Kennet School

Kennet School is an academy secondary school in Thatcham, Berkshire, England. In 2011, Kennet was the highest achieving state school in West Berkshire using contextual value added results and third-highest using five good GCSEs.[1]

Kennet School
Kennet School's shield
Address
Stoney Lane

Thatcham
,
Berkshire
,
RG19 4LL

England
Coordinates51°24′05″N 1°14′55″W
Information
TypeAcademy
Established1957
School boardLocal Governing Board
Department for Education URN136647 Tables
OfstedReports
Head teacherGrace Rigg
Staff199
GenderCoeducational
Age11 to 18
Enrolment1815
Houses4: St David, St Francis, St Michael, St Patrick
Colour(s)Navy blue and gold
   
PublicationKennet News (1975–1990)
Kennet Chronicle (2002–2004)
Websitehttp://www.kennetschool.co.uk/

The school opened on 11 September 1957 as a secondary modern, before converting into a comprehensive in 1971[2] and finally changing to an academy on 1 April 2011.[3] 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 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 status[4] Most recently in April 2006 it was awarded the status of Language College.[5]

History
The Risman Library

The Risman Library was opened on 23 September 1997 by Councillor Ann Risman, the Chairman of Berkshire County Council, who was accompanied by Chris Woodhead, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England. The library is designed to be a low energy environment by incorporating high levels of natural light and ventilation.[6] It stocks over 22,000 books,[7] 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).[8] 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.[9] In 2016, a local vicar Pete Jarvis was accused of child sex offences.[10] 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 to be 'highly vigilant' in keeping pupils safe.[11]

In September 2017, Kennet School and the West Berkshire Council had a legal dispute over £43,000 allegedly owed to the council over the use of the conjoined leisure centre.[12]

Awards

Kennet was awarded the Artsmark Gold by the Arts Council England in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013; and the Platinum award in 2018.[13] It was also awarded the Sportsmark by Sport England in 2001.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16] 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.[17][18]

Sixth Form
The sixth form block under construction

There is a Sixth Form at Kennet for students who wish to continue their education after the age of 16. There is a section of the library 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, St Michael, St Francis, and St David. Now defunct houses are St George and St Andrew, which were dissolved in the mid to late 1980s. Each house is associated with a colour.

Kennet News
Kennet News mastheads

The Kennet News school newspaper was first issued in May 1975 at the price of two new pence and ran until the late 1980s.

Ofsted

In 2005 the school was criticised in the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) report for lacking 'a daily act of collective worship'[19] and not reporting pupils' ICT progress in years 10 and 11,[19] 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.[20] 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.[21] The local Member of Parliament, Richard Benyon, 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.[22]

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".[23]

The May 2016 inspection resulted in the school regaining its "Outstanding" status which has been since reconfirmed via the November 2022 inspection.[24]

Notable alumni

Headteachers
  • George Hurford(1961 to 1978)
    George Hurford
    (1961 to 1978)
  • Paul Dick(1989 to 2017)
    Paul Dick
    (1989 to 2017)

Kennet's headmasters and headmistress, starting from establishment in 1957, are.

Years Name
Kennet Modern School
September 1957 to
December 1960		 Ben Howe
January 1961 to
July 1971		 George Hurford
Kennet Comprehensive School
September 1971 to
July 1978		 George Hurford
September 1978 to
July 1982		 Terrence Enright
September 1982 to
December 1982		 Keith Iles (acting)
January 1983 to
July 1987		 Nicholas Wheeler-Robinson
September 1987 to
December 1988		 Keith Iles (acting)
January 1989 to
31 January 2009		 Paul Dick
1 February 2009 to
31 August 2010[26][27]		 Paul Dick (executive)
Susan Croft (associate)[28]
1 December 2010 to
31 March 2011[26][27]		 Paul Dick (executive)
Paul German (associate)[28]
Kennet School (Academy)
1 April 2011 to
3 September 2012[26][27]		 Paul Dick (executive)
Paul German (associate)[28]
4 September 2012 to
21 December 2017		 Paul Dick[29]
4 January 2018 to September 2022 Gemma Piper (interim until officially appointed Executive Headteacher in February 2018)[30]
September 2022 Grace Rigg (interim until appointed in November 2022)[31]

References
  1. BBC News – Secondary school league tables in West Berkshire
  2. Kennet School prospectus for 2013/4, page 2
  3. Department for Education EduBase
  4. Newbury Today – Kennet awarded third specialism Archived 3 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  5. DCSF specialism listing – Language College (Excel file) Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  6. SWA Architects- Education Projects
  7. Kennet School prospectus page 11 Archived 7 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Staff, Agency (9 March 2016). "Kennet School teacher Robert Neill jailed for rape of a pupil". getreading. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  9. "'Opportunities missed' to stop sex abuse". BBC News. 1 February 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  10. "Vicar jailed for abusing teenage girls". BBC News. 6 April 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  11. "Kennet School found to have effective child safety measures". Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  12. "Kennet School and council in dispute over £43,000 payment". Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  13. Artsmark master record
  14. March 2005 OFSTED report (page 37, section 118)
  15. NACE – Challenge Award achieving schools Archived 18 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  16. BBC News – For services to education
  17. Guardian – Working together
  18. The Teaching Awards 2001 – Mr Paul Dick Archived 22 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  19. March 2005 OFSTED report (page 7)
  20. Department for Education – Collective worship
  21. Ofsted reduced tariff school inspection report 2008
  22. Newbury Today – Benyon speaks out on sixth forms Archived 25 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  23. "School inspection report" (PDF). 3 March 2014.
  24. enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk, Ofsted Communications Team (25 July 2022). "Find an inspection report and registered childcare". reports.ofsted.gov.uk. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  25. "New UKIP leader's local links". Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  26. "Another accolade for Kennet School, and some small temporary changes from 1 February 2009"
  27. Newbury Today "Superhead to save troubled Trinity" Archived 23 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  28. "Letter from West Berkshire Council December 2008"
  29. Kennet School July 2012 newsletter
  30. "Interim headteacher takes the reins at Kennet School". Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  31. Twitter https://twitter.com/kennetschool/status/1597295387659804672. Retrieved 3 December 2022. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

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