Welcome
We are pleased to welcome you to the Philip Morant website. It is an exciting time for the school as we build on our proud traditions and continue to develop confident, ambitious and informed young people.
Philip Morant is a popular, mixed comprehensive, in NE Essex. The school has served the town of Colchester for over half a century and has a strong tradition, not only of excellence in education but also in caring for its young people. Philip Morant is a happy school in which, overwhelmingly, students feel safe and achieve well.
Our vision is simple: a community where everyone feels they belong and are the best they can be.
We have made significant progress since our last Ofsted inspection:
- Strengthened governance & leadership with the appointment of a Head of School, three deputy headteachers and new assistant headteachers to lead improvement in areas such as SEND, Personal Development & Well-being, and Standards;
- Revised our curriculum to ensure that it is challenging, well-sequenced and knowledge rich;
- Improved attendance & behaviour still further by launching and embedding a new Behaviour for Learning Policy and Anti-Bullying Policy, as well as appointing Heads of Year to support the care, guidance and support provided for our young people;
- Established a new governing body with the skills and ambition necessary to challenge the school’s leadership still further;
- Embedded a new Rewards Programme;
- Re-introduced homework in order to support students with the acquisition of knowledge and develop their understanding still further;
- Improved the quality of our assessment & reporting so parents and carers receive timely and accurate information about how their children are performing at school;
- An increasing school roll;
- Ofsted Parents’ View shows that parents and carers are extremely positive about the school.
Our ethos is encapsulated in three words: ‘Aspiration, Success, Kindness’ which underpin our approach to all aspects of school life.
As we move forward out of the pandemic, many people talk about the need for us to “bounce back” after all the disruption and challenge of successive lockdowns. However, when we rise again in a different form, when we see positive change we can better think of this as “bouncing forwards”. We are committed to helping our young people and school community grow and learn from this experience, as well as offering extra care, guidance and support to those students who have had particularly challenging experiences during the last 18 months.
This year we will continue to:
- Develop our curriculum so that our students learn the very best of what has been thought and said, alongside the development of an understanding of a sense of self;
- Promote a positive and respectful culture and teach our young people about the importance of healthy relationships;
- Deliver high quality lessons that help students to acquire substantive knowledge and build schema to support lifelong learning;
- Provide feedback so that our young people know what they need to do to fill gaps in knowledge, skills and understanding;
- Use the Covid Catch-up funding for specific activities, such as extra tuition, to support students to recover from any lost learning over the previous months;
- Extend our range of extra-curricular activities and introduce a Co-Curricular Passport so that everyone has the opportunity to develop new skills, talents and interests;
- Raise the profile of reading and support reading fluency at every opportunity because we know that reading is a master skill which helps to unlock learning;
- Prepare our students for future successes in education, employment or training by providing high quality careers advice and meaningful experiences of work;
- Develop our provision for supporting the social, emotional and mental health and well-being of all of our students.
The Philip Morant School & College is ambitious for all of our students in their pursuit of excellence whether that is in the classroom, on the football pitch, the stage or working within the community.
We are committed to achieving the highest standards and delivering a holistic education and experiences which prepare our students for the next stage in their education, training or work place.
Please feel free to contact us on 01206 545222 if you require any further information about the school, or would like to arrange a visit. We will offer you a warm welcome and let you see for yourself why we are so proud of our school.
Mrs Neill (Headteacher)
