New Birmingham music school highly praised in first Ofsted report
Parents in Birmingham now have a completely different school choice for their children, thanks to the visionary head teacher of the brand new Kimichi School of Music, Sally Alexander.
In 2011, Sally decided she wanted to create a new kind of school based on all around academic excellence,
with music as a central part of a curriculum designed to enhance pupils’ self-esteem, achievement and
appetite for learning.
She has since worked tirelessly, along with a small army of willing volunteers including musicians from the City’s world-renowned symphony orchestra as well as specialist teachers in a range of other subjects, to open the new school in September last year. The Kimichi School was praised in Ofsted’s very first report on the education provided to its pupils.
The report, published last week and available on the Ofsted website, highlighted the following achievements of the new school:
- Outstanding pupil achievements in a range of subjects, including English, history and, of course, music.
- Pupils’ behaviour is good, often “exemplary”, and relationships between students and their teachers are “outstanding”.
- High quality teaching from expert teachers contributes to students being on track to achieve high standards in a range of
subjects, often well above pupils of their own ages in other schools.
Music, English, maths, science, history and art were all subjects that attracted complimentary remarks in the inspection report,
as did the development of pupils’ individual talents and the ways in which “social, moral, cultural and spiritual” aspects of their
education prepared them well for life in modern Britain.
Sally added, “As the head teacher at Kimichi, I’m committed to what I’m certain is a really exciting addition to
the City’s schools. I’m absolutely delighted that all the hard work we have put in as a team in getting this
dream into reality is beginning to be officially recognised and I’m really excited about what lies ahead for us.
I‘m sure that we have something very special to offer to parents and youngsters here in Birmingham.”