| Motto | Dieu et mon droit (God and my right.) |
|---|---|
| Established | 1883 |
| Type | State school voluntary aided school |
| Headteacher | David Wheeldon |
| Founder | King Edward VI |
| Specialism | Humanities College Science College |
| Location | Scotland Lane Bartley Green Birmingham West Midlands B32 4BT England |
| Local authority | Birmingham |
| DfE URN | 103552 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Staff | 100 (approx.) |
| Students | 1,140 |
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Barker Dobinson MacCarthy Roach |
| Colours | Black & white |
| Website | www.kefw.bham.sch.uk |
King Edward VI Five Ways (KEFW) (grid reference SP000814) is a traditional and highly selective, humanities specialist grammar school located in the Bartley Green area of south Birmingham, England. As of April 2008, the school has a second specialism, a specialist Science College.[1]
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It was first in the school league tables in 2007.[2] Currently the school has around 1150 pupils in attendance amongst the lower school (years 7-11) and over 350 in the sixth form, and over 100 staff including the current headmaster D. J. Wheeldon, a former Deputy Head and teacher at the school. He will be retiring at the end of this school year. The school is unique amongst the King Edward VI Foundation, in that it is the only one of the schools to be fully co-educational. The school scored "outstanding" in every category with Ofsted report in November 2005.[3][4] The school is Voluntary Aided, and parents pay no fees to the day-to-day running of the school.[5] However parents are asked to make a 'voluntary contribution' each year to 'The School Club'. This money is used solely to provide extras and benefits for all school pupils throughout the year.[5] The school uses some unusual terminology which usually matches that used in the other foundation schools. One such example is the naming of Site Managers or caretakers as "Porters".
A boys' school established in 1883 as part of the King Edward VI Foundation,[6][7] the school's original site was that of the former Edgbaston Proprietary School, on Hagley Road at its junction with Ladywood Road, at Five Ways, approximately 1 mile south-west of Birmingham city centre. The school opened for the first time on January 16, 1883. The original Headmaster was E.H.F. MacCarthy, who remained at his post until retirement in 1916 (who now has a building named after him at the Bartley Green site). Originally, school ended at 16, and the only way to go to Oxbridge was to go to the main King Edward's School, at the time in New Street. However, MacCarthy's successor, Mr Barker, introduced the idea of the Sixth Form as a way to get straight from Five Ways to university.
During the Second World War, the Headmaster at the time, Mr Dobinson, decided to evacuate the school to Monmouth, and boys from Five Ways attended Monmouth School. This meant that all of the staff and pupils moved to share accommodation in the town, and could only keep in contact with family via correspondence. Mr Dobinson was the only person from the school to frequent Birmingham at all during the war.
After the war, the school was becoming overcrowded as expansion began to take its toll. Due to expansion around the school there was no opportunity to build on the current grounds, so a new site was found. On April 23, 1958 the school opened at its current home in Bartley Green, a suburb on the extreme south-west of Birmingham. The new school was built on the site of the Bartley Farm, which had been purchased by the Foundation, next to Bartley Reservoir. The site was elevated, and in the winter a bleak place.
The relocation was not universally popular. The school Debating Society passed a motion regretting the move. Staff were concerned about the effect the relocation to such a distant suburb would have on the intake of the school, which because of its central location had previously drawn its intake from the whole city, and it is true that many boys who had joined the school at Five Ways, easily reached from all parts of the city, suddenly had considerably longer journeys to reach the school at its new, remote location. This undoubtedly affected admissions in later years. The school's corridors were considered too narrow, and whilst the playing fields were extensive the school buildings themselves were small and rather basic, with limited common areas.
The time since 1958 has seen the development of much improved facilities, largely due to Arminio, however. Buildings new to the Bartley Green site include the Eyles and Chowen Centres, the former and current home of the school's Sixth Form. A music block and technology block have been added, as well as a Sports Hall and the MacCarthy Block. There has also been the expansion of the Science Wing, and increased seating capacity in the hall with an annex. As well as the current building of the Fitness Suite and extension to the art rooms in the MacCarthy Block.
Five Ways was one of the first schools in the West Midlands to introduce computer technology in 1978. This was achieved with a communications link to use computing facilities at Aston University.
