Annual Report

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 2006-2007, the report also refers to some aspects from the start of 2007-2008.

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

· 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 1660.

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

· 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 school.

· We are grateful for support from the LEA in the construction of two excellent new ICT rooms and some replacement windows to the first floor of the East Wing that were carried out alongside this project.

· The school continues to make prudent and efficient use of its limited resources. The financial year of 2006-07 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 2007-08. We recognise that such a position will not be able to be continually repeated.

· During 2006-07 the school retained its status as an Investors in People organisation.

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

· The quality of self-evaluation within the school again improved with all subject areas now mirroring the whole school self-evaluation by considering their grading against the Estyn Key Questions.

· The 2007 Key Stage 3 Teacher Assessment results were slightly up on 2006. 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.

· Attendance for 2006-2007 remained satisfactory at 91.5%. We continue to follow strategies aimed at maintaining and improving this figure. Ultimately we rely upon the active support of parents in ensuring good school attendance.

· 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 Les Miserables.

· We were delighted that September 2006 saw the first Key Stage 3 Awards evening that recognised achievement and effort during 2005-06. This will now become an annual event and we are aiming to spread the practice more widely across the school.

· 2006-07 has also seen the introduction of the Key Stage 3 Achievement scheme that is referred to below. The success of this means that we are now committed to extending it into Key Stage 4.

· Since the time of the last report Governors have approved a new policy upon Self-Supported Study for Learning and seen significant work take place on the provision for the More Able & Talented.

· 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 co-opted 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, 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.

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 2006-2007 is included later in this report. It again includes a larger than usual balance of £169,816 (albeit well 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. 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 2007-08 was likely to fall, 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 has been maintained for 2007-08.

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 slightly up upon 2006 but actually below the average SAT scores of 2004 and 2005. There remains more work 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 78% achieving Level 5 or above, (76.6% in 2006); Science 77.6%, (77.3.% in 2006), and English 74.6%, (70.2% in 2006). The Core Subject Indicator was 63.5% against 61.2% in 2006.

At GCSE level the percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more grades A*- C was 63.57%, the fourth successive year that the school has attained over 60%. Outstandingly 98.21 % achieved 5 or more grades A*- G this being by far the highest that the school has ever achieved. 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 96.9% and 77.4% being in the top three grades with 28.5% being at grade A. The latter two statistics surpassed every previous year and the first figure was just behind that of 2002 and 2005. 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 90.4%, up again from the 84.6% of 2006. 60.5% of these were at grades A-C as opposed to 57.7% in 2006.

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 last year we were delighted when in September 2006 the school instigated a Key Stage 3 Awards Evening. The success of this means that it will now be an annual event and during 2007-08 ways will also be found to do comparable things higher up the school.

In addition during 2006-07 the school started a proactive Key Stage 3 Achievement Scheme. This aimed to provide regular positive mentoring to select Year 7 to 9 pupils. This was monitored throughout 2006-07. Positive feedback means that for 2007-08 it has been extended into Key Stage 4.

As ever in other aspects of school standards as ever the staff continues to work hard. The improvement in the adherence to the published school uniform has continued, whilst continuing to leave room for further improvement. A review of this uniform, which staff, pupils and parents had an opportunity to contribute took place during 2006-07. This will see the introduction of a new school jumper to replace the existing sweatshirt. This will become compulsory in 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. It is a positive sign that the school required no permanent exclusions during 2006-07 and that the record on temporary exclusions both follows Welsh Assembly Governments guidelines and is well below the average within Cardiff.

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 2006-07 was the school production of Les Miserables. The pupils and staff involved may evolve but the standards and involvement remain astonishingly high. This played to full and exceptionally appreciative audiences for five nights in July 2007. Over a hundred pupils were involved in some capacity or another.

