Brighton Hill Community School

Brighton Hill Community School

Established	1975
Type	Comprehensive
Headteacher	Mr Christopher Edwards
Chair of Governors	Mrs Jane Pratt
Location	Brighton Way Basingstoke Hampshire RG22 4HS United Kingdom 51°14′47″N 1°06′52″W / 51.2465°N 1.1145°W / 51.2465; -1.1145Coordinates: 51°14′47″N 1°06′52″W / 51.2465°N 1.1145°W / 51.2465; -1.1145
Local authority	Hampshire
DfE URN	116441 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Staff	150
Students	1084[1]
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	11–16
Houses	Dorney, Greenwich, Portland, Stratford
Colours	Navy blue and yellow
Nickname	BHCS
Website	www.brightonhill.hants.sch.uk

Brighton Hill Community School (known locally as BHCS) 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.

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 include compulsory English and Mathematics (Daily), Science, Physical Education, Key Skills Qualification ICT, Citizenship, Religious Education and Personal Social and Health Education (which is referred to as 'Prep 4 Life') for all students.

All Key Stage 3 students also study French, Spanish, 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 and Psychology. The school also previously featured subjects such as German, Business Studies, Film Studies, Media, Electronics and Statistics in its GCSE curriculum.

Departments and Facilities

The school's curriculum is based around eight faculties; English, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, Modern Foreign Languages (French and Spanish), Humanities (History, Geography, Citizenship, PEB and Psychology), Expressive & Performing Arts (Dance, Drama, Art and Music) and Technology (Design Technology, Textiles, Catering, Resistant Materials, Product Design and ICT). Each faculty is headed by a senior member of staff, who is then assisted by a Second in Faculty. Faculties such as Humanities and EPA also have subject heads to assist in the development and leadership of the subject.

Brighton Hill Community School features nine ICT suites (not including normal classrooms which also house computers for students to use), 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 Primary Liaison 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 (SENCo) 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 (FLC) 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 or skirt, a navy blue jumper, a navy blue blazer and a yellow, blue and green tie for the boys. This uniform has earned the students a nickname of "Yellowbellies" among locals. The PE kit consists of a Navy blue and orange shirt with navy blue shorts In 2010, a yellow polo shirt was introduced for summer uniform, compulsory for the academic year 2010/2011.

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.^[2] 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.^[3] In recent years, the school has constantly ranked above local and national averages.^[4] 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.^[5]

Currently, the school features individual tutor groups for each year group, with mixed-house groups for Year 7, Year 9 and Year 10 whilst Year 8 and Year 11 have remained in their house groups. 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 also partners with several teacher training programs to help up-and-coming teachers reach their potential and become qualified; currently, the school has trainees working in the English, Mathematics, Science and MFL faculties. 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.

Student Voice

At BHCS 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 at BHCS focuses on the needs and wishes of the Students, such as creating a Student Newspaper. The Student Voice has become very more active over the past year, and are still working to improve the wishes of Students daily life at BHCS.

Headteachers

Mr Christopher Edwards was appointed as the replacement of Charlie Currie and started in January 2017, introducing himself with a Sky News broadcast where the presenters announced that BHCS had 'signed Mr Edwards as their new manager', playing off of the role in football. Charlie Currie was head teacher from 2013-2016. Currie served as interim head teacher for two terms after the retirement of David Eyre in 2011, before becoming appointed permanent head teacher for the start of the 2013-2014 term. Other previous head teachers include Lawrie Shaw, Bill Wright and Andy Kilpatrick. Wendy Small was acting head mistress for one year, for the academic year 2009-2010.

Social Media

The school has recently taken an interest in social media (Twitter specifically) due to the influence of new Headteacher Chris Edwards, with each of the eight faculties, as well as the school's teaching assistants and student voice team in addition to the school itself, creating Twitter accounts to share news and positive work. Many staff members have also joined Twitter to communicate with other teachers, as well as one particular tutor group creating a joint account to post compliments as part of the kindness aspect of the Them & Us project. The school's Expressive & Performing Arts faculty has also created Instagram and Pinterest accounts to share artwork, as well as the Student Voice team joining Instagram. This social media overall is an effort to allow more communication between parents and teachers, for which the school has previously been criticised.

Notes

External links

• School website