For any parent, the choice of a school for the secondary phase of their child’s education is a major task. It involves consideration of numerous factors: from how good an academic education will be provided, to the quality of the pastoral and caring systems, to the range of extracurricular activities provided to extend and enrich the curriculum experienced by the students in the school. A good school, one that warrants consideration by thoughtful and perceptive parents, is one that provides richness for all areas of a child’s education and, as has been externally verified,
“Bartholomew School provides its students with an outstanding education” (OFSTED May 2009)
Even at the point we were judged to be an outstanding school, we did not become complacent or assume we were perfect. We continued to strive to improve the provision for our students to ensure they were given the best opportunities to succeed to the best of their abilities. The school has continued to improve and has had highly successful external examination results in all of the last seven years. This has been based on continuing excellence in teaching and a determination to improve the resources available to our young people to support their learning.
It was this determination that led to us undertaking a full consultation with all stakeholders - students, parents, staff, governors, our partner schools and the wider community – about whether or not we should seek the greater freedoms associated with becoming an academy. The likelihood of us being unable to continue to provide the best for our students if we remained as a maintained school, led to us seeking, and attaining academy status from 1 March 2012. This move has provided us with significant additional resources in the first instance and, in the longer term, greater autonomy to make decisions locally that we know will be in the best interests of our students.
As a new academy, we have committed to continuing to improve the education that we provide to all our own students as well as collaborating strongly with our partner schools to ensure that we remain in a position to defend children’s education no matter what local and national external challenges we face. We are committed to the principles of providing a safe and secure learning environment that provides a high quality, inclusive education for all who attend the school. Hence, Bartholomew School continues to be a mixed comprehensive school that offers an excellent and exciting educational environment for over 1050 students aged 11-18.
We provide an excellent education for students of all abilities, being equally committed to those who are gifted and talented as those with learning difficulties. We have just been acknowledged as being in the top 10% of all non-selective schools nationally in providing for the most able students with a quarter of students gaining 5+ A*/A grades at GCSE. At the same time we are recognised as providing exceptional support for SEN students with specific needs such as ASC. The school is justifiably proud of its successes.
Our excellence in providing for outstanding teaching and learning with our students has been built upon the efforts of a highly qualified, hard-working and enthusiastic staff, well-motivated students and very supportive parents and governors. Whilst our examination results have been consistently excellent, it is equally delightful to see our students gaining success in the widest range of activities and seeing the sheer quality of the young people who leave the school as mature and confident young adults.
We have a high quality pastoral care system and in order to achieve our aims, we maintain an ordered, positive and purposeful atmosphere so that when our students leave they will have experienced academic success and social development in a caring environment. They will have enjoyed their time at Bartholomew School having enriched their experience with the wide variety of extracurricular and other educational experiences we offer students during their time with us.
We value highly all contact with parents since we see a successful education being a partnership between the parents, students and the school. By working together we will be able to achieve our aim of ensuring that all who come to Bartholomew School will find it a challenging, stimulating, caring and happy place to be and will enjoy their time here. We hope that the information provided in the following pages will give you a clear impression of this outstanding, successful, forward-looking and welcoming school. If you require any further details or additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at the school. We look forward to meeting and talking to you at the Prospective Parents’ Evening and beyond into your child’s future with Bartholomew School.
A S Hamilton
Headteacher