Cove School - Prospectus 2023

COVE SCHOOL

CARE, CHARACTER AND ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

“Top class school, and improving all the time in its pursuit of excellence. Headteacher and staff should be immensely proud of the school!”

- YEAR 8 PARENT

Welcome

Dear Parent,

I am delighted to welcome you to Cove School, a school I am proud to lead, a school we believe is a passionate and vibrant centre for learning. Cove School is a special place where unlocking learning is at the heart of our community. Our academic traditions are underpinned by exceptional care and support for every child in our school to achieve their potential.

Our students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and we strive to obtain the highest academic standards for every child, whilst also instilling in every child a core set of values: respect, kindness, honesty and integrity.

We want every child in our care to gain a thirst for lifelong learning coupled with a strong moral character to give them the tools they need to succeed in the modern world. This doesn’t happen by accident but through our culture of high expectations and aspirations. Students at Cove do this in a supportive and stimulating environment, where every child is known as an individual and challenged regardless of ability.

‘Every student matters’ is demonstrated through the numerous national awards we have achieved both in Careers and the EAL award. These awards exemplify our beliefs that learning has the power to transform lives. Our strong partnership with parents, local primary schools and sixth form colleges is fundamental in supporting your child’s journey at Cove School. ‘It takes a community to raise a child’ is a sentiment that we hold dear. This allows us to develop determined, adaptable, and compassionate young people who thrive in education.

This prospectus aims to give you an insight into our character, ethos and ambition. We want to become an outstanding school for the local community and your child. Our aim is simple: through high quality teaching and learning and promoting traditional values, your child will reach their full potential. This means that when they leave Cove they will make the world a better place for us all.

I very much look forward to welcoming you to our school and our community.

Yours faithfully,

At Cove School we want to inspire students to love learning and to excel academically.

Cove School constantly reviews its curriculum, pastoral support, and school facilities to provide an inspirational place for children to thrive. We ensure we have strong links with our primary schools and local 6th Forms. From Year 7, we push students academically, ensuring that there is no wasted learning time in the transition period between primary and secondary school. In Year 11 we fully prepare our students for life in post-16 education, and therefore the next steps in their future careers. The result of this is that over 98% of our students go to post-16 education and many on to university.

Great emphasis is placed on the foundational skills of literacy, oracy, and numeracy at Cove School, to ensure every student can access the challenges of the 21st Century learning. This is underpinned by the high expectations we inspire regarding standards of behaviour, character, and academic excellence.

We ensure that our teachers instil passion and enthusiasm in every lesson they teach. We are passionate about celebrating success in ‘academic achievement boards’ which show superb work ranging from ‘most improved’ to ‘highest attainer’. We want students to be inspired not just in the classroom, but seek to extend their knowledge when they leave. We have a wealth of school trips, clubs and academic competitions to encourage students to love learning.

Our multi-layered pastoral and academic support enables students of all abilities and backgrounds to overcome challenges that they have in education. We want the very best for our students because we understand how vital a good education is in order to help them thrive in the place of work and in life.

Building confidence and raising aspirations An inspiring place to learn

“This is a fabulous school and we are so pleased we chose to come to Cove.”

inspiring learn

- OFSTED REPORT (JAN 2020)

“Senior leaders and governors set high standards. Staff care about the pupils and do not give up on them.”

Inspiration and enrichment

Creativity, curiosity and commitment

We aim to develop a thirst for learning in all our students by offering a wide range of sport and creative extra-curricular activities.

Our wide range of extra-curricular activities extend students’ love of particular subjects and enables them to learn new skills. This empowers our students to develop a strong moral compass and superb interpersonal skills. Cove students are taught to be resilient, independent thinkers, with a love for learning and professional fulfilment.

enrichment

Sports

We have been investing significantly in upgrading our sports facilities with a new basketball area, new gym equipment and a refurbished sports hall. These facilities, along with trained staff to run the Duke of Edinburgh award and being the home ground for Knights American Football, means we are able to offer a wide range of activities at lunchtimes, after school and during the weekend. These include popular traditional sports such as football, rugby, netball, and basketball, as well as alternative activities such as indoor rowing, cycling, and boxing.

