TRANSFORMATION
Kingshurst CTC
Valerie was a passionate science teacher and an experienced headteacher before being appointed in 1988 as the Principal of Kingshurst in Birmingham, the first ever City Technology College. The CTC grew from a ‘failed school’ and Valerie transformed the reputation of the school, raising exam results from 4% A-C to over 90% and gaining the Ofsted rating ‘Outstanding’.
Kingshurst was the first school to adopt the vocational route for 14-year olds and was the first state school in the country to introduce the International Baccalaureate for post 16 students.
As the reputation of the school grew, educationalists around the world started taking notice. Geoffrey Walford , Emeritus Professor of Education Policy and an Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford, spent six months at the school in 1990 and published his book the next year: City Technology College Geoffrey Walford and Henry Miller (Oxford University Press 1991).
Many other books, research papers and media articles followed:
Geoffrey Walford and Henry Miller (1991) City Technology College
Sir Cyril Taylor, in his 2004 book Excellence in Education: The Making of Great Schools, wrote:
'Under the able leadership of Valerie Bragg, principal from 1988 to 2001, KIngshurst was the first specialist school focused on teaching the skills in mathematics, science and technology which local employers required... This was a time when ICT was in its infancy as an educational tool and KIngshurst was a pioneer. Vocational education was also relatively underdeveloped in secondary schools. KIngshurst became the first secondary school to use the highly respected BTEC National Diploma.
Kingshurst came to pioneer other ways to motivate its students. These may seem more common today, but they were often unheard of in English schools in the eighties. So children had an early start to the day with breakfast being served at 7.30am and the school remained open to 6pm, offering students the chance to do their homework or enjoy extra-curricular activities. There was an emphasis on improving literacy and numeracy, particularly for those who needed remedial support. Close links with parents were nurtured.
The results were dramatic. By the mid-nineties more than half of the pupils were achieving five good grades at GCSE/GNVQ compared to less than ten per cent for the school which formerly ocupied the site. In 2004, 94% achieved 5+ A*-C grades at GCSE/GNVQ'
Prue Leith was Chair of the School Food Trust and was appointed a governor of Kingshurst in 1998. She talks about the school in her autobiography:
'I'd joined KIngshurst because, under the leadeship of Valerie Bragg, it had become a first class school. Everyone did drama, music, sport and art. Nothing was too ambitious. They could learn Russian, Latin, Spanish. Almost all the sixth form went on to university...'
'Valerie, still the KIngshurst principal, was now the CEO of 3es, a commercial company set up to make extra money for the school. The first local to put the management of one of their failing schools out to tender was Surrey...
After a year 5 A* to C results at the school had risen to 28%.
Some other books that focus of different aspects of innovation at KIngshurst CTC and Valerie's leadership