Brighton Hill Community School
Brighton Hill Community School is located in Brighton Hill, Basingstoke in the county of Hampshire in the south of England. The Headteacher is Mr Christopher Edwards, who took over in January 2017 after the former Headteacher, Mr Charlie Currie, resigned in April 2016.
Brighton Hill has run exchange trips with Marienschule, a school in Basingstoke's twin town, Euskirchen. It runs sport-related trips, as well as trips for other subjects such as English, Drama, French and Science. It holds annual Gifted and Talented events for Sports students.
Brighton Hill Community School is also a Training School and a Sports Specialist School. In May 2017, the school achieved a 'good' rating from Ofsted for the first time in over ten years.
Curriculum
The students at the school begin their GCSE subjects in year nine, which allows them to complete some GCSEs at the end of year ten and spend year eleven studying a different subject. There are some options that have double the number of lessons. The school has a one-week timetable, which includes compulsory English and Mathematics, Science and Physical Education for all students. British values and citizenship education is delivered through school assemblies, drop down days and the new 'My World' scheme sessions.All Key Stage 3 students also study French, Geography, History, Philosophy, Ethics and Beliefs, Food Technology, Textiles, Woodwork, Music, Art, Dance and Drama. From Year Nine, students choose up to four courses to continue studying, including all of the above courses, Separate or Triple Sciences. The school also previously featured subjects such as German, Product Design, Film Studies, Electronics and Statistics in its GCSE curriculum. Curriculum Access is also offered to students with specific learning needs, in order to provide them with more time to study less subjects at GCSE.
Departments and Facilities
The school's curriculum is based around eight faculties; English, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, Modern Foreign Languages, Humanities, Expressive & Performing Arts and Technology. Each faculty is headed by a senior member of staff, who is then assisted by a Second in Faculty.Brighton Hill Community School features nine ICT suites, music practice rooms with many instruments, a dance and gymnastics studio, a theatre with light and sound controls, a catering room, a woodwork room, a room dedicated to the Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition and many science resources such as Bunsen burners.
The school's pastoral side includes Heads of Year, who support students in their growth and development into young adults and also supervise activities which take place within tutor time. The school also formerly had separate Heads of House, but instead these staff members took on full roles as Heads of Year.
The Transition Learning Manager of the school travels to feeder schools to give upper KS2 students an opportunity to learn what life at BHCS is like. The school also has a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator who assists in special circumstances for students with special needs. The school features a specialised program called Zone 7 for Year 7 students who are not meeting the expected requirements in literacy, mathematics and reading, to help them meet these requirements.
The school's Flexible Learning Centre was opened in September 2012 to offer support, guidance and advice to students; the school's Zone 7 class also resides there. The FLC was renamed The HUB at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, and the school's homework club, which originally took place there, was moved to the Technology block.
Uniform
Brighton Hill School's uniform consists of a daffodil-yellow shirt or blouse, black trousers, shorts or a skirt, a navy blue jumper, a navy blue blazer and a yellow, blue and green tie; a different tie is currently being considered for prefects. This uniform has earned the students a nickname of "Yellow Army" among locals. The PE kit consists of a Navy blue and orange shirt with navy blue shortsIn 2010, a yellow polo shirt was introduced for summer uniform, compulsory for the academic year 2010/2011; this polo shirt was removed from the uniform in 2018.
History
In 2005/2006, Brighton Hill School changed its tutoring system by introducing mixed-year tutor groups. This change led to subsequent pupil protests that were covered in the regional news. The college also changed its house system, consisting of the houses Austen, Dickens, Kingsley, White and Adams, to a community system with communities called Athens, Barcelona, Montreal, Rome, Sydney and Tokyo.In a recent Ofsted inspection, the school was highly praised. However, it was also criticised for poor communication with parents.
In recent years, the school has constantly ranked above local and national averages. Currently, the school houses consist of Dorney, Greenwich, Portland and Stratford, with separate tutor groups for each year.
In June 2008, the college was featured again in the local newspaper after over 200 pupils were suspended following a protest on the school field against an extension of 20 minutes to the school day, and the plans to force the entire school of 1,300 students to queue all at once. The protest was started by a small group of year ten students before the beginning registration of the day. These students quickly spread word about their plans and after 1–2 hours there were around 200 students on the far side of the field from the main school buildings. Many children came and went throughout the day due to a warning issued by the head master, which stated that for every missed lesson a student must suffer one hours detention, and if the whole day is missed the student will be suspended for the rest of the week. This also happened to be the last week of school for the year.
Shortly before the school day had ended, senior members of staff forced the protesting students off the field before other students finished their lessons to avoid difficulties. All students turned up as normal the following day. A teacher was waiting at the school gates with a list of 117 names of those who were to be sent home, due to being excluded for the rest of the week. This caused complaints from parents because of the disorganisation and inconvenience caused by the school towards the parents and students.
Halfway through the school summer holiday, all 117 excluded students were sent a letter stating that expelled students had had the punishment erased from their records, as discussed between the head master and the school governors.
Currently, the school features individual tutor groups for each year group, with mixed-house groups for Year 7, Year 8, Year 10 and Year 11 whilst Year 9 have remained in their house groups; while most students are not in groups based on their house, during school competitions pupils often compete for their houses. The school also recently became one of eight schools in the United Kingdom to become an ambassador school for the Them & Us citizenship project, as well as becoming part of the PiXL Edge program. Language learning app Memrise also has a good relationship with the school, with founder Ted Cooke delivering talks to students to encourage them in their revision. One of the school's MFL classrooms subsequently became a Memrise suite, with tablets and other equipment to help with revision. The school has recently had visits from a number of celebrities, including chef Mark Wright and singer and businessman Levi Roots of Dragons' Den fame. In the school's most recent Ofsted inspection in May 2017, it achieved an overall 'good' rating for the first time in over ten years.
Student Organisations
The school operates a Student Voice, which is run by two Year 11 students, supported by the Year 10 representatives. The school has recently become very student-orientated with the arrival of Mr Christopher Edwards, allowing the Student Voice to progress to new dimensions. The Student Voice has become very more active over the past few years, and are still working to improve the wishes of students daily life at BHCS, including organising a charity stall selling drinks and cakes annually during sports day. The school Student Newspaper was formed in 2017, led by two Year 10 students who recruit journalists from all year groups to publish regular issues containing student-written articles, as well as contributions from staff members. Both the Student Voice and the Student Newspaper are based in the school library.The Anti-Bullying Ambassadors were formed in 2017, being joined a year later by the mental health-focused Wellbeing Ambassadors. Both groups are stationed inside the school's Maths block, which becomes the Wellbeing Square at lunchtime. The school recently received the Silver Diana Award accreditation for its work to combat bullying.
Recently, individual year group student councils have also been formed to work on specific issues relating to their own year groups, led by the Heads of Year. The school prefect team also doubles as the Year 11 student council, led by the Head Boy and Girl.