Expressive Arts

We have a wide range of musical opportunities from learning how to play various instruments via our partnership with the Rock and Pop Foundation, how to sing by being part of our choir and how to play the steel pans in our steel pan group. We also have dance groups and a wide range of drama productions which are popular with our students and our local community. Cove School regularly and successfully participates in Shakespeare Schools Festival and the National Rock Challenge.

Academic Clubs

We have dedicated board games rooms for each year groups open at lunchtimes. We also have many other opportunities available to students in both break and after school clubs including computing club, science club, eco-warriors; all of which underpins our keen focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths).

We strongly believe that participating in clubs leads to further opportunities such as local and national competitions and potentially additional qualifications. This further contributes to the ‘thirst for learning’ we aim to instil in every individual who enters Cove School.

“Cove School gives a warm welcome to pupils, staff and visitors.”

- OFSTED REPORT (JAN 2020)

Respect and kindness

Encouraging positive relationships

Cove School is a friendly, supportive, inspirational and forward-thinking community. One where the ethos of respect and kindness lies at the heart of all that we do. Our simple mantra is ‘work hard and be kind’.

We explicitly teach respect and kindness from Year 7, enabling students to model our core values. We have a strong student leadership team where students of all year groups can take on leadership roles as either junior or senior prefects. We want our students to grow up as resilient, kind individuals who are ready for any challenge, responding positively to uncertainty and change in our modern times.

Cove students learn how to collaborate, to listen to others’ points of view, to use their imaginations, and to solve problems effectively. We encourage and promote a team spirit in various activities, which teaches students to be well-rounded individuals.

At Cove ‘character,’ education, and traditional values of honesty, integrity, good behaviour and co-operation are explicitly taught and are basic expectations of all students as they join our community.

“I like my teachers because they show me how to fix my mistakes, are really kind and want us to learn.”

“Huge thank you to you all at Cove school for making my daughter’s time there so enjoyable. I know she will miss all the wonderful teachers so much.”

kindness

- YEAR 7 INTERNATIONAL STUDENT

“I would like to thank you for the wonderful way in which you received our boy in the community of your school. Cove is everything he wanted out of a school.”

Cultivating an ambitious culture

Striving for excellence for every child

Cove School is committed to providing the very best education so that all students can excel. Staff at Cove take part in continuous professional development, which is robust, regular, and keeps pace with pedagogical research. Enabling teachers to deliver the very best lessons for your child to succeed.

Cove School also trains teachers by working with many universities and SCITT Teacher training providers including Portsmouth, Reading and Winchester Universities. High quality inclusive teaching is at the core of all that we do; committed to academic progression and enabling all students to make progress beyond what would be expected. Lessons are calm and purposeful, with strong relationships between staff and students. All students are encouraged to take risks and overcome perceived failure as part of developing resilience and becoming a successful learner.

We run a traditional three-year Key Stage 3 curriculum to ensure our students experience the full breadth of subjects. This prepares students for the rigours and depth of knowledge needed in the Key Stage 4 curriculum. This will enable students to succeed in their GCSE examinations. Our team of specialist staff are here to support individual learning needs.

Every child is part of a tutor group with whom they meet twice per day. The role of a tutor is to support, challenge and mentor students as they progress through their journey at Cove and onto the next stage of their academic career.

A curriculum for learning

Promoting scholarship regardless

At Cove School, as soon as students begin their learning career with us, we want our curriculum to be exciting yet challenging. Our curriculum demonstrates the essential knowledge and mastery of basic skills across all subjects allowing students to work towards their academic goals.

The curriculum in Year 7 brings together all the essential knowledge acquired at primary school whilst developing a new level of mastery in a wide range of subjects. This is coupled with enrichment through our varied extracurriculum opportunities we offer at Cove.

