Technology College
What Is A Specialist School ?
The Specialist Schools Programme helps schools, in partnership with private sector sponsors and supported by additional Government funding, to establish distinctive identities through their chosen specialisms and achieve their targets to raise standards. Specialist schools have a special focus on their chosen subject area but must meet the National Curriculum requirements and deliver a broad and balanced education to all pupils.
Introduction
We have moved a long way since our original designation in 1998 and have plans to move us on even further over the next five years. We intend to build on our achievements to date to further improve the curriculum offer for our own students, pupils from our family group, students in our partner secondary schools and members of the our local community. Our specialist school status will continue to be the catalyst for change, with the focus subjects Design Technology, Mathematics, Science PE and English spearheading these new initiatives.
Enriching and extending learning experiences:
- Radio Weald & Webcast is being developed to provide a public information service for the school community with weekly internal broadcasts throughout the year culminating in Radio Weald over the airwaves in the summer term. [Please click Radio Weald link for more detail]
- The Africa Project Although fundraising has dominated our activities to date, it was never intended that this should be the main purpose of this project. It was included in our TC Plan as an enrichment activity for our students [and staff] and whilst there has been considerable enrichment via the many fundraising ev
ents/activities [i.e. the skills our students have developed in terms of teamwork and initiative, as well as organisational and marketing skills] the real enrichment will come through the curriculum links we establish and sustain.
Building collaborative partnerships with a range of schools and other providers, locally, nationally and internationally:
- Primary Liaison our ‘masterclass’ programme with our family group of primary schools has run very successfully over all three phases [nine years]of our specialist status. We currently run six week mini projects in maths, science and technology. Thanks to the work of Mrs Gwen Wright a Gifted & Talented programme has been introduced this year, this is a tailored programme for pupils with a special interest/aptitude in science