Dedworth County Middle School : a critical report

Abstract

Purpose of visit: As a partial requirement for the Diploma in Education (Administration and Management), I proceeded to a foreign school with the purpose of shadowing the head of school so as to gain first hand experience in school administration and management. I was accepted at Dedworth County Middle School at Windsor where I spent from the 30th of October to the 10th of November 1995. The following is a full report of my experience at this school. Basic information about the school: Dedworth Middle School is a mixed, Middle Comprehensive School with a resourced unit for special needs. It is County maintained and caters for the range of pupils 9 to 13. Presently it has a school population of 520 children. It was formed in 1977 by the amalgamation of a primary and secondary school which shared the same campus. The present post in 1977. The School Address is : Smiths Lane, Dedworth, SL 4 5PE. Telephone number : 01753 860561/862002. Fax: 01753831243 The school draws pupils from a suburban area to the west of Windsor. There are roughly equal proportions of owner occupied and council houses, and housing provided by the Ministry of Defence. About 10-15% of pupils are from service families. Turnover of pupils in the school is high as the population of the area, both military and civilian, is particularly mobile. Free school meals are provided for 7.5% of pupils. Around 2% of pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds. Twenty-two pupils (4.5%) have statements of special educational needs and a further thirty-one pupils (6.3%) receive additional teaching support. School hours are from 8.50 to 12.29 and from 1.30 to 3.35. Presently, the school caters for 22 children with special needs of whom 16 have specific learning difficulty (14 are in researched unit), 1 visual impairment, 1 hearing impairment, 1 physical handicap, 2 language difficulty and 1 language difficulty and hearing impairment. There are 22 full-time and 2 part-time teachers. The main school ratio of pupils to teachers is 21.4 to 1. Number of non-teaching assistants is 1.3 full-time equivalent. The average teaching group size is 25/7. The teaching time per week for Key Stages 2 and 3 is equivalent to 21 hours 5 minutes. [...]