Lister Community School Prospectus

communitY school

specialist school in the performing arts

To ensure that each student’s personal and social achievement is maximised, valued and supported, and provide equal opportunities for all.

Our School Aims

To promote learning as an enjoyable, challenging, lifelong experience – developing a broader range of knowledge, skills and understanding with which to make informed choices.

To promote the benefits of learning and working in a culturally diverse community where equality is reflected in the ethos of our everyday practice.

To nurture in every student a sense of self-esteem, confidence, respect and a concern for others, providing a secure environment where all members of the school community feel safe.

To ensure each student is supported to achieve their full capability and achievement is recognised and celebrated.

To promote the involvement of parents and the wider community as a school community that encourages openness and participation in decision-making.

Welcome At Lister Community School our aim is to help every child fulfill their potential. As a successful and vibrant school at the heart of the community, we offer an enriching environment committed to inspiring young minds and helping them grow. Working in partnership with parents and carers, local primary schools, community groups and support agencies, ours is a school that offers a wide range of social and educational benefits, both to students and those in our wider community.

Raising standards in the classroom, encouraging involvement in the community and sharing with our community opportunities to learn, our goal is to encourage achievement and lifelong learning across the full spectrum of learning needs. As an inclusive school, we’re open to students of all abilities, including the gifted and talented and those with complex learning needs. We are the resourced provision for Newham with 24 dedicated places for deaf students.

Our specialism in Performing Arts is a great example of our passion for encouraging creativity, developing new approaches to learning and involving the whole community. Providing all students with unique opportunities for self-expression, Performing Arts can also open up traditional areas of the curriculum in interesting ways that really engage and offer some truly extraordinary life experiences, from performing at the Hackney Empire to the Royal Opera House.

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As a mentoring school, we work in collaboration with other schools – both here and abroad – to develop more personalised learning activities designed to suit the needs of the individual student, allowing us to embrace all abilities. We embrace new technologies to give students the skills that will equip them to meet the challenges of our technological age.

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As Head Teacher I’m enormously proud of the students at Lister Community School and our success as a high-performing school.

The significant investment that is going into the school to build on our achievements is a real testament to the hard work and passion of our governors, staff, students and community.

By the beginning of 2010 we will be able to fully occupy our stunning new school building, opening up another exciting phase of our journey. In the meantime we might have to put up with a few minor inconveniences as our school is transformed, but we’re confident we can continue to provide every student with the opportunities they need to truly fulfill their potential.

Martin Buck – Head Teacher

Joining our community Making the journey from primary to secondary school can be a daunting one for both child and parents.

As a big school with 1350 students and 180 staff, we appreciate how important it is for your child to feel at home in this new environment and work closely with our feeder primaries to help prepare children for what to expect. Helping you understand what to expect is just as important, and you can get involved and find out more about us through our parent/carer support groups run in partnership with our local primary schools.

Our innovative approach to helping students make the transition to secondary school is very different from the traditional approach.

Our curriculum is designed so that new students spend the majority of their time with their tutor, supported by a small number of other teachers. This helps them to build better relationships with teaching staff, and helps our teachers gain a deeper understanding of their individual learning needs.

As part of the new school build, new students will also be housed in a dedicated part of the school, making it easier for them to find their way around and not get lost in a sea of (much bigger) older students. Older students do have an important part to play with our new students however, acting as one-to-one student mentors whom they can go to for support and advice.

As an extended school, our aim is to offer parents support and advice that goes beyond the motivation and learning support our teachers provide. With school-based Social Workers, Family Support Officers and Welfare Officers, if there are any issues affecting your child or family that you need guidance with, we offer every resource available under one roof.

“ We really try to keep open lines of communication with parents.

It’s very much a partnership.

We get great results because we have an in-depth knowledge of the students we’re working with.”

Chair of Governors

“ The lessons really get you excited about things. We do lots of different activities which make it much easier to get your head around something and bring it to life.�

Year 8 Student

Engaging young minds We like to think that our exceptionally high levels of student attendance has a lot to do with a curriculum that makes learning engaging and enjoyable.

Finding new ways to get into a subject, working in different ways to explore a project and making connections between different subject areas are great ways to bring learning to life and get young people thinking for themselves.

Skills such as discipline, team work, communication and personal responsibility learned in Performing Arts are readily transferable to other subjects, and rather than always try to bring home a subject within the course of one lesson, different learning experiences such as problem solving days offer opportunities for deep thinking and deep learning.

