Annual Report

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The Governors are required to report annually to parents on aspects like, developments in the School, examination results, attendance, financial statements and progress made in implementing the action plan arising from the last Estyn Inspection Report. A copy of this report is made available to all parents, in addition to parents, as in the latest regulations, either being able to accept an invitation to attend a Meeting with Governors or to request that such a meeting takes place. Here parents may take up with the Governors and the Headteacher any issues raised in the report. It was decided in the meeting of November 2004, that in future all parents would be supplied with a summary report in a more accessible format. This could be followed up by a request to receive this full report, which could also be available in electronic format. Parents may also if they wish take such matters up at other times with the Headteacher or the Governors. The content of the Annual Report is laid down by regulation of the Welsh Assembly Government. Although primarily concerned with the school year 2007-2008, the report also refers to some aspects from the start of 2008-2009.

The school established in 2005 a renewed set of key educational goals which provide the focus for all that we do, particularly in terms of improvement planning. These consist of a banner headline followed by five succinct and memorable points, and hopefully therefore ones that will impact upon the school community.

These educational goals have been placed in the Staff and Student Planners as well as being displayed in various places around the school, including the main Reception, Pupil Reception and both the West wing and East wing foyers. They are re-emphasised here on an annual basis and to pupils and parents at all relevant opportunities such as school assemblies and evenings for parents. They are aspirational goals as opposed to a final destination but nevertheless we always try to bear them in mind.

KEY POINTS

1 The pupil roll after several years of stability at around 1700 is now starting to show the effects of demographic decline and currently stands at around 1650.

2 For the fifth year we have started the school year with a Sixth Form in excess of 300 in number.

3 We have continued to make significant improvements to the school environment but still without any major capital investment by the either Cardiff County Council or

the Welsh Assembly Government. We are a very long distance away from the often quoted standing political commitment of all school buildings being “fit for purpose”

by 2010, indeed we believe that this commitment made by the Welsh Assembly Government has now been dropped as being unattainable! This of course remains within

the context of protracted political discussions about the future shape of the school provision in Cardiff. Whilst these discussions have been taking place there has been

a reluctance to commit to capital projects on a city wide basis. We continue to maintain and attempt to improve the buildings within our own limited resources and are

happy to report that we started that rolling refurbishment programme that was started in the summer 2005 is now beginning to show very positive benefits around the

4 We are grateful for support from the LEA in the replacement of the roof and associated fittings in the east wing of the school.

5 The school continues to make prudent and efficient use of its limited resources. The financial year of 2007-08 ended with an outturn of £x. At a time when the local

population of North Cardiff is beginning to shrink our role this money has helped to ensure our provision for 2008-09. We recognise that such a position will not be able

6 We have a much improved provision for the teaching of ICT. This is now fully timetabled for Years 7-11.

7 The quality of self-evaluation within the school again improved with all subject areas and Year teams now mirroring the whole school self-evaluation by considering

8 The 2008 Key Stage 3 Teacher Assessment results were slightly up on 2007. The GCSE results were the best ever at A* - G and had other good features, the AS results

were significantly improved and A level results were the best ever. All have details later in the report.

9 Attendance for 2007-2008 improved slightly and stands at 92.8%. We continue to follow strategies aimed at maintaining and improving this figure. Ultimately we rely

10 The school continues to offer its pupils a wide range of opportunities beyond those in the classroom. These provide both opportunity and excellence. Even in these Key

Points mention must be made of the outstanding school production of the Insect Play.

11 We were delighted that September 2006 saw the first Key Stage 3 Awards evening that recognised achievement and effort during 2005-06. This has now become an

annual event and we have extended this into year 10 and will operate an Awards Evening annually.

12 2007-08 has also seen the continuation of the Key Stage 3 Achievement scheme. The success of this means that we are now extending it into Key Stage 4.

13 Since the time of the last report Governors have approved a new policy upon Special Needs, Staff absence and Data Protection

14 Mr Alun Lewis has again been re-elected as Chairperson of the Governing body.

THE GOVERNORS’ ROLE

The governors continue to fulfil their role of overseeing the direction and the development of the school on behalf of the local community and the local authority. There are four main categories of governors; governors nominated by the County Council, parent governors, staff governors and community governors. Two pupils elected by their peers on the School Council are also eligible to attend.

Governors are ultimately responsible for establishing a range of school policies, approving an Annual Budget and an annual School Improvement Plan. We are a “critical friend” to the Headteacher and the senior leadership team of the school, who run the school on a day-to-day basis. A list of governors and their roles is included as part of this Annual Report.

The governors meet twice a term for business. We also hold an annual strategy day in order to help evaluate the school’s progress and to set the improvement plan for the forthcoming year. In 2004-05 we changed the date of this from the autumn to the spring to be more effective in this process. This has enabled us to fully consider progress towards each existing School Improvement Plan, before using this, together with our Strategic Plan and whole school Self-Evaluation, to prioritise our planned improvements for each subsequent year. Two sub-committee meetings precede each full meeting. There is now one of these for each of the four sections of the School Improvement Plan.

Governors are also involved in many other aspects of school life, linking with different curriculum areas, considering school visits, the provision of Special Educational Needs, Health and Safety issues, the progress of Looked after Children, Child Protection Equal Opportunities and Race Equality issues. We are also regularly involved with the appointment of staff to the school.

It should be known that our Governors do not claim travel or subsistence expenses.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

It is one of the governors’ responsibilities to set a budget which reflects the school’s plans and which is then executed to best effect for the benefit of the pupils. This governing body continues to believe that by and large the annual revenue budget should be spent for the benefit of the pupils currently in the school, rather than large reserves being saved up for some future beneficiaries. Nevertheless on a budget £6 million it would be prudent to have an amount earmarked for unforeseen events and circumstances.