Girls were first admitted to Five Ways from 1988, firstly in the Sixth Form, and then into the main school ten years later. Today, Five Ways is the largest co-educational state grammar school in the West Midlands, and one of the top five co-ed grammar schools nationally.[8]
The school had 11 Headmasters in its history, the first four of which are used as the names of its four Houses.
Yvonne Wilkinson was Acting Headmistress from September 2002 - December 2002. She is also the first Headmistress in the school's history, although as she served for only one term, it is not considered an actual Headmistressship.
Pupils must pass an Eleven Plus entrance exam to get into the school. The King Edward Schools are academic powerhouses and therefore fiercely competitive to get admission. The entrance examination is tough and only 1 in 10 are successful.The King Edward VI Foundation holds its exams at the same time, and generally a candidate will sit one exam for multiple schools within the foundation. 155 are selected from each year, from more than 1,500 candidates; with a few more accepted every year on appeal. A pupil has the opportunity to list the Foundation schools that he or she prefers, and depending on the results, will get allocated into one of the schools.
At GCSE, students are obliged to choose at least one humanities subject (options include History, Geography and Geology), at least one foreign language (options include French, German, Latin, Spanish and Mandarin), and other traditional subjects such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Statistics, English Language, English Literature and Religious Studies. Students would have also taken a short course in ICT a year early, during year 9; as well as this some English and Triple Science coursework/modules are taken in year 9 too. There are other options available such as: Geology, which has run as an after school voluntary course, ran over two years, and held a year early. Other options include: Music, Art (including photography), Expressive Arts, Drama, Product Design, Food Technology, Systems and Control, PE and AS Information Technology (conditional on an 'A' in IT GCSE). Also year 11 are now offered one of a multitude of English subjects including GCSE English Literature and AS English Language, in addition to the English Speaking Board and AS Communications and Culture course. The requirements to stay in the school for A Levels are 4 A grades in the subjects selected for A Level study and one must be better than one Miss Natalie Morris!
Four subjects are picked at AS Level. An additional (fifth which is compulsory) is chosen in Year 11 with Science in Society (replacing Science in Public Understanding) or General Studies. Some students take AS English and/or AS IT alongside these courses too. Options exclusive to A Level studies are: Economics, Government & Politics, Media Studies, Classical Civilisation, Sport Studies, Psychology and Philosophy as well as courses from down the school. There is also a Further Maths option, which enables a candidate to take two A Levels in Mathematics over the two years. There is the option to "drop" a subject at A2 Level, and if the student wishes, pick up an AS in another subject. The first year of Sixth Form also contains a course in General Studies or Critical Thinking, which can be carried on to A2 level in the second year. The school also offers from 2011, for Sixth Form Students, a new education system: The International Baccalereate.
The International Baccalaureate is taking its first cohort of students in 2011. For the first 2 year course a variety of SL and HL subjects have been offered along with TOK (Theory of Knowledge). Subjects World Literature and Mathematics are compulsory but are at SL and HL. One subject from Biology, Chemistry or Physics must be chosen at SL or HL. One subject from History, Geography or Economics must be chosen at SL or HL. One subject from French, Spanish, German (and hopefully in the future Mandarin and Latin) at ab initio [from scratch] level, SL or HL. One more option is fulfilled by a science, humanities or foreign language option or the choice of Visual Arts at SL or HL. [9]
At GCSE, 100% of candidates achieved at least 5 A*-C grades, and 96% of all entries were between A*-C. 62.5% were in the A*-A range. The school excelled in English Literature and Religious Studies. In English Literature, the top 5 entries nationally (AQA) were all from Five Ways, and in Religious Studies, only 1 candidate failed to score an A or A* in both the short and full courses. 4 candidates had 100% A* results.[10] At A Level, there was a 100% pass rate, with 5 candidates achieving 5 A grades, and a total of 39 candidates achieving 3 or more A grades.[11]
At Five Ways, there are 2 periods for sport, consisting of 50 minutes each, each week. This is called "Games", separate from PE, which is another 50 minutes. Before 2007 (September) periods would have been 60 minutes and games would only take up one hour. Now games is 100 minutes per week, for all years as a double period on different days. The main sports in games are netball, hockey, rounders, football, basketball for girls, and cricket and rugby for boys. Two groups partake in different sports.
The school has an athletics team, that has produced several notable athletes . One former student, Tom Parsons, who went on to compete in the Commonwealth Games for England.[12] In 2007, Parsons finished tenth in the high-jump at the 2007 World Athletics Championship, in Osaka, Japan.[13]
Cricket is the traditional Summer term sport within Five Ways. Teams of all age groups compete regularly..
