Prospectus

Cowes High School is an 850 student, 13-19 mixed comprehensive serving mainly the greater Cowes area and north Newport. The school is designated a 'Community School' and remains part of the Isle of Wight Local Education Authority until the Island's schools reorganisation hands over provision to Cowes Pathfinder Trust from September 2011.

The school occupies a large, well appointed and elevated site and enjoys a pleasant aspect. The buildings are a mixture of old and new. Recent additions include a large, purpose built sports centre, a religious studies block and a new staff room. Most buildings are single storey and the school is accessible to all students. Under the Government's Building Schools for the Future programme, an all-new 11 to 13 Gateway and 14 to 19 Learning Centre are due to be built on-site commencing September 2010.

We draw students from schools across the Island but the vast majority join us from within our family of schools in the Cowes Cluster. In recent years the school has seen an increase in the numbers of students joining, both in Year 9 and the Sixth Form. Intake in most years will reach the admission limit.

Aims

Cowes High School is committed to working with other community partners to ensure that, within our community, every individual child matters and has the support they need to:

• be healthy
• stay safe
• enjoy and achieve
• make a positive contribution
• achieve economic well-being

As a school, our focus within this partnership is to have a school community in which we are 'Learning Together for a Changing World' and therefore we aim to create:

• success for all within our school community
• a fulfilling of each individual's potential
• a desire for lifelong learning and a healthy lifestyle
• community involvement and responsibility
• a physically and emotionally safe environment

Objectives

There are many ways in which we approach and organise the school to meet our aims. Important to us are:

• being a learning community where we develop exciting and relevant learning which enables our students and staff to achieve high standards
• treating students as individuals
• involving students in their own learning and our school community
• involving our students in a broad range of curriculum opportunity, valuing both work-based and academic approaches equally
• focusing the care on the needs of the individual and how they can be supported to be both an effective learner and member of both the school community and wider societies.
• ensuring students develop key future-employment skills 
• having a theme of enterprise and business throughout the curriculum
• working in a responsive partnership with parents, students and the wider community
• creating continuity of education and learning with our education partners
• working as teams within school with openness in monitoring, self-evaluation and professional challenge
• creating clear frameworks and having consistency
• having fun in learning and celebrating success
• partnership and collaborative working with other schools and community agencies
• promoting healthy, safe living
• not accepting 'second best'

A special approach

We are a Business and Enterprise specialist school. As an integral part of embedding our school's aims into our approach to each student, we are successfully generating a 'special approach' to the education we offer. This is designed to equip students to play a full and productive part in their society throughout their lives. Our special approach ensures that 'key employability skills' are both taught and underpin all learning and teaching within the school. These skills may be described in a number of ways but in our school they cover eight critical areas:

• Application of number
• Communication - including literary skills
• Enterprise, initiative and entrepreneurship
• Individual development - including recognising strengths and weaknesses
• Integration of information and communication technology into all areas of the curriculum
• Problem solving and creativity
• Responsibility and rights
• Team working

 Read our Incusion Policy and arrangements for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Link to Futures For Me - all courses offered across the Isle of Wight