The Schools Outturn of Expenditure for 2007-2008 is included later in this report. It again includes a larger than usual balance of £72,860(lower than last year but within recommendations), this will be used to offset issues caused by a slightly falling roll linked with local population trends. A lot of this amount was unplanned and caused by unforeseen staffing changes during the financial year including a number of voluntary redundancies at the end of the school year. These ended up having a beneficial effect on the budget. We also consciously reined in spending in the latter part of the financial year. This was when it started to become clear that our pupil roll for 2008-09 was likely to fall further than last year, both in actual numbers and against those projected for budgetary purposes. This means that the LEA will “clawback” money and that the outturn can be used, at least on a short term basis, to maintain provisions within the school. After significant rises in 2005-06 and 2006-07 capitation to subject areas was maintained for 2007-08 and again in 2008-09.

PUPIL ACHIEVEMENTS AND SCHOOL STANDARDS

We are obliged to provide you with prescribed information about Public Examinations and Pupil Assessments. These are included towards the rear of this report. As ever we are proud of the achievements of many of our pupils and pass on our congratulations to them. Please note that any variance on exam results described in this report or the summary report and the WAG RE2 sheets that are appendices at the back of this report are the result of various forms of counting procedures which we would be happy to explain.

KS3 SATs tests are no longer a compulsory element in Wales and as such data is no longer collated upon them. Therefore Teacher Assessments are now the only vehicle that is collated. These were all up upon 2007. Work continues to be done in these new conditions where the teacher’s judgement is no longer verified by a test result or vice versa. Consequently staff are adding to their assessment expertise by continuing to work with primary colleagues, ensuring we have agreed portfolios of levelled standards and attending where available WJEC Pilot schemes in Teacher Assessment. The Mathematics results were 86% achieving Level 5 or above, (78% in 2007); Science 85%, (77.6.% in 2007), and English 81%, (74.6% in 2007). The Core Subject Indicator was 76% against 61.2% in 2007.

At GCSE level the percentage of Year 11 pupils achieving 5 or more grades A*- C or their equivalent was 68%, the fifth successive year that the school has attained over 60%. This is the best ever recorded although it becomes 65% on official figures. This is because unlike England, Wales does not include the BTEC results and a couple of overage students also have to be included from another year group. We were again pleased with the achievements at 5 or more grades A*- G which were officially 94% but again, as above in reality higher. We continue to review the curriculum in order to try and provide opportunities for all to succeed.

The A level results were the best that the school has recorded with a pass rate of 98.3% and 25.9% being at grade A. These statistics surpassed every previous year. As a result of this there was a highly successful take up rate of higher education places.

We also were pleased to note a significant improvement in the AS results. These by their very nature will always have lower results than A2 levels. (Students often take 4 subjects, then drop the weakest, together with in some cases the resitting of modules in Year 13.) As we have stated before, the simplest way to raise these overnight would be to have higher entry criteria to study AS levels. As a school we try to make our Sixth Form as inclusive as possible and therefore allow students to commence AS levels with 4 GCSE passes at grades A*-C. This is lower than many neighbouring institutions and deliberately errs on the side of maximising opportunity, rather that guaranteeing the best possible results. The results have now gone above national averages with a pass rate of 90.5%, up again from the 90.4% of 2007. 66.9% of these were at grades A-C as opposed to 60.5% in 2007.

On behalf of parents, the Governors have passed on their thanks for the efforts of all staff in contributing to the various achievements by our pupils. We recognise that modern pressures to succeed seem to get greater on an yearly basis, and that consequently we do not concur with the annual attempts of the media to belittle the achievements of our young people.

As reported previously we were delighted when in September 2006 the school instigated a Key Stage 3 Awards Evening which was repeated in 2007. The success of this means that it continues to be an annual event and during 2007-08 it was extended to celebrate the achievement of pupils in year 10. In addition during 2007-08 the school continued to provide a proactive Key Stage 3 Achievement Scheme. This provides regular positive mentoring to select Year 7 to 9 pupils. Positive feedback means that for 2007-08 it was extended into Key Stage 4.

As ever in other aspects of school standards the staff continues to work hard. The improvement in the adherence to the published school uniform has continued and now incorporates new elements as discussed with pupils, parents and our whole school community, and as a result has seen further improvement. This has seen the introduction of a new school jumper to replace the existing sweatshirt. This has become compulsory from September 2008. As Governors we are mindful of keeping the uniform as simple, affordable and practical as possible and would ask that parents support us on this. We have empowered the Headteacher to send home, (providing parents have been informed) any pupils who are not properly dressed for school.

The behaviour of the great majority of pupils continues to bring credit both to themselves and their parents, inside school, when representing the school and in the local community. We believe that for a small minority it is still too necessary to resort to exclusions. These will always be upheld where they are fairly directed towards real or threatened violence or bullying towards staff or pupils, serious abuse of staff and either serious damage to or theft of property belonging to others or the school. We are nevertheless mindful of the guidance from the Welsh Assembly Government that in the majority of cases it is the occasion of exclusion rather than the length that is the important factor. The school continues to compare favourably on the level of exclusions within the local authority.

EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

The school continues to value not just what is easy to measure and therefore often favoured by national politicians, but also many other aspects of what can contribute to a full and rounded education. This remains a very important part of the school’s goal at enabling pupils to succeed.

Undoubtedly one of the highlights of 2007-08 was the school production of The Insect Play. This was a change from the usual highly successful Musical production. Over 79 pupils took part in the play from all year groups. This was a challenging production that clearly reflected the wealth of talent we have in the school. The pupils and staff involved may evolve but the standards and involvement remain astonishingly high. This played to full and exceptionally appreciative audiences for two nights in July 2008. The year 10 Drama groups took performances and workshops to all our feeder schools. This helped in developing there skills as well as reinforcing the strong links we have with our primary schools.