Rugby Union is Five Ways' traditional Winter sport. Five Ways regularly enters the Daily Mail Cup, with mixed success. In 2006/2007, the Under 15 Team advanced to the quarter finals [14] before going out after a home draw 7-7 to Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School. In 2005 and 2006, there was a tour to Biarritz, in France.[15] In 2007-2008 the Year 7 team won the Greater Birmingham, and the 2010-2011 U15 team still unbeaten in Europe
In 2006 the school competed in the grand final of the Midlands School Debating Competition, one of four teams to make it this far out of over 100 schools competing and finished in third place overall.
The school also reached the final of the Oxford Schools Competition, and the finals of the Cambridge Schools Competition, two hitherto unprecedented triumphs for Five Ways.[12] reaching the final 4 schools in the country in the 2007 "debating matters" tournament and in 2007 and 2008, won the 'Great Shakespeare Debate' at Stratford-Upon-Avon. They managed to win the competition, defeating North London Collegiate School in the final in both years.[12][12]
Recently, there have been many drama productions, including The Canterbury Tales (as a full school production) by Geoffrey Chaucer and The Tempest by William Shakespeare in 2005, which was entered into the BBC Shakespeare competition. Also, at Christmas last year, was the upper school production of Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer. In 2006 Bugsy Malone by Alan Parker and The Agamemnon were produced; an all female cast of Macbeth, which along with The Merchant of Venice, were entered into the BBC Schools Shakespeare Festival.[12][16] The lower school (KS3) has also performed two plays: Tom Sawyer and Ernie's Incredible Illucinations.
For the 2007/08 academic year, a whole school production of Grease the musical took place. Other productions included a 'multi-cultural' Dracula, which had received much attention in the West Midlands press prior to the actual play,[17][18][19] an upper-school production of Dinner and Much Ado About Nothing for the Shakespeare Youth Festival.
For the 2008/09 academic year, the Sixth Form (and subsequently, only,) production was The Count of Monte Cristo. This was the school's first student written and directed play, and was done by then-Upper Sixth former Stuart Hardy.
During 2009/10 there was a dramatic rise in the amount of drama being introduced into the school. There was the Fairytale High productions which took place during Autumn Term, with an Asian Arts drama production too. Then a commendable following performances included The Crucible which was nominated for a commendation in the Columba trophy (with a KEFW student winning an award at the ceremony). Moreover into Spring Term, there was a tremendous Jesus Christ Superstar Musical production which blew away the vast audience watching with powerful and blissful singing from all actors. A KS3 performance displaying the Fairy Tale: Beauty and the Beast was also staged by Sixth Form Students. Finally, an Open Air Shakespeare production in the Summer was presented to end the year with A Midsummer Night's Dream on the school quadrangle.
The FDC has been running for two years now, with the other schools of the King Edward VI Foundation competing. In 2006 it was won by King Edward VI Five Ways, as was the Stage Craft award, the best KS3 actress award, and the best KS3 overall award.[12]
Five Ways takes part in the Birmingham & District Junior Chess League.[20] It has competed with much success in recent years, and in 2006/2007 finished second in each division it entered, as well as winning the First Form and Lightning Tournaments.[21] A number of Five Ways players have ECF grades,[22] due to participating in outside competitions. The school regularly participates in the UK Chess Challenge, and in 2007, two of their players reached the final stage of the competition.[23]
The school offers extracurricular music in the form of concerts and Carol evenings. The orchestra is split into many sections, including regular rehearsals of two full Orchestras, a Wind Band, Baroque Strings, and two Choirs.[24] There are also smaller ensembles such as Brass Group, Cello Group and Flute Choir. Newman College is also used for some performances.
The system operates by allocating each student into one of four houses upon their entry into the school. Throughout the academic year, each student is then expected to attain as many house points as possible, so increasing their house's chance of winning the end of year House Championship.
The House System was originally introduced by Mr Barker. He appointed four House Masters and these would forever hold the names of the houses (Roses, Rants, Bates, McPherson). However, in 1973, the system was scrapped, due to dwindling interest in the system by the then headteacher.[7] In 1990 the school reinstated the system, but this time, the new houses were named after the first four Headmasters of the school, MacCarthy (yellow), Barker (red), Dobinson (blue) and Roach (green).
