BirminghamWorld pays a visit to one of Birmingham’s top-rated secondary schools where some valuable life lessons are being taught.
Nishkam High School, rated outstanding by Ofsted, is one of the toughest schools in Birmingham to gain admission into for pupils, and it’s not hard to see why.
Nishkam High School, rated outstanding by Ofsted, is one of the toughest schools in Birmingham to gain admission into for pupils, and it’s not hard to see why.
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00:00 [Sounds of traffic]
00:04 [Sounds of a car driving by]
00:06 [Sounds of people talking]
00:29 [Sounds of a bus driving by]
00:31 [Sounds of a school building]
00:33 Since the school first opened, it was built by the local community.
00:38 The Sikh community came together and created this school.
00:42 And it appealed to a very small group of people at that time.
00:47 I think as exam results came in, as people could see what the school was achieving,
00:52 not just in terms of exam results, but with our young people, the nurture and the love and the care that they received,
00:59 that reputation grew. And it has continued to grow.
01:04 Our results have continued to improve year on year, even through COVID, post-COVID.
01:10 We've had great success with those exam results.
01:14 And with that came, obviously, a desire to send children here.
01:20 So on average now, we have about 1,100 applications each year for 100 places.
01:26 So yeah, it's really changing and has changed, even in the four years that I've been here as well,
01:34 in terms of who we're getting into our school. But we welcome every single person.
01:39 I think what sets our admissions apart from other schools as well is we have children that come from around 45 different primary schools.
01:47 So we get a good group from our local primary school, which is about 40 students.
01:53 And then the other students that all come from around 45 of the primary schools from all over the West Midlands.
01:58 We're about creating this community of young people that are good people who treat each other with respect,
02:06 who are willing to learn from their mistakes. And we model that as adults in the school as well.
02:13 One of our virtues is humility. And I think parents and families see that when they come and visit us,
02:20 when they hear us talk, they understand that that's actually who we are.
02:25 And if that means that their child will also leave with great exam results, then that's fantastic.
02:31 But parents mostly want their children to be loved, nurtured, cared for, stretched, challenged.
02:39 And that's what they get when they come here.
02:42 The big thing about our curriculum is our faith-inspired and virtues led.
02:47 And each child and every member of staff has a passport. And in there are all our virtues.
02:52 And we use these in all our conversations.
02:55 So we have a virtue of the week, which we speak about in collective worship.
02:59 But when you're talking to a child, if a child gets something wrong, we talk about, we use this as a reflection tool on how they can improve.
03:08 Even our form names are Seven Compassion, Love, Humility, Truth.
03:14 So when you're saying, "Oh, Seven Humility, can you come over here?" We're using that language of virtues all the time.
03:21 So I think it's about putting the school you want first as your options, because if they fill the form,
03:29 then that would be the only small advice. And even that doesn't always play out.