In the meantime the usual range of events has shown the breadth and depth of talent that is both discovered and encouraged within the school. Musical concert and Performance Evenings continue to show the breadth and depth of talent that is available within the school and ever willing to take up these performance opportunities. We were also delighted to continue to take our annual Carol Service out into the wider community. In December 2007 we again received a warm welcome at Highfields Church in Roath.

Again there have been educational visits closely linked to the curriculum that are simply too numerous to list but do much to further enliven learning and teaching. In addition the opportunity to experience different languages and activities has seen school visits to European countries as well as residential visits within Wales.

Last year was once again very successful in terms of sporting achievement and just as importantly participation with a number of individuals doing outstandingly well in cup and league competitions. The PE department runs an inclusive policy and actively encourages pupil participation at whatever level. This meant that there were a number of inter-form competitions and B and C team games as well as a number of lunchtime clubs. The early morning fitness club with Mr Trelawney and Dance classes with Mrs Bartley are well established. Teams were put out in the following sports including boys and girls soccer, rugby, tag rugby, boys and girls hockey, cross country, athletics, netball, baseball, gymnastics, tennis, badminton, trampolining, golf and swimming. Our outstanding performers were rewarded in the annual Presentation Evening in November. The annual tour to Jesolo was as successful as ever and the inaugural dance school in Lake Garda will be repeated before too long. Duke of Edinburgh Award activities continue to go from strength to strength, further establishing us as one of the leading centres in the area. We look forward to the successful development of the 5x60 sports scheme. On the curriculum side, the investment of time, preparation and effort in BTEC Sport has paid dividends with all 2008 candidates doing well and a successful launch of the Level 3 course in the Sixth Form.

Llanishen High School “TV station.” has continued to thrive and during 2007-08 we were pleased to note the continuation and further achievements of the Eco Schools Club and our recognition by Cardiff Healthy Schools. The Eco council is made up from pupils in years 7, 11 and 12 and as a group they are well on the way to achieving the prestigious Green Flag Award for the school. In addition they are helping to forge forward on re-cycling and energy conservation.

As is always the case we are grateful for the immense amount of time and energy that staff put into both the activities mentioned above and the many others which take place about the school.

PUPIL ROLL AND STAFFING

At the time of writing the pupil roll was 1650. This is beginning to reflect local population trends as this number is 10 lower than the previous report. This will impact upon the school budget and probably upon staffing levels. We exceed the standard admission number of 270 in Years 8 & 10.

We currently have 87 full-time teachers, 19 part-time teachers, (with a full-time equivalent of 96.2) and an overall Pupil: Teacher ratio of 17.2:1 which compares to the 16.87:1 of last year and 17.1:1of 2005-06. These are also supported by 17 Learning Support Assistants, who work in the mainstream Learning Support area, or in the Hearing Impaired Unit as well as alongside teachers across the curriculum. Five Classroom Learning Supervisors cover short-term absences from the teaching staff. We were all saddened by the death at the end of the school year of Mr. Bob Taylor who had worked here for some time initially teaching Technology and Science.

The school continues to attract a sufficient number of applicants to draw up good quality short lists. The Governors have again been delighted by the high calibre of staff that we have been able to recruit. We note that parents have been kept fully up to date in the comings and goings of staff in the School Newsletter. Overall the staff of the school provides a good balance of change and continuity.

The new Teaching & Learning Responsibilities or TLRs were introduced in time for September 2006 and the structure reviewed by Governors in readiness for September 2007. We are grateful for the dialogue that staff had with us on this and are pleased that the system imposed upon us seems to have been positively adopted. We continue to work with the school in monitoring and reviewing the TLR system.

The school has continued to make active progress towards adhering to the new national requirements upon the Workload Agreement for teachers and the associated Remodelling of the workforce. All teachers continue to have Preparation, Planning and Assessment periods built into their timetables, and where relevant Leadership and Management periods. All external examinations now have to be invigilated by a specially recruited team rather than teachers. In 2004-05 all management of the organisation of exams passed from the teaching staff to the support staff. An Examinations Officer was appointed to carry this out. During 2005-06 all the administration of cover for absent staff together with educational visits also passed over to a newly appointed member of the staff. During 2007-08 we tried to impact further upon the amount of cover for absent teachers that staff carried out with the aim to enable them to concentrate upon their task of providing a high quality of teaching and learning.

Full reports for both our mainstream provision and for the Hearing Impaired Unit can be found at the end of the Report.

CURRICULUM MATTERS

The school continues to offer a very broad range of AS and A2 level courses. We anticipate that this will be part of future 14-19 collaboration arrangements with other schools in the LEA. The school has an “inclusive” Sixth Form in that it welcomes back any student that meets the entry criteria.

In Key Stages 3 & 4, (Years 7-11), there have been some important curriculum developments. 2006-07 saw all Year 10 commence the new national GCSE in Core Science this is now fully embedded and proving to be successful. Many students sat this GCSE at the end of Year 10 for the second year and are now moving onto Additional Science in Year 11. Others are studying the Core Science as a two year qualification. For 2008-09 students will have a third pathway through Science with the new provision of Triple Science for those who might later want to specialise in this area. BTEC Sport is now operating very successfully at both Levels 2 and 3 from Years 10 to 12. In Key Stage 4 the broad range of other available GCSE courses continues. A number of Year 10 and 11 students continue to follow Extended Opportunities programmes. We are pleased that the Cardiff 14-19 Learning Partnership has been able to invest into the continuance of this provision. These are vocational opportunities organised by outside providers. These students spend one day a week out of the school.

At Key Stage 3 we are now two years into the full provision of Information Technology onto the timetable for all pupils. Most Year 9 pupils continued to attain Key Skills awards in ICT. The two excellent new ICT rooms that supported this curriculum development came into use during 2006-07 and continue to be a great asset. We remain grateful for the support from the LEA that we eventually received into the conversion of the two old laboratories and preparation rooms that created this space.

