Highdown School and Sixth Form Centre is an

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

Emmer Green Emmer Green is the northernmost suburb of Reading in the English county of Berkshire within the unitary authority, centred north of the town. Having most of its own commerce, sport and other amenities, Emmer Green has an arbitrary divide with ...

on the outskirts of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

, Berkshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It has a capacity for approximately 1600 students aged 11–18. There are currently 1459 students on roll at the school with 262 students attending the Sixth Form. Highdown School is a non-selective school with provision for Special Education Needs and is a specialist school for maths and computing. Rachel Cave has been the head teacher since 2013. The school's most recent Ofsted inspection, in 2020, rated the school "good".

History

Grove house, a grade II listed building on the school grounds was built in the 1780s as a small farmhouse for thirty acres of arable farmland. Highdown School was established as a comprehensive school in September 1971. Highdown School has three Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

s within its grounds. The main building was altered and extended by

Richard Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

from 1878–80. On 1 November 2010, Highdown School became an independently run academy after being judged outstanding by Ofsted. It was the first school in Berkshire to be awarded academy status. During April 2015 Highdown School was judged as "Good" by Ofsted. On 6 December 2012, the school’s governing body announced that Rachel Cave, formerly a Deputy Headteacher at The Heathland School in Hounslow, would take over the school from Easter 2013, replacing Tim Royle, Headteacher of 13 years.

Controversy

Former headteacher Timothy Royle was accused of three counts of fraud and one count of theft in a case at Reading Magistrates Court. Royle was accused of falsely reporting how bursary funds were being spent, keeping £7,000 and stealing computers and computer equipment from the school. The ex-headteacher was one of the first appointed National Leaders in Education to advise the Government on education policy who left the school in December 2012. He was cleared of these charges in March 2015.

References

External links

* {{authority control Educational institutions established in 1971 Grade II listed buildings in Reading Richard Norman Shaw buildings Secondary schools in Reading, Berkshire Academies in Reading, Berkshire