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Blessed William Howard Catholic High School has entered a new stage of its development with the implementation of a distributed leadership structure. It is one that offers opportunities to colleagues that are seeking new challenges. A wide variety of posts exist in the school that will open the door to securing future progression in your career. Personal development is central to this. The school fully supports this development and sees it as a vital component in improving the school for students.

Attainment has improved over the last 4 years. GCSE results were at 57% 5 A*-C and 51% 5A*-C including English and mathematics in 2007. In 2011 these had risen to 71% and 61% respectively. We are confident that this success will continue. The school is targeting results in excess of 70% in 5 A*-C including English and mathematics.

Learning and teaching has been at the heart of this improvement. The school has spent a great deal of time looking at improving assessment and feedback. We have also adopted a shortened two year Key Stage 3. This will see students taking their GCSE subjects over a 3 year period, with many students attaining their first full set of results by the end of Y10 – allowing other opportunities in terms of study or ensuring key qualifications are secured.

The school is organized into 3 “schools within a school” – Foundation [Y7 and 8], Development [Y9 and 10] and Senior [Y11 – Y13]. Each school is headed by a Director of Achievement who is responsible for the performance of students in that school and the performance of staff attached to that school.

The drive for higher standards is conducted with the student at the heart of the process. All posts within the school are focused on the welfare, spiritual development and academic success of our young people. They, alongside our staff, are our greatest asset. It is the relationships between all members of our community, the partnership between staff and students, parents and school, school and parish, that make the school a “happy and harmonious society” [Ofsted 2010].

Teaching staff appointed to positions in the school are encouraged to see their role as being wider than just their specialized area of subject knowledge. As teachers, in a Catholic tradition, they offer so much more –
“Good teaching cannot ever be reduced to the latest curriculum, or set of creeds, or pedagogical technique – it depends, for the greater part, on the purified, enthusiastic humanity of the educator. ‘There is no greater calling on earth than teaching.’ (Cardinal Hume)”
From Begin with the Heart – Daniel O’Leary

It is with this in mind that we see our role as being educators of young people, those who draw out of young people the innate potential they have to bring it to fruition. This vision of education extends beyond the doorstep of the school. To fully realize this vision we must embrace the world, particularly in terms of ICT. The school has made massive improvements in its provision for ICT over the last 4 years. We are now looking at the future use of a wider range of equipment, including wireless tablet devices.

Catholic education is seen as being a journey for our young people, from the moment they are born; with parents as the first and best of educators. We have strong links with our partner primary schools as the family of Catholic schools in Stafford, Brewood and Stone. Curriculum continuity and progression is crucial to this further development of our young people. Our close links sees teaching staff from our school visiting partner primaries in various subjects. This close partnership with the primary schools is seeing the development towards a greater collaboration. As a family of schools we will be able to secure Catholic education in this area for the future of the Catholic community of Stafford, Brewood and Stone.