This site will be under construction between Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th May. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

NEW YEAR MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER:

“Cockburn achieved Gold in 2012. Good luck for more in 2013.”

I am really delighted to welcome in the new year. I am extremely proud of our students and staff for their hard work and dedication throughout 2012. This was rewarded by another significant increase in the school’s exam results in August. In addition to this the school was judged in July to have achieved  the Investors in People Gold Award. The Gold Award is achieved by just 1% of UK organisations and widely recognised as an accomplishment of world-class best practice. It is regarded as being the mark of a truly cutting-edge organisation, operating at the very highest levels of people management practice. To achieve the Gold Award, the school had to undergo a rigorous assessment by an Investors in People assessor, and we were able to demonstrate outstanding working practices in areas such as people management, leadership, staff involvement and empowerment, work/life balance and health and well being of staff.

I now look ahead to 2013 and am excited about the months ahead at Cockburn. The Queen's New Year's Honours List recognised the achievements of the London 2012 Olympians who demonstrated many of the values and expectations we strive to model such as resilience, independence and pride and the Olympic motto "Inspire a Generation" fits perfectly with my plans for Cockburn School. 

Last term saw new cohorts of students settling brilliantly into Year 7 as well as the beginning of the new Post 16 Partnership with Leeds City College, an exciting development for Post 16 education in South Leeds, which will mean many students moving from Year 11 to Year 12 on our site. By the time students reach the end of Year 11, we have an enormous amount of knowledge about how each student learns and we have excellent relationships with them. This is such a promising platform from which students can begin Key Stage 5, taught by teachers who know them well, who they like and who are committed to securing places for students at university and /or employment. We are offering a broader range of qualifications, in ultra-modern facilities, supported by a highly qualified and caring team of staff working in partnership with Leeds City College. 

We also continue to make progress with Frog, our Virtual Learning Environment, which will allow improved communication between parents/carers and school, as well as providing exciting learning experiences for the students. This has now been introduced to parents/carers and will be available to all in the coming weeks.

I would like to congratulate students on such an excellent first term and on their approach to their lessons and how they are taking pride in their uniform.  As you are aware we continue to raise the bar in all areas as we wish our students to be successful and smart.  A big thank you to parents and carers for their support with uniform and equipment.  It means we can focus on the students’ progress and well-being.

As a Foundation School, we are part of a 0-19 Trust along with our main feeder primaries. The Governing Body is wholly committed to ensuring that this is part of our progress to becoming an even more community-focused school, with our Trust primary schools and I look forward to continuing to work together this year and sharing good practice for the benefit of students of all ages from across South Leeds.

I would like to draw your attention to the amended Training Days and Early Closure dates for this year which can be seen by clicking here.

We look forward to the challenge of exceeding our already established success rate as we continue on our journey of “Transformation to Excellence".

Finally, as exam season continues in January for KS4 and Post 16 students, I wish everyone that is part of the Cockburn School community the best of luck for the year ahead.

It is going to be another great year.

Yours sincerely

D Gurney
Headteacher