Director of Creative and Performing Arts

St Andrew’s CE School is a five form entry, Church of England Voluntary Aided School for boys and girls aged 11 to 16. It is a Christian school, within the Diocese of Southwark, serving the Archdeaconry of Croydon. We welcome all students, whether or not they have an affiliation to Christianity or any other Faith. We have a fully comprehensive intake, with good numbers of ‘high achievers’, as well as those who require more support; however the intake has changed significantly over the past 5 years or so with an increase number of students who are in receipt of free school meals and / or who are disadvantaged. We have also taken a larger number of EAL students, many of whom are Unaccompanied Minors. Many of our students have complex home situations and challenges in their personal lives; school is therefore, for many, the stability and the opportunity to change these factors. 

The school itself has faced a few challenging years and has seen new staff and a new leadership team in place. This has supported rapid progress and the raising of standards across the school as we have been working hard to move the school from RI to Good. The Governing Board is strong and supportive, providing the necessary challenge to keep us focussed on our journey. Our major challenge has been our falling roll, with only 40 students currently in Year 7. Whilst we take measures to improve this it has given us the opportunity to strengthen our curriculum at KS3 and provide a much more personalised education to this year group. One key and very exciting change being proposed to address this is a merger with The Minster Junior and Infant School to create an all through Reception to Year 11 campus. Whilst still in discussion, it is hoped that this will be in place for September 2019.

Key Information about the school:

Number of students: 493

Number of teaching staff: 37

Number of support staff: 29

P8: -0.67

No. students achieving 9-4 EM: 43%

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/101813 

Though there have been many challenges to overcome there is a great set of dedicated staff who have embraced the changes and improvements to ensure that students receive the best education possible. Students want to learn and have been reported by internal and external reviews to demonstrate great attitudes to learning in the classroom. There is a desire from the students to be involved in active lessons with opportunities to be creative and engage in meaningful discussions. Our latest monitoring visit which took place in June 2017 indicated that we were taking ‘prompt and effective action to raise standards…’ 

https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/101813

Our own improvement as a school is of course our priority and we are currently working with St Cecilia’s School in Wandsworth. They are supporting the Senior and Middle Leaders in their work and helping us to quality assure our standards in teaching and learning. 

We value personal development and leadership at all levels and expect staff to be ambitious in their own development; our commitment to staff is to encourage attendance at PiXL events and recognised conferences, to study for an MA / recognised leadership qualifications and to collaborate with schools in the local area.

Please do feel free to come and visit us if you want to really get an understanding of the work that we do and the atmosphere of the school.  All visits can be arranged via Jacqueline Sylvia on jsylvia@st-andrews.croydon.sch.uk