A further year has passed since the reorganisation of Personal & Social Education on the timetable. Here five specialist teams of teachers have been created each delivering a particular strand of PSE. The subject is timetabled for the whole school to be taught at the same time, with the Senior Leadership team monitoring each year group. Each week it is taught one lesson further on in the two week timetable, therefore creating the time for ICT and distributing the time required equally across the curriculum. Monitoring of this by the Senior Leadership team has shown the whole school to be well on task during these sessions, a reflection of the good organisation of the PSE team and the overall commitment that has been made by the staff. During 2007-08 further developments have been made and new topics brought on board. Alongside this Year 12 Form Tutors have had the opportunity to meet with their tutor groups on issues related to the development of Key Skills. This led to some successful expansion of those students successfully achieving levels.

As Governors we were very pleased to note the outcome of very productive work between the school and our partner primary schools. We now as required have a Transition Plan which in some aspects of our work goes towards 2010. A member of the Governing body will be monitoring our progress towards this plan.

During 2005-06 a Learning Forum had come together within the school, to help to co-ordinate and promote the various teaching and learning initiatives that the school is engaged in. These included the development of Basic Skills and Key Skills, participation in the University of the First Age, Building Learning Power and SAM Learning. The useful work of this group has led it to being moved from “twilight” status to directed time for 2007-08. One tangible result of its work was the Super Learner day planned for the start of Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 for September 2008.

The school has given active attention during 2007-08 as to how our curriculum should look for 2008-09 and beyond.

ATTENDANCE

The school achieved an overall attendance of 92.8% throughout the academic year of 2007-2008.This was again broadly satisfactory and slightly up on last years figures. For the third consecutive year there was a slight increase in unauthorised absence, from 1.0% to 1.1%. We appeal to parents to both keep us informed as to reasons for absence and not to take holidays during term time. Both these factors impact upon our figures and, more particularly, on pupils opportunities to make progress in school.

We again have a slight improvement in our improved provision from the Educational Welfare Service. An EWO has now been based within the school, albeit one who serves a considerable number of school communities. The school feels it has received positive support in the past year from this service and continues to build solid relationships with the service.

The school uses a number of its own measures that target the improvement of attendance. These include a standard letter with accompanying proforma, which outlines what we can and cannot do, in terms of giving permission for holidays in term time, together with specific periods when for educational reasons, we advise against any holidays being taken. In addition we have been developing a system of texting some parents to indicate that their sons/daughters have not arrived in school. The system of electronic registration has now been in place for five years and allows us to trace attendance not only day-by-day but also lesson-by-lesson. The school will continue to consider what recognition should be given to pupils who maintain very good attendance. The schools Information management system is now incorporated under one provider allowing greater consistency. During 2008-09 the school will develop parental access where it will be possible to track individual progress on a secure server from home. This will allow parents to see progress and behavioural information.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANNING AND SELF-EVALUATION

a) Progress on Post Inspection Action Plan As detailed in previous reports the school received an inspection report that was good in all the key areas. Nevertheless this school just like any institution can improve further and Governors are obliged to produce a Post Inspection Action Plan to address those areas particularly highlighted by the inspectors. Our latest annual update upon progress towards this is outlined below.

b) School Improvement Planning We now spend an apt amount of time looking at forward improvement planning and ongoing monitoring, evaluation and review. Having had a Strategic Plan that went up to 2008-09 this with the help of consultation has now been completely updated to make plans for the school that extend up to 2012-13. This like its predecessor has sections arranged around the Learning Community, the Self-Evaluating School, a School that Invests in People (Personal and Professional Development), and the Learning Environment. We revisit and where necessary update this every springtime, to ensure that it continues to address both the needs of the school and ever changing outside requirements. Finally we try to ensure that everything that we now do is within the context of the five ongoing educational goals, together with their banner headline, which were highlighted at the beginning of this report.

c) Self-Evaluation To help ascertain what aspects we need to further develop in order to improve, the school is continuing to increase the rigour of its self-evaluation procedures. The governors now receive a written evaluation of all the annual examination results that attempts to put them into a relevant context for each given year group. Likewise the school now annually presents the LEA with a full School Self- Evaluation, measured against the new Inspection criteria. It provides another checkpoint for improvement planning. For some years every department has evaluated the previous year, both in terms of their general work and exam results, together with setting targets for the forthcoming year.. Departmental Self-Evaluations now focus upon the Estyn Key Questions and grade themselves accordingly. Year Teams are now also following a similar process of self-evaluation and Improvement Planning.

d) School Accessibility Plan The school has submitted an Accessibility Action Plan to the LEA. This is in response to the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. The buildings are extremely unsympathetic in their design to the majority of disabled requirements but we will move towards whatever we can realistically achieve or are required to deliver.

We are confident that in taking these measures they will be helpful in leading Llanishen High School towards further improvements.

POLICY MATTERS

One aspect of school policy that was addressed in readiness for 2005-06 was the issue of the school day. As the last inspection pointed out we formerly taught twenty-five lessons a week of 56 minutes duration. This gave a total learning and teaching hours contact time of twenty-three hours and twenty minutes. Not only was this below what is provided in most other secondary schools it is significantly below the Welsh Assembly recommended minimum of twenty five hours for secondary schools.

As a result we have adopted a model like that of many others, which involves twenty-five lessons of 60 minutes each. This small but significant addition now enables us to demonstrate that we meet the minimum recommended requirements, as well as providing our pupils with an entitlement that is delivered elsewhere. This change was carried out after all the necessary consultation. Having had senior staff monitor the impact of these changes we are confident that overall they have been of benefit to the school. Firstly and most obviously it has provided the appropriate teaching and learning time. Also on the plus side, the reduced movement at the start of the afternoon has improved movement and behaviour. There has been no negative impact upon the provision of school lunches and there has been a decline in lunchtime behavioural issues, with less time for students to occupy themselves with inadequate social spaces being available. One downside has been the increased difficulty of monitoring afternoon attendance.

