Greenshaw High School

At Greenshaw High School our students and staff work very hard to ensure the best results. The last few years have seen qualifications generated in alternative ways, but have still seen students at our school progress to great destinations including our own Sixth Form, local colleges and a range of university courses, apprenticeships and employment. This year, we received our first set of public exam data in three years and this showed that that all of our hard work, continued throughout the pandemic, has been done in way that continues to yield great outcomes for our students.

We aim to give our youngest students a firm foundation of knowledge, before their formal examination courses begin. We teach our students in Year 7 to 9 The Big Ideas that Shaped the World, a sequence of lessons that explains cultural, philosophical and political development from ancient times to today. Alongside this, students in Year 7 to 10 follow a reading programme that, alongside the English curriculum, develops our young people’s awareness of a range of literary themes and voices. We strongly believe it is our responsibility to develop the wider intellect, and in doing so this deepens the knowledge displayed in public examinations.

In the summer of 2022, 43% of all GCSE grades – in all subjects – were at grades 9 to 7, the new version of A*/A from the previous grading system. In addition, 70% of our students achieved at least a grade 5 in English and Maths, known as a ‘strong pass’ in the new GCSEs. In our Sixth Form, over 45% of all
A Level grades were at A* or A, enabling 45 of our students to progress to Russell group universities (including the University of Oxford), as well as a wide range of excellent destinations in academia and business.

Alongside the pursuit of academic excellence, we also have a key role in our students being happy and successful members of society. We do not want great exam results to come at the cost of young people’s wellbeing. All staff are aware of the importance of promoting student welfare, and we maintain a department of non-teaching staff to support students with mental health and wellbeing. I also believe that happiness comes from feeling engaged with your community and knowing that you are making a positive contribution. Despite the pandemic, within the last year, students in our school have volunteered at food banks, collected items for a women’s refuge and raised funds for a cancer charity, all in Sutton. More widely, we have committed to global development with biennial expeditions overseas. We hope to reenergise these events so future students and staff support others around the world, like when we built community facilities in Zambia.

So, at Greenshaw High School we are committed to excellence in all aspects of students’ school life, whether academic, social or personal. This combination embodies the true values of education and underpins all aspects of our work.