Kennet School is an
academy
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
secondary school in
Thatcham
Thatcham is an historic market town and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, centred 3 miles (5 km) east of Newbury, 14 miles (24 km) west of Reading and 54 miles (87 km) west of London.
Geography
Thatcham straddles t ...
,
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
, England. In 2011, Kennet was the highest achieving state school in
West Berkshire
West Berkshire is a local government district in Berkshire, England, administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council.
History
The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbury, Bradfield Rural Distric ...
using
contextual value added Contextual value added (CVA) is a statistic that was used by the government of the United Kingdom to assess the performance of schools. It was superseded by expected progress and then Progress 8
The statistic is intended to show the progress child ...
results and third-highest using five good
GCSEs
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
.
The school opened on 11 September 1957 as a
secondary modern
A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usually ...
, before converting into a
comprehensive in 1971
[Kennet School prospectus for 2013/4, page 2]
/ref> and finally changing to an academy on 1 April 2011. Ms G Rigg was appointed Acting Headteacher as Mrs G Piper stepped up to become CEO of the Trust in September 2022.
Kennet is one of few schools in England to have three specialisms: in September 2000 the school was given Technology College
In the United Kingdom, a Technology College is a specialist school that specialises in design and technology, mathematics and science. Beginning in 1994, they were the first specialist schools that were not CTC colleges. In 2008, there were 59 ...
status. In February 2002 a new technology block was built on the north of the site to replace dispersed classrooms. In March 2005 the school received Arts College
An Arts College, in the United Kingdom, is a type of specialist school that specialises in the subject fields of the performing, visual, digital and/or media arts. They were announced in 1996 and introduced alongside Sports Colleges to England i ...
status[Newbury Today – Kennet awarded third specialism](_blank)
Most recently in April 2006 it was awarded the status of Language College
Language Colleges were introduced in 1995 as part of the specialist schools programme (SSP) in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, modern foreign languages. Schools that successf ...
.
History
The Risman Library was opened on 23 September 1997 by Councillor Ann Risman, the Chairman of Berkshire County Council
The Council of the Royal County of Berkshire, also known as the Berkshire County Council, was the top-tier local government administrative body for Berkshire from 1889 to 1998. The local authority had responsibilities for education, social servi ...
, who was accompanied by Chris Woodhead
Sir Christopher Anthony Woodhead (20 October 1946 – 23 June 2015) was a British educationalist. He was Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England from 1994 to 2000, and was one of the most controversial figures in debates on the di ...
, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, includ ...
. The library is designed to be a low energy environment by incorporating high levels of natural light
Natural Light, sometimes Natty Light, is an American reduced-calorie light lager brewed by Anheuser-Busch since its introduction on July 31, 1977. Its ingredients are listed as water, barley malt, cereal grains, yeast, and hops. One serving cont ...
and ventilation. It stocks over 22,000 books, has seating for pupils and has a separate Sixth Form study section, which doubles as a seminar room.
In 2016 accusations were reported of child sex abuse by former teacher Robert Neill (1986-2003). The school was criticised for not following professional guidelines and missing opportunities to prevent the abuse, prompting an investigation by the West Berkshire Safeguarding Children Board. In 2016, a local vicar Pete Jarvis was accused of child sex offences. Jarvis was an active member of the school community and held youth counselling sessions with students. Since then, Kennet School has been reported by OFSTED
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...
to be 'highly vigilant' in keeping pupils safe.
In September 2017, Kennet School and the West Berkshire Council
West Berkshire Council is the local authority of West Berkshire in Berkshire, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. West Berkshire is divided into 30 wards, electing 52 c ...
had a legal dispute over £43,000 allegedly owed to the council over the use of the conjoined leisure centre.
Awards
Kennet was awarded the Artsmark
Artsmark is the creative quality standard for schools and education settings, awarded by Arts Council England
Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is ...