The Headteacher and his staff, in liaison with Governors, are constantly reviewing school policies to ensure that they are up to date and fit for purpose. Whereas 2007-08 saw us approve new policies on SEN/HIU provision, Staff sickness/absence and Data Protection. The school has also added a Marking Policy as an appendix in the Teaching for Learning Policy

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

The governors continue to value the role of professional development by all members of the school community. Good use is made of the regular INSET days, whenever appropriate in partnership with our feeder Primary Schools. The ground that is covered in these is wherever possible closely linked with major targets in the School Improvement Plan. Alongside these, “twilight” training sessions and working parties continued to function in a number of target areas most notably during 2007-08 with regard to preparing for a major overhaul of the Key Stage 3 curriculum. An Induction day for all staff new to the school is now a standard part of our procedure. This is followed up by a full support programme for all Newly Qualified Teachers and those following EPD or Early Professional Development.

The amount delegated to schools in the “Better Schools” budget remains inadequate for an organisation of this size. We remain very encouraged by the number of teachers in the school securing professional development funding from the General Teaching Council for Wales, but note that their funds have already been exhausted in the new school year. It is a retrograde step that funding no longer seems to be available to support whole school development initiatives.

All of this continues to indicate that increasingly development will come not just from outside but increasingly by sharing expertise on the inside and encouraging all areas to move forwards together in a planned and co-ordinated manner. This theme was underlined in 2007-08 by the successful introduction of the Reflective Practitioner Programme whereby teachers worked collaboratively to develop skills. Once again colleagues have been invited to participate in learning developments for the LEA or on a national basis.

BUILDINGS AND SCHOOL SITE

As outlined in the Key Points at the start of this Report we continue to make the best use we can of buildings that in many places are still not “fit for purpose”.

Nevertheless we are delighted at the significant improvements that the school continues to make within its own limited budget. After a lot of work over the last five years, we have now reached the situation where the standard of decoration and where relevant carpeting, is at least satisfactory throughout the classrooms and in a growing number of the corridors. Our challenge is now to progress the former to beyond the satisfactory and to spread the latter even more widely throughout the school. We are determined to continue with this programme although it is completely dependent upon the health or otherwise of the budget on a yearly basis. We believe that over time a real difference can now be noticed.

All subject areas now have access to an Inter-active Whiteboard and a number have several. This is a long way from our aim of there being one in every classroom, but progress is being made. During 2006-07 we were able to extend network cabling to the 50 classrooms in the school which still did not have it. In 2007-08 we ensured that hardware was placed on the end of all of this cabling opening up a range. This will be opening up many more assessment, recording, reporting and attendance possibilities.

2007-08 was another very positive year with regard to the continued dramatic fall in the amount of vandalism on the school site, in the evenings and at the weekends. The addition of gates to the quad area between the new block and west wing has helped improve the situation further.

At no additional cost to our grounds maintenance contract we are still benefiting from a groundsman who is on site most of the time. This has had an enormous impact upon the school environment because as well as more creative jobs he picks up litter from the grounds and fields at least twice a day. Sadly the complaints that the school receives from the local community about the amount of litter dropped on the way to and from school, shows that between homes and the school we still have a lot to do to improve the habits of pupils with regards to the dropping of litter. We have staff who are working very hard at this. During 2007-08 the school continued its commitment to large scale recycling and gained the Eco School Silver Award and is working towards the Green Flag award. Please encourage your sons and daughters to support this initiative!

During 2007-08 our accommodation for the Hearing Impaired Unit has been increased. Our numbers in the unit are rising and as a result the LEA have remodelled a mainstream classroom for HIU use and providing a new demountable as a pay back. This is not ideal but at least ensures that the HIU gains much needed space and that the whole school does not lose it. The West wing quad was cleared in 2007-08, a demountable building installed and improved facilities for the pupils fitted..

SITE SECURITY

The Governors remain determined to do all that is possible and realistic to work on this aspect of the school. The CCTV provision that has done a lot to enhance site security has had an upgrade to include some key internal parts of the school. This has proved of some use in determining culprits where there have been incidents of theft or unacceptable behaviour. This helps to play a part in providing a secure environment for our pupils.

We continue to proactively work with the Youth Centre which remains represented on the Governing body. This not only enhances the out of hour’s use of our site but has also in no small measure helped on site security matters.

We continue to work closely with the local police and will not hesitate to take proactive measures against members of the community where this can contribute to the safety of both pupils and staff.

The sum of all of this work is a school environment that is significantly safer .

We are required to give you an ongoing update to these points and therefore they appear as a separate section in this part of the report. Inevitably a number of the comments that are made below also appear in other parts of this overall report and are repetitions year on year as they still stand as records of our progress in between inspections. Overall the report was a very good one that highlighted good or very good teaching and learning across most subject areas.