Traditionally, the vast majority of house points were attained by being awarded house merit points, for good contributions in class, impressive performances on homework, and other minor achievements. Until recently, the only other way to score house points was on sports day.
However, the recent revival in the house system has brought with it a wide variety of both sporting and non-sporting events, throughout the whole year, which involve the participation of every age group in the school. Varied in nature, these include house Cross-Country, Sudoku and Cookery. House points are awarded to the house with the highest number of merit points in each year, with 2nd, 3rd and 4th place houses getting fewer points.
This new pro-house initiative was unofficially launched in the Summer term 2006, by a house events day for years 7 and 8. Almost entirely organised and executed by prefects in the then Lower Sixth, the event was unanimously heralded an all round success, and is a yearly feature.
The most popular event in the new House System, is the tug-o-war. It is quite custom for the whole sports hall to be filled with passionate spectators, cheering on those involved. The event concludes with a staff house tug-o-war, as well as a Student-Staff match to round off the event.
Current totals are announced weekly, during Friday morning assemblies.
Yearly totals are announced in the final assembly of the year. The 2009-2010 academic year standings were:
A table of the winners:
The current results see Barker as the top scorers on the leaderboard, followed by Roach.
The Council comprises an elected representative from every form in the school: just short of 50. For the 2006/07 school year, a new constitution was publicly launched,[25] and was unanimously ratified by the Council on its inaugural meeting. The Constitution was designed to improve the speed of decisions, and increase the power of individual school representatives.
The School Council aims to bring about the changes in the school that its pupils wish to see. Some notable achievements include:
The 2006/7 school year saw the Council make a conscious effort to be more known throughout the school, through a variety of methods including sponsoring showings of various films, posters around the school, and running charity events such as the Five Ways interpretation of World AIDS Day.
The Sixth Form Council was a precursor to the School Council and achieved notoriety when in 2003 it reported the school to the Health and Safety Executive over fire safety failings. The HSE sided with the students and mandated the school to improve the alarm system and replace fire doors.
The school has extensive grounds and facilities. Situated on a large 30 acre site, there are many outdoor sports pitches for a variety of sports including (amongst others) Rugby, Cricket, Hockey, Rounders, football, Athletics and Netball. Almost all indoor sports are catered for, including Swimming and the Tyn-Y-Waen Climbing Wall – which was opened by climber Ben Moon in June 2005. The school has buildings, known as "blocks" for subject groups, and a separate humanities building (which currently also houses the Sixth form centre). There are a number of dedicated computer rooms, a staffed library, a Connexions career room, and most classrooms are now equipped with Interactive whiteboards and a new fitness centre.
A recent acquisition by the school has been a mobile fieldwork unit for use by the Humanities Departments.
Also a new fitness suite has been installed with lots of apparatus from treadmills to weights.
Several decades ago, Five Ways acquired its own traditional school song. It had fallen out of use, but it was modernised and reinstated as an important, albeit infrequently seen, part of the school. Whilst the traditional version used to be sung, this is not the version now sung. The modern version has several words substituted for more appropriate alternatives: for example "boys" is no longer a part of the song in view of the school's now co-educational status, also making it politically correct. It is sung on Speech Day, and at the end of term assemblies.
After the exams in July, there is a Staff v 1st Team cricket match. The staff are christened the "Staff Cavaliers". The match is a timed one-day cricket match, with no specific number of overs allotted per team. This allows all three results possible. The staff are bolstered by the presence of an ex-first class player. By arrangement, the Staff always bat first.
The school has a specialised school bus, The Green Bus. There are 8 routes, numbered FW1 through FW8. They are used by about 85% of the school. The public buses 22,18 and 002 are also highly used buses. They are run by National Express West Midlands.[26]
| School | City |
|---|---|
| Babati Day Secondary School [27] | Babati |
| The English School [28] | Guangzhou |
| King Edward Public School [29] | Mahilpur |
| Christchurch Boys' High School [30] | Christchurch |
| Afri-Twin Link [31] | Cape Town |
| St Just School [32] | Lyon |
| EDGE partnership link with group of schools in Chicago [33] | Chicago |
| Brekkuskoli School [34] | Akureyri |
The school has enjoyed its many international links worldwide, which have brought a wide range of opportunities, development, exchanges and experiences - social, charitable, curricular and developmental – to its pupils and staff.
