Cantell Secondary School

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Cantell Maths and Computing College

Type	Secondary
Headteacher	Ruth Evans
Location	Violet Road Southampton Hampshire England
Ofsted number	116469
Students	1300
Ages	11 to 16
Website	Cantell School http://www.cantell.co.uk Cantell School

Cantell School is a secondary comprehensive school in the Bassett area of Southampton, England. The School has Specialist status for Mathematics and Information and Communication Technology, awarded in September 2003 and is thus now officially referred to as Cantell Mathematics and Computing College. The school has also been largely rebuilt funded through the Private Finance Initiative. When Cantell was inspected in 2004 it was judged to require special measures because it was failing to give its students an acceptable standard of education. Her Majesty's Inspectors of schools (HMI) visited the school on four occasions to monitor its progress, and reinspected the school in June 2006. The inspection was carried out by one HMI and four additional inspectors.

Cantell is situated to the north of Southampton City Centre, close to University of Southampton. It serves a socially mixed area, including some districts with high levels of social deprivation.

1 Present
2 Students
- 2.1 Uniform
- 2.2 Ability
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Present

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The head teacher is Mrs. Ruth Evans who took over from Mrs. Ruth Johnson in 2008. Mr. Burge was headteacher before Mrs. Johnson. He left in 2004 to go into retirement.

The school last received an OFSTED inspection in Autumn 2004 and was in the special measures category. As a result, the school was receiving visits from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education to inspect its progress. The school considerably improved and as of July 2006 the school is out of special measures after the last inspection in June 2006.

Part of the school building.

In January 2006 there were 1,177 students at Cantell (532 boys and 645 girls) out of the full capacity of 1,300.^[1]. The school has a code of conduct that reads:

At Cantell we believe that a safe environment of mutual respect and co-operation results in the most effective climate for learning and teaching.

We believe that the highest standards of challenge and expectation result in the highest levels of achievement and attainment.

The current school building was built in 2003 at the cost of £15-£17 million^{[citation needed]}, it replaced the previous building which was constructed in the 1960s, which was in a state of structural disrepair.

As Cantell is formally known as "Cantell Maths and Computing College" and is a specialist ICT centre, head teacher Ruth Johnson thought that Cantell should have higher quality computers to other schools. During the two-week school break over Christmas 2006 and 2007, Cantell installed 90 brand new laptop desks (split between 3 I.C.T rooms) costing £2500 each. Over the 2007 summer holidays for students, 30 more of these laptop desks were installed in another I.C.T room. The laptops are set up so that teachers can monitor the students' work, thus, the amount of inappropriate behaviour in I.C.T lessons has decreased.

In September of 2007, the security of the school's network and intranet was threatened when two students found a file that allowed them administrator rights. They used this to change messages on the main pages of both the intranet sites and the official web site of Cantell. The students were banned from using network machines and were suspended for a temporary period.

[edit] Students

[edit] Uniform

Year 7 students (the first year at secondary school) must wear black trousers, black shoes and a navy blue polo shirt with the 'Cantell' logo. Years 8-10 Students must wear black trousers, light blue shirts, blue ties with the 'Cantell' logo and black shoes. Optional blue sweatshirts and fleeces with the Cantell logo are also available for these years. For Year 11 (the last year at secondary school), students must wear the same uniform but with white shirts and black ties. Optional jumpers must also be black. Prefects have their own special tie with 'Prefect' above the school logo. Girls have an option to wear skirts which may not be too long or short, unless for religious reasons. Mobile phones, MP3 players, etc are the sole responsibility of the student and can be confiscated during the school day. Girls must not wear too much make up and jewellery. Only small earings are allowed. Non-school uniform jackets or coats are not allowed to be worn by students inside the school building and must be carried or they can be confiscated by teachers.

[edit] Ability

Although the students have a wide range of ability, their standards on entry to the school are marginally below those found nationally. The proportion of students for whom English is an additional language is approximately 23% and increasing. In addition to a higher than average proportion of students from ethnic minority backgrounds there are a number of students who are refugees or asylum seekers. Approximately 25 % of all the students have learning difficulties, which is above the national average. However, only four students have a statement of special educational need which is low. The school includes a specialist 24 place unit for students with specific learning difficulties. In addition the school offers its own provision off-site for more challenging students and on-site provision for vulnerable students. The proportion of students entitled to free school meals is 25% which is above average.