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 2006 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 a very successful in terms of sporting achievement and just as importantly participation. There were as has become the norm a number of Welsh Internationals, County Representatives and winners and teams who did well in Welsh Cup competitions. The PE department runs an inclusion 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. A very successful early morning fitness club with Mr Trelawney has taken off and Dance classes with Mrs Bartley have often achieved up to 50 pupils. 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. Tours to Rome and Jesolo were successful and this year a Dance visit has been organised to Lake Garda. For October 2009 we are looking at the feasibility of a Canadian tour for our 1^st XV. For the first time ever Mrs Birch Hurst had the remarkable number of around 70 students on expeditions, with 30 Bronze and 20 Silver Awards in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. This year will be the first in which 15 students have attempted the Gold Award. This further establishes us as one of the leading centres in the area. On the curriculum side BTEC Sport has taken off with 32 pupils taking up the option in 2007.

Llanishen High School “TV station.” Has continued to thrive and during 2006-07 we were pleased to note the start and initial achievements of the Eco Schools Club and our recognition by Cardiff Healthy Schools

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 1660. This is beginning to reflect local population trends as this number is 47 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, 9 & 11.

We currently have 90 full-time teachers, 15 part-time teachers, (with a full-time equivalent of 8.95) and an overall Pupil: Teacher ratio of 16.78:1 which compares to the 16.87:1 of last year and 17.1:1of 2005-06. These are also supported by 13 Learning Support Assistants, who work both in the Learning Support area, alongside teachers across the curriculum and with the Hearing Impaired Unit, together with 5 Classroom Learning Supervisors who cover short term absences from the teaching staff.

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.

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 now 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 2006-07 we tried to impact further upon the amount of cover for absent teachers that staff carried out. Therefore after successfully introducing the schools first two Classroom Learning Supervisors during 2005-06, 2006-07 saw this team expand to include five in number. They now cover many of the known and short term absences of colleagues. They have also been attached to curriculum areas and year teams to support the work that they carry out. The positive return for all of this investment is to enable teachers to concentrate upon their task of providing a high quality of teaching and learning.

The school currently has 36 pupils, (27 last year, 23 in 2005-06), on roll with statements of Special Educational Needs, of whom 18 are in the Support Centre for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired. In addition the school has 52 pupils, (40 last year, and 46 in 2005-06), on School Action Plus and 121 pupils, (124 last year, 108 in 2005-06) on School Action. All of these pupils have Individual Educational Plans drawn up for them. The overall total of 209 pupils is up on the 191 of last year and the 177 of 2005-06. There are a further 69 pupils, (as opposed to 58 last year), who are registered as class concerns.

To cater for this we have three teachers within the SEN department who devote part of their time to teaching groups with a wide variety of needs. Following baseline testing, students are targeted for extensive Literacy and Numeracy support. This is delivered in small groups for up to two hours a week. These groups, across Key Stage 3, are reviewed regularly and students return to mainstream lessons as they progress. An innovation during 2006-07 was the Key Stage 3 Achievement Scheme. This proactive mentoring was timetabled for selected pupils who it was thought would benefit from the extra support. Feedback from Year Team Leaders was very positive and in 2007-08 the scheme is being extended into Key Stage 4.

At Key Stage 4 the team runs a Basic Skills course as an option. In this students follow the fully accredited ASDAN qualification in Life Skills. This was introduced three years ago. Selected students in Years 10 and 11 also follow an extended opportunities curriculum in which various colleges and training institutions provide a more vocational experience. All the progress made in the SEN department is celebrated in an awards ceremony in July. This year’s occasion was as ever well supported by both pupils and parents

The school has a team of well trained Learning Support Assistants. As a result of the increased numbers on the register, including those to whom a statementing commitment must be given, this team has grown over the last year from five to eight in number. In addition we have five other LSAs whose time is dedicated to the Hearing Impaired Unit. The growth in HIU numbers also means that our accommodation is now inadequate, an issue that the LEA is addressing and which should lead to some changes in our accommodation during 2007-08.

An entirely different form of educational need is the need for some pupils to have support for English as a Second Language. Currently we have the support of 0.2 of a specialist teacher from the EMAS team. This is down from the 0.4 that we had in 2006-07 and inadequate for our growing requirement, a view that the school has shared with the LEA.