How we design the curriculum at Key Stage 3 is a continually evolving process, and we’re committed to utilising the new learning opportunities given to us by digital media. We are also just as passionate about finding new aspects to learning at Key Stage 4, including the development of new diplomas in specialist areas of creative media.

Our broad curriculum places attainment in core subjects such as English, Maths and Science at its centre, but also enables us to offer students subjects that connect with their own interests or dispositions, such as modern languages, photography, music or sport. In every area, we place great emphasis on aiming high and achieving set goals, and are quick to reward students when they meet, or exceed, their expectations.

A world of opportunities Our Performing Arts specialism has given us numerous opportunities to get involved with learning projects beyond the school environment, giving students a taste of other worlds outside the classroom.

From taking part in the London Rock Challenge at Hackney Empire, to a boys ballet performance with the Royal Ballet School at the Royal Opera House to our spectacular production of ‘Guys and Dolls’ (that included some of our deaf students among the cast), the self-confidence, sense of achievement and skills our students gain from taking part in these activities is outstanding.

But it’s not just in the area of the Performing Arts that our students get involved in the wider community. From taking part in work experience in the City of London to hosting a delegation of Commonwealth MPs at the school, we encourage our students to develop a sense of the world around them and to discover where they might identify a role for themselves within it.

Giving students a voice is vital to achieving this, and the importance of student leaders who can have a direct influence on what happens at the school – and what and how they are taught – is something that’s very high on our agenda.

Sport is another area where students are encouraged to get involved and excel. Our sporting achievements in cricket, football, athletics, basketball and even fencing are evidence of our commitment to promoting healthy living and student participation, and the extra-curricular opportunities arising from Newham’s position as host borough for the 2012 Olympics offer us tremendous scope to build on our sporting successes.

“ Walking on stage was an amazing experience.

I kept thinking ‘don’t mumble, don’t fall’.

Afterwards I felt like a celebrity!”

Year 10 Student

“ PSE has a massive impact on the students. It’s where they have the opportunity to understand themselves.

I love teaching it because it has such a positive effect on students.”

Head of PSE

A sense of well-being We want to help students develop into wellrounded individuals with a sense of personal pride and respect, purpose and community.

To achieve this, we strive to get an in-depth knowledge of the children we’re working with so that we can give them the support and guidance most appropriate to their needs.

Parental involvement has a big part to play in supporting this goal and our aim is to encourage open lines of communication between family and school.

PSE (Personal and Social Education) is an important part of the curriculum and encourages students to develop key life skills through exploring the issues that affect their day-to-day lives.

Students are also encouraged to mentor others from different year groups (including our youngest students mentoring primary school children who will become new joiners), helping them develop their confidence, sense of personal and social responsibility and leadership skills.

Developing relationships between different year groups throughout the school – helped by many inter-year activities – has also proven to be invaluable in creating a harmonious environment with real community spirit and pride in our school identity.

This sense of community extends beyond the school too, with many students getting involved in local community projects, charity and sporting events, and national and international campaigns. From our highly active School Student Council and links with the Newham Youth Parliament to our much praised student literary magazine ‘Carbolic’, the way our students embrace opportunities to get involved, find ways to interpret the world around them, get their voices heard and make a difference is truly inspiring and something we are very proud of at Lister.

Fulfilling potential Engaging our students, giving them learning and life aspirations and providing them with positive role models and a sense of community are all top priorities for us at Lister Community School.

With so many success stories, lots of our ex-students keep in touch with the school and work with existing students to give them ideas about what next steps they can take on their life journeys when they leave us.

With strong links to universities, further education colleges, local and national businesses and, of course, Performing Arts institutions, we encourage students to think about their long-term prospects early on in their school careers and, by Year 10, provide them with plenty of opportunities to explore what’s on offer.

We want all of our students, whatever their skills or abilities, to get the most out of life and believe a well-rounded, balanced and positive experience at secondary school is vitally important to achieving this aim. This belief is the basis of our commitment to providing an inspiring and positive school environment, and we encourage all prospective parents to visit us to see for themselves our school at work.

We look forward to meeting you.

“ There are so many clubs and activities, students can try lots of different things to find out what they really enjoy.�

Learning Support Assistant

“ There is a great energy and vibrancy to the students in this school. They’re not shy to speak up or perform, and that makes them a pleasure to teach. It’s a lovely environment to work in.”

Head of Performing Arts

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