Our School

Bishop Ullathorne Catholic School & Humanities College is a voluntary aided Catholic school, situated in a very pleasant residential area, about three miles south of the centre of Coventry, adjacent to the Coventry & Kenilworth Road (A429). Following a very successful Ofsted Inspection (February 08), we are now planning our next stage of development as an outstanding school.

Being an inclusive school, where all feel loved and valued, is central to our Christian educational mission. We strive towards human fulfillment and excellence by fostering the development of our true self, both as individuals and as a community. The increased opportunity to explore what it is to be a human, through our humanities status, enhances our capacity to make good our mission.

We are a truly comprehensive school that serves a very wide area of Coventry, including the most advantaged and disadvantaged wards in the city. Our 990 pupils are drawn mainly from six parishes and partner primary schools. 90% of all pupils rely on the school buses and, consequently, our pupils are a very heterogeneous community; whose needs, aspirations and life experiences reflect the diversity of the city we serve.

From September 2006, our School became a specialist Humanities college, with a plan to provide an enriched humanities curriculum that acts as a springboard for whole school improvement. Being a humanities college is not only of great benefit to our three lead subjects (English, Geography and History), but also the entire school and all subject areas.

Three words can be used to summarise the aims of our humanities college:

1. Innovation
2. Personalisation.
3. Opportunities.

Our aims:

(1) To promote stimulating personalised learning through a significantly more flexible and exciting curriculum that enriches the lives of students, and encourages autonomous life long learners.

(2) To provide improved independent learning and thinking skills opportunities through a mixture of (a) improved cross phase initiatives (b) regular 'active learning' days at Bishop Ullathorne School and (c) the development of shared approaches towards provision for more able pupils through the development of year 5/6 master classes in each of our six partner primary schools.

(3) To provide our students with the knowledge, skills and understanding that literacy is at the heart of interpreting and succeeding in the world around them. To empower them to become effective communicators so that they gain insight into the enormous power of language in its written, visual and auditory forms. Our pupils will become more confident in exploring, analysing and interpreting language and meaning in fiction, non-fiction and the moving image.

(4) To broaden students' awareness of the interactions between man and nature in the global community and engender an understanding of our personal responsibility for the future cohesion and survival of mankind and the environment.

(5) By extending opportunities to discover our past, we shall deliver more personalised and contextualised opportunities to develop the necessary literacy and thinking skills to enhance students' appreciation, respect and tolerance of diverse attitudes, beliefs and interpretations. Through increasing our students' access to a greater range of information sources, we shall develop more empathic, analytical and socially active citizens, with the skills to scrutinise prevailing beliefs and viewpoints, whilst being able to critically articulate reasoned conclusions.

To give a flavour of what this means for our school community, some of the events and developments for this year are:
Increased enrichment experiences and opportunities for our pupils

Humanities enrichment days at Bishop Ullathorne School for our partner primary pupils
Development of a spiralling programme of skills.
An international Humanities week in July for the whole school, providing curriculum enrichment
Development of new courses for 2008 including NVQ in Media
Two adult learning courses for Polish parents whose children have joined the school
Improved teaching areas for Humanities.
Improved ICT throughout the school.

Improved facilities:

The school's library facilities have been completely modernised with a media studies suite that includes editing facilities, an Independent Learning Centre and loanable laptops for use by classes or individuals.

A crucial aspect of the school's specialist school programme is support for the wider community. As a result, some funds are earmarked for the development of the humanities curriculum in each of our partner primary schools. In addition, community based projects are also funded to improve levels of literacy and numeracy through accredited courses for adult learners - for example the Polish School which will run on Saturday mornings.

Specialist status is seen as the springboard for Bishop Ullathorne to become a local and national centre of excellence for humanities education, working alongside fellow specialist schools within the South West Federation of schools and across the city. Being a specialist school is seen as a way to raise standards, choices and experiences for all.