The past two years have not been an easy period of time for any of us, but school children have been particularly badly hit due to the massive restrictions placed on them with homeschooling and disruptions to their classroom education. However, students at Carterton Community College have received ‘Good’ in all areas of their 2022 OFSTED Inspection.
Headteacher Chris Hart is delighted with his students’ achievements. “We can be proud that our determination to offer children and families a good secondary school at the heart of their community has been achieved. Inspectors recognised that our strengthened school culture and ethos means that our students make good progress and behave well, in a school where relationships matter and there is a strong focus on learning.”
Pupils were happy to report to the lead inspector: “Our school is like one big family here.” Staff work hard to achieve this ensuring they get to know their pupils well, raise their educational aspirations and help their students build strong relationships with their cohorts.
When the school opened 50 years ago, its founding aims were to ‘provide a broad education for the children of Carterton with an emphasis on the individual child. It exists to serve the whole community.’ Shaping young people for the future in a supportive and positive environment, founded on strong values is just as important today as it was in 1972.
As part of their community involvement, earlier this year, twenty-three students graduated from the Jon Egging Trust (JET) Blue Skies Programme. Established in 2012, JET’s mission statement for their Blue Skies Programme is to ‘Help Young People Achieve’, in particular children who ‘face significant challenges. With the right support, and by building teamwork, leadership and communication skills and raising aspirations, the sky is their limit.’
Carterton Community College students participating in the JET programme were invited to present their reflections and experiences of the programme to an audience of parents, RAF JET volunteers and facilitators, representatives from partner organisations including Rolls Royce, Cirencester Agricultural College and the Cotswold Wildlife Park. Amongst the audience were a number of VIPs including JET regional leaders, programme managers and leaders, RAF BZN Station Commander and Senior Officers, and Carterton’s re-elected Mayor, Nick Leverton. Mr Leverton congratulated the school on its OFSTED achievement as well as congratulating the students on the JET programme. “The College’s good OFSTED status is really important and transformational for the young people and their families who live in Carterton.”
In late April, the Carterton Community College participated in a number of events as part of the Month of the Military Child. Throughout the busy week, Tutor Periods were devoted to raising awareness to the school’s non-service students of the unique challenges and opportunities service children at the school can encounter. By reflecting on the challenges of separation from parents and postings as well as relocating to new parts of the country, changing schools and saying goodbye to friends, links were reinforced to the school’s values of kindness and resilience.
Service students from Carterton went to RAF Brize Norton where they joined students from other local schools to watch the RAF Falcons display whilst the whole school were gathered together the next day, to watch them parachute onto the school fields. Other activities during the week included a ‘purple day’ where all the school’s cadets wore their uniform to school and all students received a purple lapel badge commemorating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee as a souvenir.
Mr Hart added: “We are aware that schooling can be disrupted for some service students, so we prioritise support for service students through our life skills enrichment programme. As part of the weeklong activities, a number of service students from Years 7 to 11 received basic First Aid Training in the service student hub ‘The Hangar’. Our MOTM activities were coordinated by Mrs Owen, Service Pupil Premium Lead who was supported by staff and our Service Student Ambassadors, who were described in our recent OFSTED reports as ‘impressive’ student leaders. I am extremely proud of what my students and staff have collectively achieved after such a difficult period in their senior school education.”
