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WEST MIDLANDS SUCCESS STORIES 2005: Meeting the Challenges Off a 21st Century Education ; GEORGE DIXON INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 December 2005, 03:02 CST

THESE are exciting and challenging times for the students and staff at George Dixon International School and Sixth Form Centre - a school that is meeting the changes and challenges of new initiatives and standards in education.

The school, in Edgbaston, has been successful in achieving specialist college status in mathematics and computing.

This has meant significant changes in creating a large number of purpose-built computer suites.

These will be extended throughout the school with further classrooms being converted to provide ICT across the whole curriculum.

The school has continued to update its facilities in all classrooms, with every classroom equipped with interactive whiteboards helping to bring the curriculum alive.

The school has just taken delivery of brand new dining facilities which have taken a year to complete. This will provide students with a superb environment conducive to healthy eating.

The future social and health needs of students will be further enhanced by the development of a community sports and leisure facility, to include a swimming pool. This will be available to local schools and the local community.

It is hoped that this initiative in providing superb community facilities within the school grounds will be part of the Government programme of Building Schools for the Future.

In addition the school intends to link with colleges of further education and develop new facilities to deliver vocational courses for students, NVQ level courses and IT courses for the community.

Head teacher Sir Robert Dowling and his highly trained staff are meeting the needs of the students by providing a variety of pathways in their educational journey.

The school has recently achieved excellent SATs results in mathematics, science and English and has continued to improve its GCSE results.

Last year's academic results showed a record number of students achieving five A* to C at GCSE. One hundred per cent of students achieved at least one A* to G.

In terms of contextual value added, the results at KS2 to KS4 placed George Dixon in the top five per cent of schools and in KS3 to KS4 in the top 25 per cent of schools.

Within the Birmingham league tables of results the school now resides within the top 30 per cent of Birmingham schools.

The school is now part of CEAL (Community Education Association for Ladywood) and is working in close partnership with local primary schools.

George Dixon is the only secondary school in the Ladywood area and is ideally placed to provide facilities and expertise in the forthcoming Extended Schools programme.

The school is part of B: CEN (Birmingham Community Empowerment Network) and currently is working on a programme where students will visit local hospitals working with WRVS as volunteers.

Students have taken part in the civic launch of Birmingham as a Fair Trade City and were involved in a fashion show where they modelled fair trade clothing.

As part of the schools' improvement and Every Child Matters legislation, there is a personal health and social education programme that has provided all students with the support needed to develop into tomorrow's citizens.

There have been successful activity days devoted to health and welfare issues, safety in the community, developing local enterprise, drug awareness seminars and development of social responsibility.

All form groups follow a well-documented programme of study that will move them forward in their understanding of the world at large, as well as local community issues.

Some of the students are active within the schools council forum making positive contributions to issues and challenges facing the school.

Educational trips to the House of Commons and to the Young Peoples' Parliament in Birmingham help the school's students develop a greater understanding of the decisionmaking processes and support their progress towards becoming "citizens of the future".

A focus within the school's sixth form is the International Baccalaureate qualification. It is an internationally recognised qualification prized throughout the world.

The IB Diploma offers a very broad based education for sixth form students covering sciences, communication and language, social sciences such as history geography, arts including performing arts, a technology, business/ICT/enterprise.

The Theory of Knowledge is an intrinsic part of the course and requires students to produce an extended essay, based on a topic which students are interested in researching. A component of Theory of Knowledge is community action and service, where the students carry out community based projects. Thus far, students have worked as volunteers with the Red Cross in the international tracing and message project. They have also undertaken various forms of service and research within the community.

The sixth form also offers advanced level studies in a wide range of vocational subjects.

Many students have their sights set on university. The vast majority of students from the sixth form are successful in gaining admission to their preferred courses of study.

The school day is divided into three lessons of 100 minutes each. This concentration of time has helped students focus their efforts in the BTEC, GCSE and Advanced courses. Younger students enjoy the quality time available to complete their work and teachers find there is time to adapt their teaching methods to the learning styles of the students. Blocking lesson time in this way helps the students to participate in outside events of a more practical nature and work experience involves the students in their specific chosen BTEC course and allows educational visits to art galleries and museums.

To further the standards of attainment for Year 9 and 11students, the school offers focused Saturday and After School Classes during the course of the school year. This extension to educational provision will be enhanced as the school moves forward into the future as an Extended School, providing community education for the local and wider community and creating a Learning Lifelong environment. GeorgeDixon School is proud to work within the local community, providing a first class education for its children.

The school is proud to Move Forward into the Future as a school meeting the challenges of a 21st century education with dynamism and vigour

Source: Evening Mail; Birmingham (UK)

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