“I would like you congratulate you, your staff and your pupils for the high levels of progress your pupils are making.
Your school’s results, as published on 19 January, show that you are amongst the top five percent of schools in terms of the progress your pupils make between key stage 2 and the end of key stage 4, using the Progress 8 measure.
Nick Gibb MP”
Once again in 2016/17 Norton Hill enjoys the prestige of being one of the highest performing schools in the country, where students of all abilities make outstanding progress. Results at Norton Hill have been significantly above the national average over recent years and continue to show an upward trend. At GCSE, the school is regularly in the top 5% of all schools nationally for ‘value-added’ between Years 7 and 11 and over 75% of children achieve 5 good GCSEs including English and Maths at C grade or above. A level results are strong across the subject areas and again show an upward trend with average grades across all entries at ABB. In fact, outcomes are so consistently high, the school regularly receives letters of praise from the DFE.
The most recent OFSTED inspection again judged Norton Hill as a school with many outstanding features including behaviour, safety and attitudes to learning of students. This fantastic achievement marks Norton Hill as one of the most successful schools in the local area and nationally. Even more impressive is the parent feedback and questionnaires that show that 98% of parents would recommend the school highly to those looking for a secondary school for their children.
At the heart of our philosophy is the promotion of core, traditional values coupled with academic excellence in a safe and secure environment. Norton Hill School is a place where inspirational teaching leads to aspirational learning and outcomes which open doors for all our young people.
Norton Hill is committed to examination courses which benefit the students, so they secure the best jobs and places at the most prestigious Universities. This ethos is borne out by Norton Hill’s GCSE results (which exclude “equivalent” courses often not widely recognised) as well as the English Baccalaureate indicator which places us well above the national and LA average.
Students are actively involved in lessons at Norton Hill, developing the self-confidence and capacity to work independently that is crucial in later life and one of the most important attributes sought by future employers. A plethora of different teaching styles and approaches are employed to meet the needs of all learners. Norton Hill offers a broad and imaginative curriculum, including the Cambridge Pre-U course at Post 16 level which have been a resounding success in offering some of our highest achieving students the opportunity to attain even higher than the A* standard at A level.
In addition to its academic achievements, the school is well renowned for success in the sporting arena and significant investment in outdoor education, as well as excelling in Art, Music and Drama. The superb developments taking place throughout the faculty of the Arts has been recognised on a number of occasions with the award of the prestigious Artsmark Gold Standard. The school has recently been successfully assessed for the highest level of the International Schools Award for the third time and been upgraded to the Silver Award for the Eco Schools Status. We are currently a lead school for anti-bullying in BANES and received the ‘Director of Public Health Award’ recognising our work towards the Healthy Schools Agenda.
Students at Norton Hill belong to one of five Houses: Blackdown, Cotswold, Exmoor, Mendip and Quantock. The House system ensures that every student is known individually, whilst enjoying the opportunities that only a large school can offer. This ‘family’ approach helps new students to quickly feel a sense of belonging. Through the House system the student body become more involved in charitable work and community projects and with the recent addition of the Inter-House Community Award promises to develop this still further. Norton Hill has a parental forum which allows consultation with parents on key issues and helps shape the future decisions within the school. We are a school that listens and works in partnership with the community to ensure a prosperous future for all our young people.
Quotation:
“We moved our son from another local school and haven’t looked back. The high expectations, quality of teaching and positive school environment have been perfect for our son. He is now making brilliant progress in Maths, a subject he was struggling with, participates in DofE and made some great friends.”
Y9 Parent
“I am so pleased that my child has been educated at Norton Hill School. The whole way through she received a tremendous level of support both academically and socially and the opportunities that she has had have been truly phenomenal. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”
Year 13 Parent
