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, The Boyfriend, Anything Goes, Calamity Jane, South Pacific.
To try and ensure good behaviour the school has a system called the "ABC of expectations".
In September 2007 John Willmott introduced a house system. At the end of the Summer Term 2007 there was a competition launched to see who comes up with the best house names. A Nintendo Wii was the prize. The competition was judged by staff and Planet's won. Here are the house names: A=Mercury D=Saturn G=Pluto K=Orion N=Venus R=Jupiter W=Neptune
The school has recently introduced a Prefect system, giving Year 11 pupils the chance to help ensure good behaviour around the school. This complements the already existing school council and head boy and head girl.
The school has recently, starting in September 2006, introduced a range of Vocational courses at GCSE level which are in addition to those already available in the sixth form. It is intended that these vocational courses will complement the traditional courses already available. The school has been awarded Lead Department status for Business Studies for the city of Birmingham.
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. In 2007, the amount of pupils gaining 5 A*-C grades including maths and English was in line with the national average at 48%, and above the Birmingham average of 41.6%. On the old measure, however, results were below average with 58.3% of pupils achieving 5 A*-C grades, with an improvement trend much slower than the national average, but under the new measure the school's results are increasing at a faster rate than the national average. GCSE Results (5 A*-C inc. Maths and English) in 2007, were, although above the Birmingham average, the worst in Sutton Coldfield.
Historically, results in the sixth form have been considerably below the national and birmingham averages according to league tables, and went through a period of further decline. In 2007, the average A/AS points per person was 531.7, compared to the Birmingham average of 708.9 and the national average of 731.1. This places the school at the bottom of the league tables for all schools and colleges 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. In the most recent league tables (2007), and under the new contextual value added, the school is still falling below the national average of 1000, and even further below the Birmingham average of 1007.3 at 995.5.
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. Attendance was judged to be Satisfactory. The amount of unauthorized absence has began to increase, after a period where it had been it decline, and attendance overall has shown a decrease since the last inspection and is now below the national average, with total absence 8.9%, compared to 7.8% nationally. Unauthorized absence in the last academic year was 1.6%, compared to 1.4% nationally, however, there was just 0.6% unauthorized absence in 2004, and has been increasing since this year.
Recently, plans to improve the school's sports facilities, have been scrapped. The plans to improve the facilities by building a sports hall were started in 2000 during the headship of Roger Gittins. The plans were scrapped because the school governors were unable to complete the full funding and because of the impact it might have on the neighbours.
