Ethos & Aims
Welcome to Coppice Performing Arts School
Coppice Performing Arts School is an 11-18 mixed community comprehensive school.
Coppice has experienced a major rebuild/refurbishment under the Building Schools for the Future programme, with building work having totalled £17million. Our final phase of building was opened in January 2013 and included exciting new Art, Technology and ICT teaching areas. Previous phases included new teaching areas for all subjects, a brand new Sports Hall, state of the art Theatre, Drama, Dance and Music recording studios. The huge investment has resulted in not only a fantastic newly re-modelled school, but also in the transformation of learning.
Our 4 learning zones ‘Discovery’, ‘Performance’, ‘Creative’ and ‘Communication’ provide ‘House bases’ for our tutor groups and bring together related curriculum areas and resources.
We are exceptionally proud of every Coppice student, all of whom consistently strive to achieve their Personal Best and are rightly rewarded for their commitment. Year 11 achievement in 2017 produced overall academic attainment above national average (Attainment 8 = 46) and overall progress in line with national average (Progress 8 = -0.04). Most importantly, students in the Class of 2017 successfully gained places at Sixth Forms, colleges, apprenticeships or training programmes.
Year 13 students have achieved an impressive 100% A Level pass rate in 2016 and 98% pass rate in 2017. For the last 5 years Coppice Sixth Form has performed consistently above the national average pass rate. For the third consecutive year, all Year 13 students with university offers gained places at their chosen universities on results day.
Currently we have over 950 students are on roll, and there are over 100 members of staff (including teaching and support staff). Coppice is over-subscribed – in recent years there have been far more first preference choices for Year 7 than there are places, which has resulted in an increased admission number since 2015 of 180. The atmosphere in school is tangibly friendly and relaxed but has an underlying orderly and disciplined structure; the students are therefore well behaved, cheerful and hardworking.
Coppice works closely with partner primary schools with which there are strong, extensive collaborative ties. Formal collaborative links also exist at 16-19, where the school works in partnership with other local providers to offer a broad range of opportunities.
Coppice was designated as a Performing Arts school in September 2003. This has extended the range of opportunities for all students, and enhanced partnerships with local schools and community groups. The school’s wide range of performance activities in dance, drama and music impact positively on both the local community and across the city as Coppice’s reputation for high quality small, medium and large-scale performance events has spread. At a local level, the school generally, and performing arts specifically, is very much seen as a beacon of light. The support the school receives from the community it serves is considerable.
Each year the school undertakes a musical production. The 2012 production was ‘Our House’ which was successfully staged at the Grand Theatre Wolverhampton. In 2013 we hosted the first school show in our iconic ‘Somnium’ Theatre; our chosen show to mark this occasion was ‘Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’. In 2014 an increased cast of young people performed ‘Oliver!’. 2015 saw the school’s production of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’. In 2016 our student cast performed ‘Whistle Down the Wind’ and March 2017 saw students perform ‘High School Musical’. In November 2017 a second musical was produced for sell-out audiences: “School of Rock”.
At Key Stage 3 (Years 7 & 8) students follow a broad curriculum in English, Maths, Science, Music, Drama, Dance, PE, Art, Modern Foreign Languages, Geography, History, ICT, and Technology, with PSHE, SRE & RE delivered cross-curricular.
At Key Stage 4 (Years 9, 10 & 11) students follow a core programme of English Language/Literature, Maths, Science, PE and 4 option choices including GCSEs, BTECs and Cambridge Nationals.
Many Post-16 students continue their studies into Sixth Form, leading to Higher Education and Higher Apprenticeships. A wide range of courses are available, leading to certification at A Level and BTEC Level 3. We work in collaboration with other local high schools. Progression rates are very strong and NEET figures are minimal due to proactive ongoing IAG within school and with other agencies.
Douglas Selkirk
Ceo Central Learning Partnership Trust
Claire Gilbert
Head of School
