John Willmott School
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John Willmott School is an 11-18 Community Comprehensive School in Sutton Coldfield. It is part of Birmingham LEA. Although the school is located in Falcon Lodge, Sutton Coldfield, the school also serves many areas in Birmingham such as Erdington and Castle Vale. The school is described by Ofsted as having an above average number of pupils entitled to free school meals as well as the number of pupils having special educational needs being above average.
John Willmott was founded by Alderman John Willmott. It was opened in 1957 as a co-educational Grammar School in an award winning building. The school became a Comprehensive School in 1974.
The school is fairly well equipped and holds a yearly production. Recent productions include Grease and The Boyfriend.
To try and ensure good behaviour the school has a system called the "ABC of expectations".
The school has recently introduced a Prefect system, giving Year 11 pupils the chance to help ensure good behaviour around the school. This compliments the already existing school council and head boy and head girl.
The school has recently, starting in September 2006, improved the range of courses available. Before, the range of courses available for students were typical subjects such as Geography and History and did not motivate students in the school. The new range of courses includes subjects such as Media Studies, which many other schools were already providing.
The school has been awarded Lead Department status for Business Studies for the city of Birmingham. The school's results for Business Studies have been consistently well above the national averages and much higher than results in other subjects.
In 2006, the school had its best results ever, with 58.1% of pupils getting 5 or more A*-C GCSE grades, a figure slightly higher than the year before, where 58% of pupils got 5 or more A*-C grades. This is a significant rise from when results declined to 48% in 2004 and results were below the national averages and a little below the Birmingham average. In the year 2004 the figure for pupils getting 5 or more A*-C grades including maths and english was considerably below the national average at 33%, compared to the national figure of 42.7%. When Ofsted inspected the school in March 2006 it graded achievement and standards as Grade 3 (Satisfactory) and pointed out that the percentage of pupils gaining grade A and A* at GCSE was Very Low, placing the school in the bottom 5% nationally for the number of pupils gaining these grades. The report also stated that not all pupils progress as well as they could and that A level results have been declining since 2003. The results of the school are some of the lowest in Sutton Coldfield.
In recent years the schools value added score, which measures progress, has been below average. In 2004, the school had a value added score of 966.3, falling to 963.8 in 2005, considerably below the Birmingham average value added score. Ofsted said when it inspected the school that the pupils make Satisfactory progress.
When the school was inspected by Ofsted in March 2006, the inspectors gave the school an overall Grade 3 (Satisfactory), with the school's sixth form also being awarded Grade 3. Leadership and management and teaching and learning were also both awarded the Satisfactory Grade 3, as did most other aspects of the school. Ofsted pointed out in a letter sent to the schools' students that some students in the school disrupt the learning others at times. Attendance was judged to be Satisfactory. The amount of unauthorised absences have declined significantly from a time where the amount was high to a current number which is around the national average.
Recently, plans to improve the school's sports facilities, which when Ofsted inspected the school in 2000 were judged to be unsatisfactory, have been scrapped. The plans to improve the facilities by building a sports hall were started in 2000 by Roger Gittins, then the headteacher. The plans were scrapped because the school governors were unable to complete the full funding and the impact it might have on the neighbours.
Shortly after the Ofsted Inspection in March 2006, an article appeared on the front of a local paper about a pupil from Fairfax School who had been hospitalised after he was attacked by a pupil from John Willmott School outside the gates of Fairfax School. The pupil suffered a broken nose and broken teeth when he was hit by a John Willmott School pupil. The police were involved and looked into the incident. The newspaper article claimed that there is a lot of rivalry between Fairfax and John Willmott Schools, however, pupils and staff from both schools do not agree and the two schools have a shared sixth form, meaning an excellent relationship between the two schools is vital. At least 30 students from John Willmott School were thought to be involved and 5 from Fairfax School, both schools being situated opposite each other on the Falcon Lodge estate.
