Some Current Successes – (Just to give you a flavour!!)

·        Ofsted January 2010 was a real success with the school being judged as ‘good with outstanding features’ and importantly leadership and management and capacity for sustained improvement were 2 of the 7 outstanding judgments.

·       The Ofsted report also commented on the commitment to each and every child and that is why our care, guidance and support was also judged to be outstanding which was also reflected in the same judgment for students feeling safe.

·       Results have improved year on year and in 2008 we were the 8th most improved school in the country based on our GCSEs including English and Maths.

·        Our results and general levels of performance in all aspects of school improvement have prompted us to speak at various National events including the recent National Conference in Birmingham.

·       We achieved the Hertfordshire Self Evaluation Accreditation in March 2009 which supports the view that we know the strengths and weaknesses of the school and that everything we do is geared to supporting the needs of each individual in the school, both student and adult.

·       We are the lead school in the country on the Year 7 ‘resilience programme’ which supports an innovative curriculum that focuses on skill rather than content development.

·       We have had some outstanding individual results in each of the last 3 years with too many to mention, but as an example, Ashleigh Nicholls scored one of the top 5 marks in her RE paper out of 22,210 candidates, Abby Woodard scored one of the top 10 marks in her Applied Business (Double Award) out of 1,572 entries and Lewis Cannon achieved 12 A* in his GCSEs. In 2008, Mathew George also scored a top 10 in his Applied Business (Double Award) out of over 1,500 entries.

·        We have several outstanding departments but it would be unfair to name them. Each department does have a group room, some of which are the size of a small classroom.

·       We have approximately 200 students in our 6th form who use a relatively new Sixth form Common room, incorporating an ICT suite, a study area and a separate social area.

·       We now have either a digital projector or Interactive whiteboard in every classroom and every member of staff has a laptop.

·       We have a new Teaching and Learning Centre, specifically designed for our SEN students, including the Gifted and Talented and those needing support in the Speech and Language centre.

·       Each Key Stage has a Study Support Centre, fully equipped with Computers for Homework and revision clubs.

·       We have 14 ICT suites, one in each of the English, Maths, Science, MFL and RE departments.

·       We have an excellent Sports Centre and are involved in the local sports development programme (SSCO) that has developed amazing links with Primary Schools and gives our students’ many leadership development opportunities

·       We have an excellent enrichment programme ranging from playing music with the Band of the Royal Welsh Guards each year in our Lion Theatre to our Year 8 Cultural Diversity Day have when our students access such things as henna hand painting, origami and Asian cooking.

·       We hold an Enterprise Education week on ‘make your mark’ challenge. This involves the National Enterprise Challenge for our Gifted and Talented, speeches from ‘Prominent Women’ that include the CEO of a local business and Children in Need activities organised by Year 10.

·       We run the Further Maths Centre for the County, one of only two in the country. Currently over 80 students from around the county attend this course, some by remote access and we have 11 of our students taking the course.