1. To continue improvements in the school’s accommodation overall, without further delay. The school continues to do whatever it can to address this issue within the limitations of its own budget. It is now several years since the LEA supported the remodelling of some West Wing classrooms and the refurbishment of the first floor of the “new” block. We are still awaiting but ever pursuing additional asset capital investment by the local authority. With the small to medium scale exceptions outlined below, the school has not been supported by the LEA since the time of the last inspection, in fundamentally improving the school buildings. The first of these exceptions involved the renewal of two very poor quality “conservatory style” corridor areas. Secondly the LEA completed its expenditure taking place with regard to fire safety measures and renewals. This has led to South Wales Fire Service withdrawing an Enforcement order. The school has also contributed to some vital maintenance work with regard to these fire safety requirements and has provided a new Pupil Reception Office and First Aid centre. In addition the LEA has supported us in a significant upgrade to our CCTV facility. This does not so much improve the accommodation but does help us in not spending precious resources earmarked for these purposes on repairing wanton vandalism that takes place out of school hours and/or school terms. In 2004 Cardiff Catering supported us in the provision of a refurbished Sixth Form Common Room and all day servery, although the time is fast approaching when the first of these will need investing in once again. During 2006-07 the LEA finally supported the school in contributing to the cost of remodelling two old laboratories from the time of the building of the new Science block nine years ago. This is providing some excellent progress towards improving our inadequate provision for the teaching of ICT, both as a separate subject and as a facility available to all other subjects. This was also accompanied by some renewed windows being fitted to some areas of the first floor of the East wing. In the summer of 2008 work began on placing a sloping roof over the ground floor and first floor of the East wing. When complete this will give the school the opportunity that it has been waiting for to refurbish the East wing corridor with a secure roof overhead. This will mirror the improved social space facilities that were provided for pupils in the West wing in 2007. The feasibility study that was been completed by the LEA four years ago, upon the siting of an urgently needed new Technology block has still not even progressed to the planning stage. This no doubt, is all part of the political uncertainty that continues to surround schools in Cardiff. Since the summer of 2005 have redecorated around 20 rooms, recarpeted 20 rooms, placed new flooring in 6 laboratories and provided new furniture for 8 classrooms. The West wing foyer was redecorated in 2005-06 together with the corridors leading to the 6^th Form Common Room and towards the New block, together with the corridor from the West wing foyer past the staff room and PE rooms. The West wing corridor which has also been refloored and in consultation with the School Council had new social seating affixed. All told the school environment is looking a lot more positive than it once did. There is always much more to do but now we are moving in such a positive direction we will be aiming to carry on going forwards.

2. To improve pupils’ behaviour around the school, and in lessons where they disrupt learning; also their punctuality in attending lessons. The Behavioural Management Group, which includes representatives from all subject areas, has continued to address these issues. In October 2004 the whole staff and those of our partner primary schools had an INSET day with a leading outside speaker, (Dr Geoff Moss), which addressed the topic of Assertive Discipline/Positive Behaviour. This formed part of an LEA initiative to spread consistency of approach across the city. We have now followed this up by revisiting our guidelines for Good Behaviour, Rewards and Consequences, to ensure that they are both agreed and consistently applied across the school. This has led to a new Positive Behaviour programme being introduced for 2005-06. During 2006-07 the Behavioural Management Group monitored how consistently this was being applied and suggest further measures which have been adopted, (e.g. Pupil Incident sheets, renewed Emergency Rota sheets). Also new for 2006-07 was the Key Stage 3 Achievement Scheme which is referred to in the Achievements and Standards section above. Feedback from this proactive work was very positive and it was extended into KS4 during 2007-08. The Bromcom electronic registration system has been introduced which enables us to monitor both punctuality to school and each individual lesson on a more efficient basis. This has now been replaced by an equivalent SERCO Facility system which also enables us to electronically monitor the rewards and consequences of all pupils without resort to paper or relying upon Student Planners.

3. To make more effective use of the time tutors spend with their registration classes at the beginning of each session. From 2004-2005 onwards we have built meetings for all Form Tutors to meet with their Heads of Year into our programmed calendar. This enables us to discuss all aspects of tutorial work as well as continuing to develop the use of the Progress File across the school. We are developing the use of this time to help pupils in setting and reviewing targets at relevant times in the year. The use of SERCO Facility gives all Form Tutors access to the updated rewards and consequences of each pupil. 2008-09 has also seen the introduction of Thought of the Week materials. These are now issued on a termly basis to all Form Tutors and in some weeks Assembly themes tie in with this as well.

4. To improve the arrangements for teaching IT to all pupils in Key Stage 3. Weekly IT lessons were introduced to all pupils in 2006-07. This has the support of the Curriculum Leaders within the school as well as the LEA Link Adviser. This features a completely new scheme of work. At the end of 2006-07 263 Year 9 pupils were awarded their Key Skills Level 1 in ICT upon the basis of the first years work. We have adapted our IT staffing to meet this need and have built and resourced two new specialist ICT teaching room, one of which is an extra room and the second of which replaces an inadequate room for ICT which ahs resumed as a standard classroom. This provision also started in Year 10 for 2006-07 and progressed into Year 11 in 2007-08. Pupils were entered for either short or full course GCSE ICT exams with good initial results considering the former lack of provision in Key Stage 3. We will now look to build upon these good new foundations. During 2006-07 the school also acquired NAACE Award for ICT and our SIP is now working towards progressing this onto the ICT Mark.

5. To continue to improve the consistency and quality of the school’s monitoring systems by involving all staff and by making better use of available data in evaluation procedures. School Self-Evaluation is now a major part of our improvement strategy. Indeed it has a discrete section on both the five year Strategic Plan for the school and the annual School Development Plan. In addition the Governors sub-committees have been remodelled to better monitor progress in all these areas. Departments have now been required to provide annual Self-Evaluation reports that include analyses of examination results and target setting. Both of these include reference to available data. During 2004-2005 INSET was provided for Middle Leaders to make even better use of data and to ensure that our requirements are more consistent ones. The school wrote its first whole school Self-Evaluation report in the autumn of 2004. This is now an important part of the annual improvement cycle is a useful tool in Governors strategic discussions. The format of this was further improved for 2005-06 to more closely mirror Key Questions used by Estyn. Further training in supporting Middle Leaders to contribute to this took place in January 2006. We are now making use of the SERCO Facility database in order to make it a real tool to monitor pupil’s progress and improvement. Year Teams are now also completing similar self-evaluation and Improvement Planning procedures as the subject areas.

6. To meet statutory requirements for religious education in the Sixth Form and for a daily act of collective worship. The school continues to provide as many assemblies as its very large numbers and the spaces available dictate. We have five year groups of around 270 pupils and only two spaces capable of taking even one-year group at a time. This space restriction makes it impossible for there to be a corporate act of Daily worship. The weekly assembly themes are now published in advance on the weekly staff bulletin. Parallel to this there is a weekly Thought for the Week which is available for discussion in Tutor groups. Each Sixth Form year group meets on a weekly basis.

