Clyst Vale Community College

What the school says...

CLYST VALE
Its an exciting time at Clyst Vale: the arrival of a new Principal, new Assistant Principal and over twenty new colleagues over the last two years has ushered in a period of review and change. The College has witnessed rapid expansion in ICT and is constructing a bid for specialist school status as a Technology College. The College has a deserved reputation as a friendly and caring school, and we are seeking to raise standards without sacrificing this reputation.

Local developments may affect the College in the near future. The reorganisation of Exeters 12-16 High Schools does not directly affect Clyst Vale, but it is likely that a relocated High School near to Pinhoe will increase competition. A new settlement of 2,900 homes is being proposed in the Colleges catchment area. The proposal is being opposed, and may well go to public enquiry or suffer delay. Should the new settlement go ahead, there is a possibility that Clyst Vale could eventually be relocated into it, or expanded on its existing site. In either case, the College is likely to grow in the coming years.


The history of Clyst Vale has been one of progress, evolution and change. The College was founded in 1959 as Broadclyst Secondary Modern, becoming a Comprehensive 11-16 school and Community College in 1974 when Devon reorganised its schools. The College gained a Sixth Form in 1984, with numbers now up to 150. Clyst Vale is now an organisation of 1050 school age students, 800 adult enrolments and over a hundred staff. It is a large organisation in a small village, near to a city and within a mix of administrative areas. The College has a tradition of independence and putting young people first. Pressure for places is growing, and the College is regularly oversubscribed at the age of secondary transfer.


COLLEGE PERFORMANCE
Exam results are consistently above national average in Key Stage 3, at GCSE and in post-16, and in line with, or better than, value-added information. Strategies are continually reviewed to ensure constant progress. The College sets challenging targets in all areas, which are closely monitored by Devon LEA.

COLLEGE IMPROVEMENT PLAN
The College Improvement Plan is the vehicle for managing change and improvement. All areas of the College contribute to the Plan. For illustration, the priority areas for 2001-2 include:

Key Stage 3 Strategy
Independent Learning
Boys Achievement Vocational courses
Citizenship
Use of data Learning & teaching in post 16
Behaviour
Rewards

SITE, BUILDINGS & FACILITIES
The Colleges buildings reflect its growth over the years. The Main Building was the original block opened in 1959 and, with its subsequent add-ons, houses Reception, Administration, Adult & Community Learning, the Library, the Staffroom, plus classrooms for Humanities, Languages, Food Technology and Art. The centre of the building is the Giraffe House, formerly an open courtyard but now covered over, and an invaluable large indoor space (it has a high ceiling, hence the name!). Science and Technology are taught in separate blocks, with Maths, Post-16 and the Hearing Support Centre based in the newest block, opened in 1995. English and some languages are taught in a small village of mobile classrooms, Performing Arts subjects have a suite of specialist rooms. The College has five ICT suites, as well as some clusters of machines in Science and Languages. There has been refurbishment work to RE, ICT, Food Technology and Science in recent years, and a project planned to expand workshop space in Technology.

The College has extensive playing fields, and day time use of Broadclyst Sports Hall (a shared facility owned by East Devon District Council). The College library is a dual-use facility, open to the public on three days each week. The Hearing Support Centre is the designated unit for hearing impaired students from East Devon.

CURRICULUM
The College operates through a Faculty structure. There are Faculties for English, Maths, Science, Technology, Modern Foreign Languages, Humanities and PE & Performing Arts. In addition, there are co-ordinators for Careers, PSD and ICT. In Key Stage 3, all students follow the National Curriculum, including discrete lessons of ICT and Drama. In Key Stage 4, most students follow a programme of nine GCSEs, as well as non-examined PSD, Citizenship and RE. However, responding to the recent national changes, we are seeking to increase the flexibility at Key Stage 4. Students can add to their nine GCSEs with full course or short course PE or Dance, and short course RE. From September 2002 we will offer vocational GCSEs in Leisure & Tourism, and Health & Social Care. A group of approximately fifteen students follow a Skills for Working Life programme, including a day each week at a FE College and a reduced GCSE programme. A handful of students each year follow extensive work-related programmes.

At Post-16 we offer nineteen subjects at AS/A2, including AVCEs in Leisure & Recreation and Health & Social Care. We also offer Level 1 and 2 courses in Leisure & Tourism and Health & Social Care. The Post-16 programme is enriched by a tutorial programme, RE, and a number of extra-curricular activities including Young Enterprise, paired reading, peer education in the APAUSE (Sex Education), scheme, charity work, sport and work experience. The College offers major residential experiences to Year 8 and Year 12 students, French and German exchanges, and a number of other trips and visits.


STUDENT SUPPORT
The tutor is seen as essential to the personal development of students, working in a team led by a Head of Year. Heads of Year take their year group from Year 7 to Year 11, and tutors generally do the same. Tutors teach Personal & Social Development (PSD) to their groups for one lesson each week: the programme is mixed, including social education, careers education and academic oversight; health education (including sex education and drugs education) is taught by specialists during PSD or Citizenship time in Years
9-11.

CATCHMENT AREA
Clyst Vale is delightfully situated on a twenty acre site in the National Trust village of Broadclyst, approximately five miles from the centre of Exeter. Broadclyst is the largest of the eight villages which make up Clyst Vales catchment: Broadclyst, Clyst Honiton, Clyst St George, Clyst St Mary, Rockbeare, Silverton, Stoke Canon and Whimple. We draw about two thirds of our students from this essentially rural catchment; the remaining third is drawn principally from Exeter, especially Pinhoe, which is geographically close.

Employment in the Exeter area is generally good, with a variety of industrial, commercial, service and tourist opportunities. Many of our students families work in Exeter or are self-employed. Facilities in Broadclyst are limited, however there is a easy access to Exeter which provides the full range of businesses and services you might expect of a provincial city.

Within a twenty minute drive of Clyst Vale there is a large and varied housing market, ranging from country cottages to market town developments to city housing to urban or rural executive properties.

Converted to an academy 2011. ...Read more

This is not currently a GSG-reviewed school.

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