Every subject is taught by a specialist teacher who will engage your child in learning new information, skills and to develop new work habits. Our teachers are dedicated and innovative professionals with high expectations for every child. We offer an extensive range of subjects for all students ranging from core subjects such as English, Maths and Science to the Arts, Technologies, PE and Humanities.

RSHE-Relationships, Sex and Health Education which became statutory for teaching in September 2021 is taught as a discrete lesson in Key Stage 3 and through assemblies and curriculum lessons at Key Stage 4.

The content is carefully organised to be age appropriate and covers personal development, mental health and well-being, healthy choices and decision-making enabling children to keep themselves safe in the modern world.

Cove School gives all students a homework timetable in order for them to broaden their understanding and develop more independent learning skills.

External exams play an important part in the success of every child which is why we maintain a broad curriculum through to Year 11, allowing students to choose four option subjects in Year 9. We encourage students to select EBacc subjects at GCSE (Humanities and Modern Languages) as this is desired by the very best universities in the country.

of ability and background

“Two of my children have very successfully gone through Cove School and my third is just thriving.” -

Community Partnerships for Excellence

Ensuring seamless progress from primary to secondary education

Our aim is to prepare students for their future and to help them succeed in a global society. We ensure that we help students so that when they leave Cove, they meet the needs of the employment market and the workplace and successfully become contributors to the economic prosperity of the nation.

We run a range of business-enterprise initiatives throughout the academic year and across year groups, as well as hosting events with local businesses and the military. We have a dedicated careers team and have a strong partnership with the Prospect Trust who supply our students with independent careers advice and guidance.

We strongly believe in close, active relationships with our Primary Partner schools and Sixth Form colleges. Our staff regularly liaise with colleagues in other institutions from our Primary Curriculum Conferences to Sixth Form experience days.

We have strong partnerships with local universities, especially Surrey and Reading Universities which provides a range of learning opportunities for students. One particularly popular example is the popular ‘Brilliant Club’ which links some of our disadvantaged children with PhD students at universities such as Oxford, King’s, and Royal Holloway.

As parents you remain our most important partners and we encourage regular communication with your child’s tutor, attendance at parents’ evenings and other social community-based events hosted by the school. We pride ourselves on knowing each student as an individual and ensuring each student has the right support and engages with the wider community of the school. We encourage our young leaders to help in primary school sporting events, charity work, inter-house and other competitions. Our half termly Parent Communication helps to keep parents informed of key developments, achievements and dates for the calendar. Our school website is regularly updated so you can access all you need to help your child. We also have a suite of IT provisions to help you support your child through their learning journey such as Arbor and Satchel:One.

Partnerships Excellence

“There is a very wide choice of high-quality clubs. Afterschool clubs encourage pupils to get involved in healthy and thoughtful activities... along with very wide-ranging trips and visits on offer.”

- OFSTED REPORT (JAN 2020)

Care, Character and Support

Children at the heart of everything we do

As you walk around Cove School you can’t fail to notice our core values of ‘Care and Character’. We strive to ensure that each child is happy, safe and enjoys school. We have high expectations for every child with respect to behaviours for learning and how they play an important role in our school community.

At Cove, the character of each and every child is paramount in all that we do. We explicitly teach character development and ensure that students have a strong moral compass. Developing the whole child in this way allows them to become excellent citizens and decent adults.

Our SENCO leads a highly trained team of learning support staff who deliver effective classroom assistance and intervention for students with additional needs. The targeted interventions include specialist provision for the hearing impaired, reading and literacy, and social, emotional and mental health. Our SEND provision is further supported by the work of our student support workers located in our Raising Aspiration Suite (RAS), who also provide tailored intervention based on individual needs.

All staff at Cove share a common purpose; which is to care and nurture every child who joins our community so that they can thrive.

“Great school, empathetic teachers, who look after every child, not just the high achievers!”

- YEAR 7 & 10 PARENTS

Character Support

“I am incredibly proud of my daughter. She has made so much progress at Cove. She couldn’t speak English when she started and now is seriously studying and engaged with all the work.”