LINKS WITH THE WIDER COMMUNITY

As indicated in a number of areas above the school continues to work very closely with its partner primary schools and greatly values these positive links. We try wherever invited to be represented upon the Governing bodies of these schools and we are delighted that our Governing body continues to have colleagues from the primary sector.

The Parent Teacher Association remains a much-valued body of support to the school. Their programme of activities raises funds that help to enrich the life of the school. We are equally grateful for the work that they often do behind the scenes, helping with productions and providing refreshments during concerts.

Our continued links with the Llanishen Rotary Club have gone from strength to strength. Since then they have both attended and sponsored awards at our School Awards Evening, helped in reviving the tradition of a Debating Society within the school and supported of our students in a variety of other ways.

We continue to work closely with the local police. They support and contribute to our PSE programme and have worked alongside us in dealing with issues that cross back and forth from the local community into school.

New links that are being established during 2008 are with the North Cardiff Medical Centre Youth Forum and Sainsbury’s supermarket. The latter is considering the welfare of young people in the north of the city. With the latter we are trying to build positive links with the store which will also help to give it a profile within the school. We hope that this will help to counter-act the anti-social behaviour in the vicinity of the store of some groups of young people.

We are also happy to have links with local places of worship and this year were again given a warm welcome at Highfields Church in Roath for our annual Carol Service.

The leader of the Youth Centre continues to be a co-opted member of the Governing body. This helps to ensure that we work together for each other’s mutual benefit.

We continue to work closely with Careers Wales and have received a comprehensive report from them of all the work that they carried out in conjunction with the school during 2007-2008. There is no doubt that our pupils are benefiting from ever increasing links with the world of work, business and commerce. Arrangements for Work Experience for both Years 11 and 12 were very comprehensive and successful. We are very grateful to all the local businesses and employers who support this.

CONCLUSION

The governors are pleased to be able to present this report to you. We look forward to another year of working positively alongside the staff of the school. We find that they always give a full professional response to our questions and advice. Together we are committed to both maintaining what is good about the school and seeking improvements wherever they are possible.

We believe that the young people of our communities are fortunate to come to Llanishen High School. It has an excellent and committed staff. Together we will aim to provide a school in which everybody can have the opportunity to succeed. We are sure that as parents you will support us in this. W e are another year on and still, the future pattern of education within the Cardiff is not clear, although it is clear that the Welsh Assembly Government is currently consulting on a number of documents which could have a big impact upon the future pattern of education within the city. We continue to hope that all these things eventually lead to the first signs of the school being in the plans for a see the suitable level of investment taking place for education in the 21^st century.

(TARGETS – Parents should note that the latest LEA target sheets which need to include LEA requirements for 2010 & 2011 have not been the subject of a meeting with a Local Authority Officer. These will be added to this section of the website as soon as they are available. The targets for 2009 were provided as required in the report for 2006-07.)

The Special Needs Co-ordinator is James Taylor. Two other teachers work within the team; Kath Gordon and Val Noble. At present, we have 8 Learning Support Assistants, with a view to appoint another two. The LSA Team Leader is Laura Lloyd-Evans. Two LSAs, Ros Cox and Michelle O'Hanlon assist with the teaching of Learning Support Groups and are part of the team that deliver SpLD (Dylexia) provision.

In addition to the SEN groups, The SENCo teaches two English GCSE classes, in years 10 and 11. For the last year he has also taught a Year 13 Film Studies class. Film Studies will not run in 2008/9.

Kath Gordon teaches mainstream Maths and Science in addition to SEN groups. Kath is also the school's Leader of Extended Learning. Kath has been a form teacher up until this year, but this will stop from Sept 2008. Kath will lead the provision for students with dyslexia from September 2008. This will involve completing all the statutory work for statemented students.

Val Noble teaches mainstream RE in addition to SEN groups and is a form teacher. Val has just started a post graduate course in teaching students with Specific Learning Difficulties.

LSAs spend the bulk of their time in class but also support students in small groups or on an individual basis as mentioned above. LSAs support students on the SEN register across the school. Three of our LSAs work solely with statemented students and follow specific recommendations laid out in their stetments of SEN.

Last year, the school received £273,826 from the LEA for SEN. This will rise with delegated money and more statements. £162,592 was for the Hearing Resource Base. This money did not include the delegated SpLD money. This funding is allocated according to a county-wide formula based on a combination of FSM, attainment, age weighting, and special unit funding. Some SEN funding is expected to come from the school's base budget.

1. A copy of the Schools SEN policy is available from the Headteacher. This was re written this year in conjunction with the LEA and was ratified by the governors.

2. This year, LEA has made the decision to delegate all money related to Specific Learning Difficulties to high schools in Cardiff. This has meant that the school has received an extra £33000 to undertake this statutory work. Fortunately, two members of the team already hold the relevant qualification, with a third starting the training. We have been able to re-structure the department to ensure that we meet these statutory requirements and build on the already excellent provision students with SpLD receive. This will mean that we will need to employ a new Learning Support

Assistant to cover some in-class support lost in the re-structuring. A second LSA will be employed to work with statemented students.

3. The Learning Support Team, alongside Carol Ann Thomas, continues to contribute to the development of the Achievement Scheme; a mentoring programme aimed at a variety of students.

4. The Learning Support Team continues to work closely with the English and Maths faculties to raise standards. The Better Reading Partnership, run with a member of the English Department is a Scheme where Year 12 students read with Year 7 students on the SEN register for 10 weeks in the Autumn tenn. We also run numeracy support groups in Years 7, 8 and 9 and a two week numeracy programme which has Year 12 students working with Year 7 students in the Summer Tenn. These have both proved very successful. Jen Morris from the Maths department works alongside Kath Gordon and Ros Cox to deliver and evaluate these elements.

