TAC & Family Engagement Lead

Mortimer Community College

Mortimer Community College
Reading Road
South Shields
NE33 4UG

These are exciting times at Mortimer Community College. We have a state of the art school under the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme, transforming the learning community for the benefit of everyone. Specialist Arts and Sport status allied to the BSF programme at Mortimer, creates a powerful combination, drawing together an exciting range of new ideas and innovations to deliver what we believe is a Centre of Excellence for teaching and learning, and an outstanding community based learning facility that will benefit all our partners.
New School – New Status – New Vision – New Opportunities – New Future.

Our Vision
“Making a Positive Difference”
Mortimer Community College believes in excellence for all. All members of Mortimer Community are entitled to work in an environment where there is respect for one another, learning is valued and there is access to the opportunities necessary to fulfil potential.
Success and effort is valued and celebrated.

Our Values
Mortimer believes that every student is entitled to:
• Have the opportunities necessary to thrive and succeed
• Learn in an environment that is calm, supportive and caring
• Have a curriculum that meets their needs
• Develop as an independent learner
• Celebrate and enjoy their successes
• Have access to ‘leading edge’ technology
• Have the opportunity to join in activities that happen outside of the regular college day
Education is a partnership between schools, children and their parents

Our Aims
• To promote a life long understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of the Arts and Sport
• To raise attainment for all students both in the specialist subjects and across the whole curriculum
• To become a recognised centre of excellence in Teaching and Learning (including CPD), by developing quality strategies in the specialist subjects and using these to drive up standards in the rest of the school
• To develop new, innovative and dynamic methods of Teaching and Learning, to engage, inspire and raise achievement, led by the specialist subjects.
• To embrace equality of opportunity and social inclusion and to develop personalised lifelong learning pathways for every learner.
• To provide more exciting, active and engaging opportunities for learning, particularly through creativity and the use of new technologies.
• To develop new high quality learning opportunities and outcomes in the specialist subjects, for partner schools and the broader community.
• To strengthen our relationships and understanding with the local and global community through reciprocal partnerships.

Raising Attainment
We are determined to find ways of transferring success to the whole school and raise whole school attainment by:
Promoting and leading the development of dynamic, interactive and multi-sensory teaching and learning practice across the school.
• Making students and staff more aware of the essential skills for lifelong learning i.e. self-discipline, communication skills, thinking skills and problem solving, cooperation, team work, social skills and organisational skills.
• Exploring the popular and engaging nature of Sport and the Arts as a context for learning throughout the school and community.
• Celebrating success and participation. Promoting positive self-esteem and confidence by increasing the numbers of students taking part in sports events, arts performances and exhibitions, within school and beyond.
• Further exploiting the effective use of ICT to develop investigative and evaluative skills to enable students to develop higher order thinking skills and their ability to self-evaluate and improve performances.
• Promoting good health, positive attitudes and emotional well being
• By developing mutually beneficial links with the wider community and working collaboratively with: other schools, Post 16 providers – FE and HE, Arts and Sports professionals/organisations and Business.

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils
This is a good school.

Teaching is good and occasionally outstanding. Teachers are energetic and enthusiastic. Lessons are briskly paced and contain a good variety of interesting work, which students enjoy.
Students achieve well and attain high standards on several measures, for example in vocational qualifications.
The curriculum is rich and varied. It benefits from the school’s specialisms in arts and sports. It offers students an extensive range of courses and qualifications. It ensures that their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good.

The school is well led. The headteacher, supported by senior leaders and governors, has successfully initiated a number of changes to accelerate students’ progress and improve teaching.
Students’ behaviour is good. They behave sensibly in class and around the building at all times. They want to do well and work hard.
Students feel safe and well cared for.