The Howard School, Kent

The Howard School
File:Paint Howard School.jpg
Location
Kent England
Information
Type	Bi-lateral and Sixth Form
Locale	Rainham
Principal	Paul Morris
Number of students	approximately 1500
Website	http://www.thehowardschool.co.uk

The Howard School is the only Bi-lateral school in Kent and Rainham and one of the five bi-laterals in the whole of the United Kingdom. The school holds specialist Sports College status.

A bi-lateral school is one where admission to the grammar school section is by 11 plus selection and admission to the high school section is non-selective. The school has around 1500 pupils, between the ages of 11-18. It is located in Derwent Way, Rainham. The school has Sports College status and is a foundation school. The current Principal is Paul Morris, who has been in his current post since September 2007. The school is located in Derwent Way, Rainham, and backs onto Rainham School for Girls. The school was named after Dorothy Howard who played a major part in the local community and was established in 1975 by amalgamating Rainham Boys Secondary School and Gillingham Boys Grammar School to form a bi-lateral school.

Principals

Since opening there have been five principals.

John Hicks: 1975 - 1987
Alan Jarrett: 1987 - 1997
Maurice Barry: 1997-2001
David Smith: 2002 - 2007
Paul Morris: current

History

The Howard School became a Grant Maintained School in 1994 when it left the control of Kent County Council. Following a change of Central Government it became a Foundation School in 1998. Although a Foundation School, the school works very closely with Medway Council who, since being set up in 1998 a Unitary Authority, control education in the Medway Towns. The school became a Specialist Sports College in 2007. In 2008 it received a good rating from the ofsted inspectors, this is a dramatic turnaround considering in 2002 the ofsted inspectors gave a serious weaknesses rating.

Vision statement

• To enable students of all abilities to develop to their true potential.
• To provide tolerance and respect for all cultures represented in the school.
• To provide a challenging, interesting and well balanced curriculum catering for the range of abilities and needs of our students.
• To strive to raise our standards of academic success.
• To provide a safe, happy and caring working environment in which each student is valued and is able to develop his potential.
• To have consistently high expectations relevant to the abilities of each student; to match those with high quality resources and learning strategies.
• To develop in each student a sense of moral values in order to help prepare them for future responsibilities and opportunities.
• To foster links with parents and the wider community.

To develop in students an understanding of themselves and enable them to become responsible citizens with a social, cultural, economic and political awareness

Lessons

Art

In Years 7, 8 and 9 you learn the basics of Art like how to draw a face/person and make a self portrait at the end of the module. You also learn about Aboriginal Art and art from different countries like Egypt and Mexico. Mexico is a very popular term with students and you produce a collage about the Day of the Dead festival.

In GCSE there are many styles of Art the students may choose from; students taking GCSE Art select their area of study from: Normal Art, Sculpture, Fine Art and Modern Art
Photography is also available to Study at the Howard School as Art form, Photography is, however, considered a separate GCSE and subject on the students time-table and is treated by the examinations boards as such.

Citizenship

Students do Citizenship for all of students' school life except for A-level. In Years 7, 8 and 9 it's all about being a good citizen, bullying, points of views, politics, drugs and capital punishment. When students do GCSE Citizenship, the students go into the depths of the areas of study and get a broader understanding of the subject as a whole.

Drama

Drama is one of the most active lessons at Howard and is one of the children's favourites. It is an optional GCSE which you do as a BTEC which is worth four GCSEs. The department put on four shows a year, three with the music department and have a reputation for being some of the best school shows in Kent.

ICT

ICT is quite an attractive GCSE and A Level at The Howard School, however the majority of all people that go on the course have complained bitterly about the lack of quality teaching done by the ICT department, furthermore the ICT department seem to be unable to keep their website updated, as it has not been updated for the last year. Notices about the closure of the school due to the heavy snowfall in the UK, which happened on 2nd February 2009 came very late and on the 4th February 2009, they gave no notice that the school was closing however they did mention as pupils arrived at the school that the school will not be opening until 11 O' clock. There was no mention of this on their website.

Last Few Musicals

• Chicago (2004)
• Blood Brothers (2005)
• Bugsy Malone (2006)
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (2007)

Sports College status

The school has achieved Sports College status. Since gaining the Sports College status, the school has made plans to develop its facilities with extra financial input received from the government. Current Plans are to:

• Build 5 A Side football pitches in the "Bowl Area" (Named after its geographical features.)
• Build a Library (A past attempt at running a school library failed. The Library suffered vandalism and was converted into the "ELC" (Electronic Learning Centre) that exists today as the core of computer network.)

Gifted and Talented

Podcasting

The school has started up a pilot scheme under the Gifted and Talented Programme to get a fully fledged podcasting service up and running. The service is to be run by the students and supervised by Mr Ross (Head of Key stage 3 IT). Currently the year 11 and 10 students running the club are preparing the first podcast to be released April (delayed by GCSE Exam Perparations) 2008. The podcast will be made available from the Howard School website as a downloadable MP3 file. The March 2008 installment will include:

• Interview with the Principal Mr Paul Morris (Interview has been recorded and is now under electronic editing)
• Interview with year 11 student: "Because he wouldn't go away unless we interviewed him" (recorded and now under electronic censoring)
• Interview with Mr Pyrke: A more informal interview to promote the student and teacher's sense of school community

Hardware

The club uses USB dictaphones to record raw audio data for interviews outside the standard recording environment. It also uses high quality audio hardware which can be used for "in-studio" interviews. The club is located in Mr Ross's classroom and has a great desire for spare audio equipment which may no longer be needed by wealthy businesses in the media. Companies should arrange donations through Mr Ross and administrative staff.

Facilities

The Howard School has a large range of facilities. The very large 36-acre (150,000 m²) campus encompasses:-

• Two Gymnasia
• A Sports Hall
• Table Tennis Centre with twelve full size tables
• Ten five-a-side all weather floodlit football pitches
• Four football pitches
• Two rugby pitches
• Athletics track
• Learning Resource Centre (complete July 08)
• ‘E’ Learning Centre (E - Electronic) CREATED BY JAMES THE AWESOME TECHNICIAN
• Over 450 computers in rooms around the school
• 130 seater theatre
• Three canteens
• Sixth Form Centre
• Student Services building
• Music suite
• Two drama studios
• Eleven science laboratories
• Practical Crafts area
• Art studios
• Large hall (seating for 350) equipped with performance stage, 3 Spot-light belts, electronic curtains and advanced sound system
• Eight Technology rooms (five workshops and three graphics rooms)
• Playgrounds
• Parking for 260 cars

Famous Pupils

Rik Waller - Singer
Gary Rhodes - The Celebrity Chef Richard Phillips - Celebrity Chef
Dean Bell - Professional Model
Adam Moorey - Lead Singer of My Chemical Romance

Publicity

The school has recently come under fire from the BBC South East News, Kent Radio Services and the 'Have I Got News For You' comedy television show. Accusations of bullying Management Problems and irresponsible commenting on students have publicly been made.

• BBC NEWS South East Report on bullying
• KM Messenger
• BBC NEWS Report about irresponsible commenting on students

The most recent addition to the school's publicity came on Friday 15 February 2009 when it emerged that a student died on a school skiing trip to Mallnitz in Austria. The boy died after falling while hiking to a local viewpoint.

• BBC News Report on the death of student
• BBC News Report on the death of student