wider studies through technology and collaboration with partner providers can provide a focused and rounded education. Atherton Community School will provide a challenging environment where students are stretched and supported in all areas of education. Strategic planning will align national expectations for attainment with child-centred and child-led learning.
Creativity. We believe that exercising creativity and imagination is a vital element of effective education and enhances all areas of learning. Atherton Community School will develop innovative approaches to learning and problem solving as well as exposing students to the creative arts, expressive arts and sport.
Collaboration. We believe that twenty-first century education must emphasise the role of enterprise. Atherton Community School will equip students with the character, ingenuity, social expertise and team skills that they need to succeed in a fast-changing world. We will facilitate enterprise learning in collaboration with local employers enabling positive experiences in the workplace and assisting students to become more vocationally self-aware.
Community. We believe that it takes a community to raise a child. Children grow and develop faster when they are part of a learning community. Atherton Community School will actively engage parents and carers in their child’s education and seek to support them in their own learning and development. By fostering networks of reciprocity and support between parents and carers and staff we will develop an environment that builds community and enhances family life.
Closeness. We believe that quality relationships are intrinsic to successful educational outcomes. Atherton Community School is a deliberately small school. Our vision is to build meaningful and continuous relationships between staff, children, families and the community. Monitoring attainment and achievement in order to plan our students’ next steps will help us meet the needs of each child. Our work will account for the child’s stage of development as opposed to their age, in the core subjects of English and maths.
Contribution. We believe that every child has unique gifts and talents and the potential to make a positive contribution to their community. Atherton Community School will develop young citizens who are aware of their duty to society and actively involved in building and supporting their local family.
Continuity. We believe that continuity is key to the development of self- confidence. Acknowledging that many of the difficulties in our current education system occur at points of transition, Atherton Community School will provide a secure learning community for children through continuity of key aspects of school life including teaching and learning methods, curriculum and assessment, personal coaching, pastoral care and our positive behaviour management system.
Coaching. We believe that every child should have someone who is irrationally committed to their success. Atherton Community School will provide every child with a personal coach to support them in their learning and development.
Crossing Cultures. We believe that children have much to gain from experiencing different cultures, contexts and communities. The Atherton Community School curriculum will be grounded in the core skills as exemplified by the English Baccalaureate. Further breadth and depth will be added through opportunities to experience other cultures, making a difference in the lives of children and communities in other parts of the world. We will replace self-entitlement with a sense of responsibility.
Christian character: We recognise the local demand for a school with a Christian ethos. Where the trustees of Chapel St are concerned, a Christian ethos school welcomes children, families and staff of all faiths and no faith, enabling all to work together towards the common good of the whole community. Atherton Community School will improve community cohesion and increase civic pride. While our admissions policy will not include criteria for admitting children on the basis of their faith, we understand that we are subject to Section 48 inspections.
At Chapel St, Every Person Matters. Atherton Community School will extend the Every Child Matters agenda to include parents, carers and other members of the community, recognising that stronger communities and families make for stronger children. ACS will improve outcomes for children, their families and the local community. Participation in the Atherton Community School Forums, such as the Parents and Carers Forum and the Community Forum, will provide feedback and input on needs being met, such as pre and after school provision, and meeting expectations around achievement and standards. This is formalised through Participation Groups in the governing body and these forums.
3. Atherton Community School will raise aspiration and attainment
Increasing intrinsic motivation and building ownership of learning is crucial. Our personalisation strategies will extend to children’s interests and experiences, ensuring that we take every opportunity to meet need, build confidence, acquire knowledge and develop skills. In addition to individual development plans and learning reviews with their coaches, students will also have opportunities to provide feedback on teaching at Atherton Community School through input into learning councils, advisory groups and the School Parliament.
4. Atherton Community School will deliver a transformative Secondary School
Given the need for secondary places in the Atherton community and the demand from parents and carers for a greater choice, we have developed these proposals for an outstanding school that will radically raise the aspirations and attainment of local children.
5. ACS will deliver a transformative Sixth Form
Where The vision for the Sixth Form phase of Atherton Community School is one of academic excellence, where students study A-levels and undertake a range of work placements and enrichment activities to prepare them for university and professional careers such as medicine, law, finance and teaching. The curriculum offer builds on the English Baccalaureate at GCSE and will include the facilitating subjects favoured by the Russell Group of universities (more detail later on). The ACS Sixth Form will have 200 places.
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