Gold by the Arts Council England
Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...
in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013; and the Platinum award in 2018. It was also awarded the Sportsmark
Sportsmark is Sport England's accreditation scheme for secondary schools. The scheme recognises a school's out of hours sports provision. by Sport England
Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded par ...
in 2001. The school was also awarded the Challenge Award by National Association for Able Children in Education on 22 November 2006 and re-accredited on in November 2010 and November 2017 respectively, as recognition for its efforts to support Able, Gifted and Talented pupils. Kennet was only the 16th school in the country to receive the award at the time.
Teaching awards
The previous headmaster, Paul Dick (1989-2017) was appointed an OBE for Services to Education in the 2000 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various or ...
.[BBC News – For services to education](_blank)
/ref> Paul Dick was also the Category Winner in 2001 in ''The Leadership Trust Award for School Leadership in a Secondary School in South of England''.
Sixth Form
There is a Sixth Form
In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...
at Kennet for students who wish to continue their education after the age of 16. There is a section of the library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
provided for Sixth Form use only.
Extracurricular activities
Houses
When pupils join the school they become a member of a house. The house system provides a structure for pastoral care and competition through sports (including amongst others rugby, netball athletics, football hockey), music, performing arts and day-to-day studies through the award of house points and commendation.
There are four houses at the school: St Patrick
Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints be ...
, St Michael
Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...
, St Francis, and St David
Saint David ( cy, Dewi Sant; la, Davidus; ) was a Welsh bishop of Mynyw (now St Davids) during the 6th century. He is the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and tradition has preserved a relatively large amount of detail abo ...
. Now defunct houses are St George
Saint George (Greek language, Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin language, Latin: Georgius, Arabic language, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christians, Christian who is venerated as a sa ...
and St Andrew
Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Peter ...
, which were dissolved in the mid to late 1980s. Each house is associated with a colour.
Facilities
"Kennet News"
The ''Kennet News'' school newspaper was first issued in May 1975 at the price of two new pence
The United Kingdom, British decimal one penny (1p) coin is a unit of currency and denomination of Coins of the United Kingdom, sterling coinage worth one-hundredth of one Pound sterling, pound. Its Obverse and reverse, obverse has featured the ...
and ran until the late eighties.
Ofsted
In 2005 the school was criticised in the Office for Standards in Education
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, includ ...
(Ofsted) report for lacking 'a daily act of collective worship'[March 2005 OFSTED report (page 7)](_blank)
/ref> and not reporting pupils' ICT progress in years 10 and 11, both of which are statutory requirements. All maintained English schools must provide daily worship that is broadly Christian, although parents can remove their children and sixth formers may decline to attend. Since the school is now an academy (not a maintained school) this requirement does not necessarily apply. The report also found that not all subject department heads have good enough monitoring systems to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
The 2008 reduced tariff report rated the school overall as "outstanding". The main recommendations of the report were to improve sixth form teaching including inconsistency in the quality of teaching between subjects and setting more accurately the right standard of work to stretch and develop pupils.[Ofsted reduced tariff school inspection report 2008](_blank)
/ref> The local Member of Parliament, Richard Benyon
Richard Henry Ronald Benyon, Baron Benyon (born 21 October 1960) is a British politician who has served as Minister of State for Biosecurity, Marine and Rural Affairs since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament ...
, has in the past spoken out over shortfalls for the budget towards Kennet School's sixth form which could explain its under performance in relation to the rest of the school.
The inspection in 2014, resulted in the school being rated as "Requires Improvement", although the sixth form was noted in the report as being "good".
The most recent inspection in May 2016, resulted in the school regaining its "outstanding" status, with the sixth form continuing to be rated as "good".
Notable alumni
* Henry Bolton, British politician and UKIP leader
Headteachers
File:KennetGeorgeHurford.png, George Hurford
(1961 to 1978)
File:Kennet headmaster.jpg, Paul Dick
(1989 to 2017)
Kennet's headmasters and headmistress, starting from establishment in 1957, are.
References
External links
Kennet Comprehensive School website
West Berkshire Education Business Partnership
{{authority control
Educational institutions established in 1957
Thatcham
Secondary schools in West Berkshire District
1957 establishments in England
Academies in West Berkshire District