These Links enabled Five Ways to win the DfES Full School Award, celebrating Internationalism and it was described as "a major honour for excellence in this field." [35]
The Babati Link Group formed from within the school in 2003 exists to promote friendship and share educational resources with their Tanzanian friends at Babati Day School in the rurally remote town of Babati, Manyara.
Mr Wilson initiated this link after visiting Babati in 2002. The school has now raised several thousand pounds altogether to support Babati Day, all pupils taking part in fund raising. A trust fund has been set up and the money has been used for classroom renovation projects, air fares for Babati teachers to visit Britain, the cost of supporting an e-mail link between the schools, and so on.
A party of 45 students and teachers visited Babati in 2003, and carried out a classroom renovation. The Headmaster and a teacher colleague visited Birmingham in 2003-4, learning about teaching, management and leadership, as a result of which the school has developed a school improvement strategy.
One of the schools' World Challenge parties passed through Babati and helped build its first sports facility, a basketball court.
A second group of students and teachers travelled to Babati in July 2005. This group carried out renovations and also focused on teaching English as a foreign language. All students involved on the trip took Swahili lessons to facilitate this. Staff involved developed curriculum projects in English, Science, R.E. and Modern languages as a result of the visit.
The most recent activity in this school link, came in Summer 2006 when a small group of students from the VI Form travelled to Babati to see the construction of a brand new ICT facility for Babati Day. Pupils from KEFW were actively involved in both the delivery of an ICT infrastructure, and the inaugural ICT lessons at the school, Supported by the Babati Link Group, a roadmap for future development of this facility has been put in place.
Five Ways was approached by Pate's Grammar School in 2005. They have an established link with the English School in Guangzhou, but struggle to accommodate the numbers of students from the partner school that wish to visit Britain. Therefore Five Ways agreed to assist. Six students spent time in Birmingham in July 2005 and a party of six sixth formers and Deputy Head Mrs Long visited China in October 2005.[28]
Following an approach by the Chairman of King Edward School, who is the father of an ex-pupil, The Headmaster, David Wheeldon, and Deputy Head, Richard Fox, made a preliminary visit to Mahilpur in February 2004. Since then a group of students from India visited Birmingham in July 2004, and spent time in classes with Year 7 students. A group of sixth formers and two members of staff returned to India in February 2005. They carried out various teaching and learning activities. The next stage is to embed the link with India into the curriculum. We also welcome another party from India in November 2005, this time including teachers who will study teaching and learning in British schools, as well as six Year 8 students.
Links are being forged at the moment with Christchurch Boys' High School in the South island of New Zealand.
The EDGE partnership is a thriving network of schools in south west Birmingham, working together on all aspects of education. A link has been established between this group and a similar network in Chicago. Currently, Five Ways' main partner school at the moment is Walter Payton College Preparatory High School which is a Math, Science and World Language High School. This is a CPD link aimed mainly at senior management at the moment. An exchange is currently taking place. The intention is to broaden this link to encompass teachers at all levels.
The school is also in the process of establishing a video conference link with Walter Payton High School in Chicago.
A new link has been established by the French department with St Just School in Lyon.
The partnership school is a mixed comprehensive and very highly regarded school right in the centre of Lyon. This is an ideal exchange/link as Lyon is the twin town of Birmingham, while KEFW and Lycée St Just offer very similar characteristics.
The link involves a number of British schools in a triangular relationship, each with two South African schools; one private school and one township school. After some initial problems the link is now becoming established under Mr Webster's guidance.
The intention is that once initial contacts have been established, students will begin to communicate at a more advanced level, sharing ideas on study projects and using their contacts to inform work in various subjects. As well as this, it is planned to establish a video conference link.
Teachers will have the opportunity to share ideas on teaching and learning, and teacher visits between the schools for CPD purposes are envisaged soon.
It is hoped also to arrange a sports tour to South Africa, taking in the two partner schools.
The link with Brekkuskoli was established in October 2006 when Mr Isgrove, Mr Bird and Mr Dear visited Akureyri whilst on the Circum Iceland trip during half term. They met with a number of staff, including the Headmaster, to discuss future plans and had a tour of the school which is relatively new in that it is the result of an amalgamation of two of the oldest schools in the town.
Future plans include Video Conferencing and Teacher/Student visits.
Notable alumni include:
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