PARTNERSHIP between parents, students and staff is at the forefront of changes at Netherwood Academy.
New principal Angela Wells took over leadership at the school on January 8.
This week, she has taken part in parent forums to find out directly from parents what issues and comments they have about the school.
And she is keen to keep them involved with the school’s development moving forward.
Angela was drafted in to spearhead improvements at the Wombwell academy, which was taken over the Astrea Academy Trust in May last year.
At the time of the takeover, Netherwood was in the bottom three per cent of schools nationally.
Angela has experience in improving struggling schools, having previously been head at the Buckingham School.
Under her leadership, Buckingham went from requiring improvement to one now rated good under Ofsted.
She hopes to recreate that success at Netherwood.
She said: “This is my fifth week here and I have found lovely students, really lovely kids. I go into the classrooms and I have seen some great teaching but even better students.
“We have got a lot of work to do in terms of having high expectations consistently across school. But it is about consistency and everybody working together to make sure they know they have achievable work.
“The students are very able and very willing to take on board that work and make changes.
“Since I started we have had a dance festival with 70 students performing from key stages three and four all the way up to GCSE level, which was a delight to see. There were examined students performing alongside extra-curricular so we had all aspects of school life represented.
“We have had parents forums this week where we are working alongside parents to build a voice for them and make sure they can get involved with the governance of the school, working towards the improvements together.
“When parents and school staff work together we can create more rapid improvement.
“Year 11 have also been working hard because they have their mocks after half term. We have set up for a company to come in and work on developing study skills, building aspirations and motivation going into the final exams.”
Changes are also underway to school policies to help with the improvements.
Angela added: “We have introduced more robust policies around marking and feedback. Homework will come online after half term which will also help us to set high standards across the whole school.”