5. 18 students received their ASDAN Award at the end of Key Stage 4 last year. This is a skills-based course delivered by the Learning Support Team in Years 10 and 11. This year, for the first time, 3 students achieved a full Silver Award - a first for us. Sarah Johns in the Drama department contributed to this programme. The ASDAN qualification is fully accredited.

A number of objectives for SEN have been included in the Department Improvement Plan for 2008. A copy of the plan is available from the SENCo. The key objectives are as follows:

The success of the school's policy is reflected in the inclusion of students with SEN in the academic, cultural, and social life of the school. This is demonstrated by effective means of identification, assessment and provision as stated in the policy and the appendices. Evaluation of the provision is completed annually thorough a department self-evaluation report, available from the SENCo.

A system of record keeping is in place that includes Individual Education Plans for students at SA and SA+ and above of the Code of Practice; Statements ofSEN are reviewed annually and transition plans'prepared as appropriate.

Parents have been involved through tennly parents' evenings and through individual and annual review meetings.

Consultations with the Local Education Authority have been extremely supportive over the last year. These have included:

There are four Teachers of the Deaf and six LSA’s working within the Department. The Head of the H.I. Department is Lyn Postans, Mrs Jo Whittaker is responsible for our Transition Programme and audiological equipment, and Miss Beth Lewington is responsible for the development of BSL within the Department and is currently undergoing TOD training. The fourth TOD is Miss Sian Hancock who works with us part time and has come to the Department via re-deployment and is on a Central contract.

There are 6 FTE LSA’s which equates to three full time, one full time re-deployment, one full time termly contract and the remainder are .5 appointments. Mrs Pam Govier is the Lead LSA and along with Mrs Carol Murphy is delivering the ASDAN Course to our Year 9 and 10 students. Mrs Maria Facey is the H.I. link to the Extended Learning Programme.

The team of specialist teachers and LSA's support the deaf pupils here at Llanishen High School. The specialist teachers have additional qualifications and expertise relevant to the special educational needs of deaf pupils. Our LSA’s are also specialists in the field of hearing impairment.

The Teachers of the Deaf are responsible for keeping mainstream staff trained and up to date with new methodology and technological developments within the field of deafness. The Head of the Support Centre will also liaise with the LEA and other providers to ensure maximum use of the service.

The school organises its provision to meet the needs of hearing impaired pupils by placing them in form groups with their mainstream peers. They follow the mainstream curriculum, working in mainstream classes with, where possible, a member of the support team present. An important part of this support is to enable the pupils to understand their work and access the curriculum. Support staff also work with subject teachers to ensure that the language content of lessons is accessible for all pupils. Every child with a hearing impairment is given the equivalent educational opportunities of their hearing peers and there is the same high expectation of success.

This year the school received £162,952 from the LEA for the Support Centre an additional £27,549 has been allocated after further discussion with the LEA. Negotiations continue in order to clarify funding methodology.

We now have access to four classrooms and a small resource room Room 51 has been refurbished by the LEA as two acoustically suitable rooms for the teaching of deaf students. Room 51 has been equipped with four networked computers and two printers, one laser colour. Room 51A has been equipped with an interactive whiteboard. The money for the I.T. equipment came from the LEA’s Equal Access Fund. The rooms have been in use since January 2008 but there remain some concerns about the success of the acoustics in room 51 whilst 51A is within the specifications recommended for teaching deaf students.

This year has seen the largest increase in the number of students in the Support Centre. The numbers have increased from seventeen students in 2007 – 08 to 26 students this academic year. This has forced some significant changes; Mrs Postans and Mrs Whittaker have reluctantly had to give up their mainstream teaching commitments and staffing numbers have been increased to meet the needs of the students now accessing the specialist support we offer.

All three students at Key Stage 4 achieved the necessary grades at GCSE to continue their education at Post-sixteen level. We once again have deaf students in Year 12 and we are supporting them as far as possible with our present staffing numbers but will increase the level of support after half term when we have a new LSA joining the team, however, the funding for this post is temporary. This does remain a concern as permanent contracts would be in the best interests of our students and the increase in numbers which is unlikely to decrease for a number of years.

The Reading Recovery programme is running successfully for a second year. Sign Club (BSL) also continues to run as does Homework club.

Advances in technology have increased the need for time and training to keep up to date with the range of specialist equipment being used by our students.

Year	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Total Candidates	104	110	110	113	108	109	122	124	143	139	151
SUBJECTS TAKEN	293	300	298	313	302	302	346	339	379	382	422
PASSES (E+)	276	277	257	276	294	289	332	329	366	370	415
FAILS (U)	17	21	41	37		13	14	10	12	12	7
PASS RATE %	94.2	93.0	86.6	88.2	97.4	95.7	96.0	97.1	96.6	96.9	98.3
Grade %: A	20.48	19.66	16.44	18.53	21.52	11.92	20.52	23.3	24	28.5	26
B	41.98	41.66	34.23	36.10	48.01	35.10	43.06	45.7	47.5	54.9	55.2
C	61.09	62.66	56.04	59.74	74.50	64.90	67.91	71.1	74.4	77.4	79.4
D	82.25	82.0	71.81	78.59	84.11	87.42	85.26	88.5	87.9	88.9	92.2
E	94.2	93.0	86.6	88.2	97.4	95.7	96.0	97.1	96.6	96.9	98.3
% age of candidates gaining 2 or more ‘A’ levels	93.3	90.0	80.0	85.0	94	90	95	92		94	96

Year	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
No. of pupils on roll	226	258	242	253	277	272	259	285	274	280	269
No. of pupils entered For exams	223	256	235	242	268	272	248	276	271	278	266
% age of Year Group gaining 5 x A* - C	65.0	56.3	59.9	57.7	59.6	55	62	64	65	63	66
% age of Year Group gaining 8 x A* - C	43.5	38.3	43.4	44.7	41.9	45.9	50.6	48	51.8	50	52.4
% age of Year Group gaining 5 x A* - G	93.0	91.3	94	93.7	90	92	86	91	94	97	94