Welcome to Winchcombe School
Outstandingly successful in an outstanding environment
Winchcombe School is a school that is genuinely unique. We are located in the most beautiful and peaceful of rural surroundings, yet are close to Winchcombe itself, with easy transport links to Cheltenham and other local towns and villages. We are a small, friendly, family school, but are rightly proud of our reputation for academic excellence. All schools are not the same, and Winchcombe School can provide the care, support and expertise that each child needs to excel.
In 2009 our Year 11 pupils are celebrating record GCSE results:
- 78% of students gained five or more GCSEs at A*-C
- 71% of students gained five or more GCSEs at A*-C including English and Mathematics
- 30% of passes were at A* or A grade
Many pupils achieved 8, 9, 10 or even 11 passes at A* and A grade.
We have also joined an elite club of schools, with English, Mathematics and Science results which match those of the very best schools in England:
- English 83% A*-C
- Mathematics 82% A*-C
- Science 92% A*-C
We are a Science College, offering matchless preparation for A level and degree courses, or for a career in any scientific discipline. Our Science Department has consistently been rated as the best in Gloucestershire and more than half of our students are currently studying for single Science GCSEs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Winchcombe School was awarded High Performing Specialist School status last year. This status is designed to reward England’s strongest schools. Winchcombe is already an outstandingly successful Science Specialist College. HPSS status has allowed the school to take on a second specialism in leadership to develop both pupils and staff alike.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools included Winchcombe School in his 2007 Report to Parliament. Every year a report is published to celebrate the achievement of England’s best schools, and Winchcombe School was praised for the exceptional quality of its educational provision. The school was inspected by Ofsted in September 2006 who judged it to be ‘outstanding’ – the highest accolade available to the Government watchdog.'
But the best advertisement for the school is its pupils. Ofsted commented that ‘students work well together, and behave towards each other and towards adults with great courtesy’. Ofsted described the students behaviour as ‘excellent’, and commented on the very positive attitudes shown by students towards school and their teachers – ‘they genuinely enjoy being at school... repeatedly singling out their outstanding teachers as the main attraction’.
Ofsted judged Winchcombe School to be ‘an outstanding school providing its students with a happy, safe, caring, healthy and challenging learning environment’.
Winchcombe School welcomes pupils from a very wide area - from Tewkesbury in the west, from the villages of Alderton and Dumbleton and beyond, from Winchcombe itself, from Gotherington, Woodmancote and Cleeve, to Prestbury and well into north Cheltenham.
Very few schools gain the accolade of being rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. Further details can be obtained on the Ofsted web-site
Please contact us if you have any queries about the application process.
Lindsey Cooke
Headteacher
