14 May 2008

Welcome

Guilsborough is a school which is 'Striving for Excellence'. This mission statement underpins our whole approach to learning. As a rural school we genuinely remain the ‘local neighbourhood comprehensive', accepting every student who lives in our catchment area and seeking to meet their needs. We are passionately committed to the achievement of every individual student and to further improving the standards of teaching and learning. Our reputation with the local and wider community rests on consistently providing quality education for students of all abilities. Underpinning our mission statement are our ten ‘pillars of wisdom' which link our spiritual, moral, pastoral and social education and emphasise our ethos and our commitment to the education of the whole child.

Our students enjoy their time at school and work hard. We are fortunate to have parents who are very committed to their success and very supportive of the school. As Headteacher it is a pleasure to work with them.

As a specialist Technology college from 1998 we have focussed strongly on the development of Design Technology, ICT, Mathematics and Science standards. These subjects provide leaders across the school in the development of approaches to teaching and learning. Our key focus is our commitment to becoming an e-confident school, using technology to help communication in our rural situation through e-learning. We have made effective use of the school's ICT provision, expanding and enhancing our website provision to develop our strong community links. Funding from this specialist status enabled us to enhance facilities, equipment and teaching throughout the school.

We aim to enable our students to develop the skills and knowledge which will enable them to take their place in higher education and the world of work. Our focus on e-confidence, using ICT to support learning means that our students are making good use of the technologies which will take them into the future.

As the only provider of education in this rural area we are very conscious of the need to meet all our students' interests. We have strong Music, Art, Drama and Sports provision, recognised by Sportsmark and Artsmark Silver awards. We want students to feel safe and to educate them to be healthy and happy members of society who grow into caring individuals. To support this aim we have strong programmes of Citizenship and moral education, and an extensive range of extra-curricular provision, which have enabled us to gain Healthy Schools Silver Award and Citizenship Gold Award.

Guilsborough is an inclusive school – we believe that every child matters and we have students with a wide range of learning needs and support these through a strong Learning Support and Learning Mentor programme. For older students we offer a variety of support through college link courses, extended work placements and other programmes. A team of pastoral support assistants work alongside Heads of Year to support children with friendship and family problems, behaviour problems or worries of any kind. We seek to involve students in their own education and give them a strong voice in the school through year and school councils, student forums, student surveys on many aspects of school life, including their own teaching and learning and a range of surveys.

This website supports communication with parents, our links with other partner schools and businesses, and is key part of our goal to become the centre of a learning community. We try and ensure key dates, newsletter items, homework details and curriculum information is readily available, and we are currently trialling e-forums to extend the parent and student forums and surveys we hold in school, so that we can ask their views on many issues.

We have links with many other schools and organisations as part of our Technology College culture and general curriculum provision. We work closely with neighbouring colleges where students take vocational courses. We have close links with all our partner primary schools so that students coming to Guilsborough have already met our ICT team and other teachers who visit their school and taken part in sports activities and enrichment activities in Maths, Design or ICT, or summer schools.

Guilsborough is one of a group of 11 secondary schools in our local area, the 'SWAN' network (South West Area of Northants.) We have strong links across the area, sharing professional development and activities through our successful Networked Schools Learning Community. We collaborate on a range of projects especially in the development of the 14-19 vocational programmes.

We are also developing close links with Northgate special school in Northampton , providing curriculum support and gaining from their expertise and skills in working with students with learning problems.

Business links are centred around a large number of small employers, whom we recognise as ‘Associate Sponsors'. They give time and support to a range of curriculum projects across the school, for example - Business Enrichment, Science and Technology at Work, Arts Festival. University and FE links are also strong, with a programme of events from Year 8 onwards, including our Oxbridge entry programme, and Aimhigher programme.

Please do visit our website again, as it is constantly developing, and we find that it is a very effective way to communicate with all members of our community.

Best Wishes
Christine Staley
Headteacher