Finally 2006-07 saw a significant amount take place with regard to the schools provision for the More Able and Talented. Here a working party used a wide variety of criteria to identify a Year 8 pilot group. The names were distributed to all staff together with suggested strategies to fully challenge these pupils and mentors to have a dialogue with them. They also had an enrichment day off timetable. Further INSET on this is planned for all staff during 2007-08, together with extending the principle more widely across the school. We believe that in challenging this type of student it will have an impact on expectations and strategies that could apply to all pupils. We will continue reporting upon this next year.

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. Many students successfully sat this GCSE at the end of Year 10 and are now moving onto Additional Science in Year 11. Others will study the Core Science as a two year qualification. In Key Stage 4 we now have 4 vocational courses that are successfully operating in Year 10. These are Double Award GCSE’s in Health & Social Care, Applied Business and Leisure & Tourism, together with a BTEC qualification in Sport. 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 a year into the full provision of Information Technology onto the timetable for all pupils. The preparations have already brought tangible rewards, with 263 Year 9 pupils achieving Key Skills Level 1 in ICT, upon the basis of just one year of this full provision.. We are delighted to report that two excellent new ICT rooms that supported this curriculum development came into use during 2006-07. We are 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 year has also 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. 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 2007.

The school will be giving 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 91.5% throughout the academic year of 2006-2007.This was again broadly satisfactory but after four consecutive years of slight improvement was 0.3% lower than last year. For the second consecutive year there was a slight increase in unauthorised absence, from 0.9% to 1.0%. 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 has introduced 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 four 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.

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. We continue to work towards the aspirational “Strategic Plan for Llanishen High School in 2008-2009”. It has four main sections: 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. As we approach 2008-09 it will soon become time to consider how to update this document or how to replace it with something in a different format. 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. We believe that this year, we have further improved the presentation of this, to help it to be a truly effective working document. It provides another checkpoint for improvement planning. Finally every department now evaluates the previous year, both in terms of their general work and exam results, together with setting targets for the forthcoming year. We believe that in terms of consistency, we still need to enable greater consistency in these documents, but we are delighted with both their quality and the year on year progress that is being made. There has certainly been more progress towards this over the past year. Departmental Self-Evaluations now focus upon the Estyn Key Questions and grade themselves accordingly.

d) School Accessibility Plan The school has submitted a 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. For example 2006-07 saw us review the TLR structure that was set up in 2005-06. Whereas 2005-06 saw us approve new policies on Assessment for Learning and Pupil Grouping for Learning as well as a revised Anti-Bullying Policy, 2006-07 saw a slower pace in the development of new policies as we believe that we now meet essential criteria. The main new paper was on Self-Supported Study for Learning. This is the fourth and final appendix to the Teaching for Learning policy, (the others being the two mentioned above and the earlier Differentiation for Learning.) The More Able and Talented working party have continued some valuable work which is referred to elsewhere in this report.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

The governors always place great importance in the continuing professional development of staff. Therefore we were delighted that during 2006-07 the school was able to retain its valued status as an Investors in People organisation. Our thanks are due to the staff as a whole for the time that they had to put into the reassessment, and in particular to Mr Huw Rogers who led all the organisation that was required for the reassessment. As a school we are constantly trying to learn and one outcome of this was redoubling our efforts to make sure that some procedures for support staff more closely monitor those of the teaching staff and that Performance Management once again gets back onto schedule.

The school continues to make good use of its INSET days. 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 2006-07 with regard to the More Able and Talented. 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. 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 moreover by sharing expertise on the inside and encouraging all areas to move forwards together in a planned and co-ordinated manner. One new way of allowing this to happen was started during 2005-06. Here two staff were attached to the Senior Leadership team throughout the year. They both attended all their meetings and helped to lead whole school improvement initiatives. This development opportunity has since continued. We hope that putting the Learning Forum into directed time will further enable this to happen during 2007-08. We also regularly have colleagues who are 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 three 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 do not have it! Having achieved this we have now committed the money to put hardware onto the end of it! This will open up many more assessment, recording, reporting and attendance possibilities.

2006-07 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. This had been an enormous drain upon our very limited finances for far too long. This has coincided with securing the support of the LEA for a significant upgrading of our CCTV system and in conjunction with the Youth Service putting gates upon the path leading to the village that are only opened at school closure time.

