Testbourne Community School in

Whitchurch Whitchurch may refer to: Places Canada *Whitchurch, Ontario, since 1971 part of Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario England *Whitchurch, Bristol *Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire *Whitchurch, Devon, in Tavistock **Whitchurch, Devon (parish), a civil ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England, has been a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

since the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

and is a

foundation school In England and Wales, a foundation school is a state-funded school in which the school governor, governing body has greater freedom in the running of the school than in Community school (England and Wales), community schools. Foundation schools ...

. It educates around 900

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...

s aged 11–16. The

Headteacher A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. Role While s ...

is currently Jon Beck, who was appointed in September 2017.

Academic standards

The school was rated as ''Good'' by the school regulator

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

in its most recent inspection, which took place in November 2023 (down from ''Outstanding'' in November 2010). The OFSTED inspectors praised the SEND department ''"The individual needs of these pupils are known and met"'' the inspectors also said the leadership is supportive towards staff. ''"Leaders provide support to a professional and committed staff body who hold high aspirations for all pupils. . . A comprehensive professional development programme provides frequent opportunities for staff to share best practice and improve their teaching knowledge to help pupils achieve. Workload is managed effectively, to ensure that time is spent focusing on the well-known school improvement priorities."''

Notable achievements

The school was awarded the

Artsmark Artsmark is the quality standard for culture and creativity in schools and education settings, awarded by Arts Council England. The Artsmark award provides a clear framework for teachers and education professionals to plan, develop and evaluat ...

Silver award in 2004. It previously had performing arts

specialist status Specialist schools in the United Kingdom (sometimes branded as specialist colleges in England and Northern Ireland) are schools with an emphasis or focus in a specific specialised subject area, which is called a specialism, or alternatively in ...

from 2005.

Kid Witness News

Students have won several awards in the 'Kid Witness News' competition over the years. In May 2010, a video called ''B is for Apple'' won the award for Best Story at the European competition held in Hamburg. They had won the UK Grand Prix and UK Best Story-telling awards at the UK competition held in Derby earlier that month. In 2009, students won the Global Citizenship Award at the International KWN finals in Japan for their video called ''Dansez What You Can’t Sez''. The following year, the student's film ''Won’t Listen Can’t Hear'' won 'best soundtrack' and came third overall (out of 626 schools worldwide).

Sport

In June 2005, although the school has no dedicated

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

pitch or posts, their U12 rugby team won its age-group final at The Daily Telegraph Emerging Schools Final at

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

in a competition involving 2,000 teams and 40,000 children across the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

."Harrow set tone for year of high achievers"
Gareth A Davies,

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

, 12 June 2005

References

External links

* {{authority control Secondary schools in Hampshire Foundation schools in Hampshire Whitchurch, Hampshire