Kennet School

Awards

Kennet was awarded the Artsmark Gold by the Arts Council England in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010. and 2013 It was also awarded the Sportsmark by Sport England in 2001. The school was also awarded the Challenge Award by National Association for Able Children in Education on 22 November 2006 and was re-accredited on 11 November 2010 as recognition for its efforts to support Able, Gifted and Talented students. Kennet was only the 16th school in the country to receive the award at the time.

Teaching awards

The headmaster, Paul Gerard Dick, was appointed an OBE for Services to Education in the 2000 New Year Honours. 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.

Members of staff receiving teaching awards:

Sixth form

There is a sixth form at Kennet for students who wish to continue their education after the age of 16. The students have their own block that was constructed for the start of the 2007 academic year, which consists of a common area, where the sixth formers can socialise, a computer suite and the sixth form offices. There is also a section of the library provided for sixth form use only. There is no set uniform; instead a dress code is set. Boys must wear a shirt and tie, and girls must dress in smart office wear. The European Computer Driving Licence qualification can be studied with any sixth form course. Some sixth formers are appointed house captains after an application and selection process by the heads of houses. The captains organise teams for inter-house sports, music, debating, drama and art competitions.

Houses

When students 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, drama and day-to-day studies through the award of house points and commendations. Each house is overseen by a Head of House and their Deputy who co-ordinate the appointment of vice-prefects, prefects, house captains and strive to encourage their students to deliver their best.

There are four houses at the school: Saint Patrick, Saint Michael, Saint Francis, and Saint David. Now defunct houses are Saint George and Saint Andrew, which were dissolved in the mid to late 1980s. Each house is associated with a colour as shown in the table below.

Exchange visits

Each year the school organises exchanges to France and Germany. The pupils can go to France in year 9 and Germany in year 9 & 10. The foreign pupil staying with their exchange partner's family for 7–12 days, then vice versa later on. In 2011, Kennet School celebrated 30 years' twinning with the German school Melibokusschule, in Alsbach-Hähnlein, South Germany.

"Kennet News"

The Kennet News school newspaper was first issued in May 1975 at the price of two new pence and ran until the late eighties. Its original slogan was News as it happens – and sometimes before it happens!. It reported the departure of George Hurford and the arrival of Terrence Enright in 1978 and later the arrival and departure of Dr. Nicholas Wheeler-Robinson. The main editor was Mr. Wilkinson aided by students. Introductions were occasionally written by the headmasters and Keith Iles wrote a column 'Round the Iles'.

Charity work

Each house chooses its own charity to support, and throughout the year each tutor group fundraises towards their house's target amount of money. For example, one of Saint Michael house's chosen charity was the Rwanda appeal. The senior staff sometimes plan one-off events, such as the Kennet (World) Cup to raise money for charity. This was a football event that occurred on 19 June 2006 in aid of the Bobby Moore Cancer Appeal. The event was designed to coincide with the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

School Council

Ofsted

In 2005 the school was criticised in the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) report for lacking 'a daily act of collective worship' and not reporting pupils' ICT progress in years 10 and 11, 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. 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. 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.

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".

The most recent inspection in May 2016, resulted in the school regaining its outstanding status, with the sixth form continuing to be rated as "good".

Uniform

The school has strict uniform rules that are to be followed on risk of detention. The uniform is as follows, Girls: Navy blue skirt (banner A-line inverted pleat), Pale blue blouse, Navy blue V-necked sweater, with school badge (complete with the colour of their house), Black shoes in a low heel, Navy or white knee socks or navy, black or natural tights, Girls may wear a school tie if they are awarded one for excellent effort towards their house. These ties are full colour ties. Not striped like the boys.

Boys: Navy blue trousers, pale blue shirt, Navy blue V-necked sweater, with school badge (complete with the colour of their house), Black shoes. Striped house tie. And again like the girls, some boys have the privilege to wear a full colour tie if they provide excellent effort towards their house,

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. It stocks over 22,000 books, has seating for a vast number of pupils and has a separate Sixth Form study section, which also doubles as a seminar room. The library has a wide range of reading/research material, over 23,000 resources, periodicals and daily newspapers, as well as 42 networked PCs, 10 laptops, two internet linked projectors and screens. The current librarians are Mrs. Swanson and Mrs. Rance.

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

Statistics

Note:The irregularity in A-level scores is due to changes in the way the points are calculated.