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 2006-07 the school committed to large scale recycling and gained the Eco School Bronze Award with hopes of the Silver Award following. Please encourage your sons and daughters to support this initiative!

We were delighted that during 2006-07 two new high quality IT rooms were completed. One of these was an additional room in order to accommodate out curriculum innovation of ensuring that proper ICT lessons are available to all our Year 7-11 students. The second room replaced an inadequate one which has been redecorated and returned to the normal classroom use, to which it was much more suitable for.

During 2007-08 our accommodation for the Hearing Impaired Unit is due to be increased. Our numbers in the unit are rising and as a result the LEA will be remodelling 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 preparation work for this has already begun. The West wing quad has been cleared of planting areas which had become very uneven and consequently dangerous and the removal of some very tall fir trees. These were both taking a lot of natural light but more significantly breaking into the already inadequate drainage system, (remember the flood of 2004!) This had necessitated the closing of one set of boy’s toilets. The area has been completely resurfaced and with the support of the School Fund and the PTA and in consultation with the School Council we hope that 2007-08 will see the provision of new pupil facilities in this area. Unfortunately the new demountable has got to be put into this area but we believe that the final outcome will still leave pupils with more space than they started with.

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 both significantly safer and the victim of much damage that was once the case.

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 have 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 seven or eight 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 is referred to in other sections of this report. This was also accompanied by some renewed windows being fitted to some areas of the first floor of the East wing. We hope that 2007-08 might see this extended to more areas of the East wing and perhaps elsewhere in the school. The feasibility study that was been completed by the LEA three 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. In 2006-07 the East wing Foyer was added to this list together with 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 is planned to extend it 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.

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 will enable us to discuss all aspects of tutorial work as well as continuing to develop the use of the Progress File across the school. We still want to further develop the use of this time to help pupils in setting and reviewing targets at relevant times in the year. This will develop during 2006-07, as we begin to feel the benefits of the SERCO Facility database which has been adopted for recording, target setting and progress purposes.

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 has also started in Year 10 for 2006-07 and will progress into Year 11 in 2007-08. All of these pupils will be entering either short or full course GCSE ICT. 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 been 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. The adoption of the SERCO Facility database was adopted in 2006-07 and access to it should be improved during 2007-08 in order to make it a real tool to monitor pupil’s progress and improvement.

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 approaching 300 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. Wherever possible the weekly assembly themes are now published in advance on the weekly staff bulletin. The school will consider if there is any feasibility of these forming tutor group discussion points on subsequent mornings. This cannot be assumed, as there are numerous other tasks to perform in this limited time, including registration, the checking of absences, the checking of planners, Progress File work etc. Each Sixth Form year group meets on a weekly basis. The format of this will be considered alongside what the remainder of the school does. Meanwhile progress is being made in enhancing the quality of the experience shared in Assemblies, not least by the ever-increasing involvement of pupils.

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. In September 2006 they were able to support a wonderful occasion when the fruition of many months of preparation saw a 50^th Anniversary Reunion commemorating the first cohort of pupils in our (not very much changed) buildings. The hard work was done by a committee from the local community. The school was very happy to be the venue for the occasion. The committee were pleased that Julie Morgan MP & Sue Essex AM were able this attend this function.

Our renewed links with the Llanishen Rotary Club have gone from strength to strength. In 2006 the Headteacher had been happy to attend one of their monthly meetings as the Guest Speaker. Since then they have both attended and sponsored awards at our inaugural School Awards Evening, helped in reviving the tradition of a Debating Society within the school and supported of our students upon a RYLA course.

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. The latter part of 2006-07 saw greater proactive links with the Community Police than has been the case in recent years.

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 2006-2007. There is no doubt that our pupils are benefiting from ever increasing links with the world of work, business and commerce. We are redoubling our efforts to ensure that all Year 11 pupils receive a meaningful work experience and will report upon the outcomes of this in the next report.

