Meet the school A-Team

Part of Middlewich High School's specialist status in maths, ICT and science is a commitment to making learning available to the entire community, and the school has a team of seven people - including new headteacher Martin Forster, dedicated to this goal.

Three of the team are in posts newly created to help the school hit its targets over the four years it is funded as a specialist school.

Carol Pettinger-Harte, deputy headteacher and the person responsible for overseeing the specialist status, said: "We receive so much funding per pupil for four years which we can use as we see fit to meet the targets on our plans.

"Basically, we need people who will make the plan happen so we invested in three new posts."

Sharon Keegan has taken up a new post within the maths department where she spends 60 per cent of her time teaching and 40 per cent within the community.

She has already started forging strong links with some of the town's primary schools, preparing children for the transition to secondary school as well as working with and encouraging gifted pupils.

Her role also includes working with travellers, both children and adults, made easier by using laptops so further education can be taken directly to them.

Within the school itself, Sharon's appointment means an extra maths class in Years Nine and 11 and smaller teaching groups, as well as an after school club giving top set pupils the chance to try their hand at AS level maths.

She said: "We're also developing links with Sir John Deane's College and South Cheshire College and aim to encourage post-16 pupils to take up our specialist subjects."

Karen Hickson is in another new post as learning support assistant in maths and science and helps in developing links with primary schools and sharing resources.

She said: "I look at how we can help the less able kids use new resources and what we can do with the content of lessons to make them more accessible to those who struggle with the key ideas. I can work with smaller groups to get over the key ideas again and give pupils an extra chance to grasp them."

She works with science teacher Andy McAdam, who also goes out to primary schools to encourage enthusiasm in the subject by taking equipment and experiments into their schools and bringing children into a secondary school laboratory.

He said: "I take access to practicals to primary schools, which is something they really like."

He added: "We also have links with local industries, like British Salt, and we can take pupils out there and they can see science in action."

The final new post is held by Phil Littlemore, who is the ICT systems manager for the school and community.

Coming from a background as a trained primary school teacher as well as possessing IT skills, Phil will spend time developing the school's systems and working within adult education.

He said: "We have been given the means to forge ahead and make a real dent in IT in this area."

A new ICT suite is currently being built at the school, which will be available to the community and provide a place for groups such as Middlewich Clean Team to learn how to create a website and be used by South Cheshire College to provide adult education courses.

Steve Underwood, head of ICT at the school and another member of the team, is excited about the opportunities the specialist status will afford and has plans to develop the school as the broad band centre for Cheshire.

He said: "We can be the central point for broadband around here and can build up links with other schools - we can open up the network with kids and the community so that they can start work here and carry on when they go home.

"We could also enable video-conferencing for companies because the time of day when we don't use it they can.

"We are looking at various systems now to create a virtual learning environment."

Carol Pettinger-Harte said: "The school is at the hub of the community - this is something that has improved and will continue to improve."