The Corsham School


The Corsham School, is a large secondary school, with a sixth form, in Corsham, Wiltshire, England. The school has academy status, and in January 2015 had 1,307 pupils.

Catchment

Students attend from the market town of Corsham and nearby villages such as Colerne, Neston, Box, Lacock, Shaw and Batheaston; and from more distant places such as the towns of Chippenham and Melksham and the city of Bath.

Layout

The school is split into five blocks. It has three playgrounds and one big field.
A new building, which will house a new sixth form centre and SEND centre, began construction in February 2019, and was completed in September 2019.

Academic standards

The Corsham School was described as "exceptional" in increasing the number of pupils attaining top level GCSE grades by Bob Wolfson, Wiltshire's education director, in January 2004. More than two-thirds of Corsham's pupils achieved five or more A* to C grades at GCSE in 2003, a big improvement from just over half the students in 2002.School Standards Minister, David Miliband, announced that he was keen to see the strategy spread to most schools in the country.
In 2009, the school received an 'outstanding' Ofsted report. In December 2012, the school achieved a rating of 'good'. In 2017 it got downgraded again to "Requires Improvement" Ofsted report. In September 2019, as one of the very first schools to be inspected under the revised inspection regime, it was once more rated as 'Good'.

History

The Corsham School opened as a comprehensive school in 1972, replacing Corsham Secondary Modern School which had opened in 1955.
The school specialised as a Visual Arts College until the closure of the Specialist schools programme in 2011.

Student Leaders

The Corsham School is noted for its alternative approach to student leadership. After removing the traditional student council system in 2014, a new system was introduced whereby there are Student Leaders appointed from the sixth form. There are different Student Leader departments in addition to an Internal and an External Director. In the academic year 2015/6, under the premierships of Oscar Wilson and Ben Hayday, there were over 200 Student Leaders aged 12 to 18. The current Directors of the Student Leaders are Martha Benedict and Elena Bateman.
Some of The Corsham School's Student Leaders' work has included: