The Arnewood school is an inclusive 11-18 secondary academy school located in New Milton in the New Forest. The town council has aspirations to attract a younger demographic profile to work in the town. With this in mind, our curriculum is designed to develop a range of subjects which feed into the local context. Employment in the local area is predominantly high in accommodation and food, scientific and technical work, education, construction and health/social work (www.streetcheck.co.uk). The IDACI decile is 2, which is ranked in the bottom 15% nationally and bottom 25% of local secondary school catchments (IDACI statistics).
The Arnewood school is linked with the following local feeder schools:
These school are situated in the local area and the majority of students either walk or cycle to school. Our intake has a high proportion of students who have a lower than average reading and spelling age. In order to support these students we have pathways in KS3 and KS4 with a specialist literacy focus.
Our curriculum provides a broad range of knowledge and experiences that support students in their development.
Individual subject intent and implementation information can be accessed below to increase understanding of the experiences that students gain at The Arnewood School. The Arnewood Lesson ensures consistency in high challenge with high support incorporating high-quality questioning and feedback allowing students improve understanding and eliminate misconceptions. Our inclusive ethos ensures students with disadvantages are supported with learning in the curriculum, lessons and with extra-curricular activities. Each subject team of specialist teachers is led by a Head of Centre who will regularly adapt the curriculum to suit the needs of students.
We provide a three year Key stage 3 with students ensuring students have a solid foundation in a broad range of subjects, in Yr 9 students personalise their curriculum in our creative subjects (Technologies, Expressive Arts and Vocational curriculum). Pathways are offered in KS3, KS4 and KS5 to develop students’ mastery and depth of knowledge with regular opportunities of application to the life. We are passionate about driving literacy and reading in the school to ensure that all our students can achieve success in the ambitions. This in addition to our core curriculum designed to improve students’ confidence with numeracy and Science.
Assessment enroute is key to the success of students. It provides students, teachers and parents/carers with regular formative and summative feedback in order to praise, and provide support strategies to ensure success.
We offer an extensive extra-curricular and tutoring programme throughout students’ journey at The Arnewood School. This gives students the opportunity to extend learning as well as provide opportunities to showcase skills and attributes to the wider community, for example in the school production, Music orchestra and choir, Chefs club and through local, regional and national competitions within sports.
Students at The Arnewood School continually develop a passion for learning with the resilience to be successful in the wider world. Students are increasingly ambitious with their future prospects of career development with skills that enable them to be self-reflective, work collaboratively and be creative within a variety of environments. Our curriculum ensures students have appropriate qualifications to enable them to progress in their desired destinations.
In summer 2024, 59% of our lower ability students (27 students in total) completed a vocational qualification. 100% of these students attained a pass grade and 50% attained a level 2 pass or greater. Our vocational qualifications attain highly, with a three year average for grade 4+ or equivalent at 77% for construction, 64% for ICT, 92% for I Media, 72% for Hairdressing, 80% for Child development and 47% for Health and Social Care.
Our pathways accommodate for the more academic ability range as well, and allows students to select options that they feel they would enjoy studying. In 2024, 19% were entered for the English Baccalaureate (English, Mathematics, Science, Humanity and Language), with 58% of those entered gaining a standard pass and 39% of those entered gaining a strong pass in all pillars. In 2023, 35% of our school cohort were entered for the English Baccalaureate, with 22% of the year group attaining a standard pass and 10% attaining a strong pass in all pillars. In 2022, 35% were entered for the English Baccalaureate, with 21% of the year group attaining a good pass and 14% a strong pass.
Our focus on English and Maths is also strong, with 41% of our cohort in 2024 attaining a grade 4 or greater pass in both English and Maths and 23% at grade 5 or higher. In 2023, 52% of our cohort attained a grade 4 or greater pass in both English and Maths and 34% at grade 5 or higher. In 2022 69% of our cohort attained a grade 4 or higher in Maths and English, and 43% a grade 5 or higher in both subjects.
Students who leave The Arnewood school are provided with an education that empowers them to give back to the community and contribute to society. 30% of our students continue their studies into KS5 at The Arnewood Sixth with 98% of all KS4 students continuing onto further education, apprenticeships or employment with training.
