Recent Achievements
As a school, Fulston Manor has never indulged in a great deal of self-publicity or “blowing our own trumpet”. Whilst we are always keen to celebrate the wide range of achievements of our students through the website, termly newsletters and the local press, we have assumed that the quality of our overall performance is well known to parents and the community, an assumption supported by the fact that for this September we have received 966 applications for places in Year 7, including 350 first and 391 second choice preferences. It has, however, been brought to my attention recently that this may not necessarily be the case and I hope that the following brief note will help you to appreciate the continuing overall success that we enjoy.
GCSE performance in schools is now measured in terms of student progress. In 2017 Fulston Manor was fifth out of more than 65 comparable non selective schools in Kent, third if schools with fewer than 100 students are removed. Our score was above both the national and Kent averages and was, incidentally, superior to the scores achieved by 8 Kent Grammar schools. Whilst it is harder to achieve direct comparisons with A Level results, the fact that 65 students from our sixth form took up university places also puts us very near the top of all non-selective schools in the county in terms of access to higher education.
You will be aware that our Ofsted inspection at the end of 2017 saw us receive a judgement of “Good” in every category. Only one non-selective school in the county inspected during the past three years, a small academy in Tunbridge Wells, has achieved a better rating from Ofsted, with many failing to match these outcomes. As you know, the areas graded in this manner cover leadership and management, teaching and learning, personal development, behaviour and welfare, outcomes and 16-19 provision, so do represent a thorough overview of the school.
Fulston Manor is your school every bit as much as it is my school and I trust that the brief summary of key facts contained above enables you to feel proud of what we are creating together. There are always challenges and always an ongoing desire to do better for all our students. There will continue to be times when things do not go right or certain results are not as good as we had hoped but we should take these occasions within the context of being part of one of the most successful and popular schools in Kent and pause, just occasionally, to congratulate ourselves on our achievements before continuing our endless efforts to improve still further.