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. Again we are writing of the hope that over the coming year, the future pattern of education within the Cardiff can become clearer and that as seems to be the case, the position of Llanishen High School is secure within those plans. With that we also hope that we get 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 are provided towards the back of this report. They include LEA requirements for 2009 & 20010. These are currently draft targets and not due to be ratified until a meeting with a LEA Improvement Adviser on 05/12/07. These will be updated on the school website if there are any subsequent changes. The targets for 2008 were provided as required in the report for 2005-06.)

GOVERNORS

PARENTS
Mrs A Bird (until 2008)
Mr A Davies (until 2006)
Mrs J Davies-Turner (until 2010)
Mrs G Lawson (until 2008)
Mrs S Munir (until 2011)
Mr M Palmer (until 2011)

LEA
Cllr Mr J Burns (until 2008)
Ms G Hunt (until 2008)
Dr T Pickersgill (2010)
Cllr Mr C Piper (until 2008)
Cllr R Smith (until 2008)

TEACHERS
Mr G Duly (until 2010)
Mr R Wilson (until 2008)

NON-TEACHING STAFF
Mrs H Wall (until 2011)

HEADTEACHER
Mr R A Smyth

CO-OPTED
Prof J Andrews (until 2009)
Mrs T Griffiths (until 2008)
Mr B Green (until 2009)
Mr A Lewis (until 2011)
Mrs S Morgan (until 2009)

Year	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Total Candidates	115	104	110	110	113	108	109	122	124	143	139
SUBJECTS TAKEN	295	293	300	298	313	302	302	346	339	379	382
PASSES (E+)	277	276	277	257	276	294	289	332	329	366	370
FAILS (U)	18	17	21	41	37		13	14	10	12	12
PASS RATE %	93.8	94.2	93.0	86.6	88.2	97.4	95.7	96.0	97.1	96.6	96.9
Grade %: A	19.66	20.48	19.66	16.44	18.53	21.52	11.92	20.52	23.3	24	28.5
B	47.12	41.98	41.66	34.23	36.10	48.01	35.10	43.06	45.7	47.5	54.9
C	68.13	61.09	62.66	56.04	59.74	74.50	64.90	67.91	71.1	74.4	77.4
D	84.07	82.25	82.0	71.81	78.59	84.11	87.42	85.26	88.5	87.9	88.9
E	93.8	94.2	93.0	86.6	88.2	97.4	95.7	96.0	97.1	96.6	96.9
% age of candidates gaining 2 or more ‘A’ levels	87.8	93.3	90.0	80.0	85.0	94	90	95	92		94

Year	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
No. of pupils on roll	243	226	258	242	253	277	272	259	285	274	280
No. of pupils entered For exams	238	223	256	235	242	268	272	248	276	271	278
% age of Year Group gaining 5 x A* - C	61.3	65.0	56.3	59.9	57.7	59.6	55	62	64	65	63
% age of Year Group gaining 8 x A* - C	43.1	43.5	38.3	43.4	44.7	41.9	45.9	50.6	48	51.8	50
% age of Year Group gaining 5 x A* - G		93.0	91.3	94	93.7	90	92	86	91	94	97

KEY POINTS

THE_GOVERNORS’_ROLE_

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

PUPIL ACHIEVEMENTS AND SCHOOL STANDARDS

EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

PUPIL ROLL AND STAFFING

CURRICULUM_MATTERS_

ATTENDANCE

SCHOOL_IMPROVEMENT_PLANNING_AND_SELF-EVALUATION_

POLICY_MATTERS_

STAFF_DEVELOPMENT_

BUILDINGS_AND_SCHOOL_SITE_

SITE_SECURITY_

LINKS_WITH_THE_WIDER_COMMUNITY_

CONCLUSION_

KEY POINTS

THE GOVERNORS’ ROLE

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PUPIL ACHIEVEMENTS AND SCHOOL STANDARDS

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EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

PUPIL ROLL AND STAFFING

CURRICULUM MATTERS

ATTENDANCE

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLANNING AND SELF-EVALUATION

POLICY MATTERS

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

BUILDINGS AND SCHOOL SITE

SITE SECURITY

LINKS WITH THE WIDER COMMUNITY