Bury St Edmunds County High School
Bury St Edmunds County High School, previously Bury St Edmunds County Upper School, is a 13 to 19 co-educational comprehensive part of the Bury St Edmunds All-Through Trust, comprising County High School, Horringer Court School, Westley School and Barrow CEVC and Tollgate Primaries.
It is one of three 13-18 schools serving the town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England and its surrounding villages. Pupils enter Year 9 primarily from three catchment middle schools in Bury St Edmunds but pupils are drawn widely from across the villages and towns of West Suffolk. The school is often over-subscribed with 266 first-choice applicants in 2009/10, 287 in 2010/11, 282 for 2011/12, 279 for 2012/13 and 268 for 2014/15 against a LEA Planned Admission Number of 260.
Attached to the main school is a Sixth Form, which at present stands at around 209 students spread between Years 12 and 13. The school is located on Beetons Way, on the outskirts of town, next to St Benedict's Roman Catholic Upper School, with which it used to collaborate in the sixth form. However, the sixth form will no longer exist after the 23-24 school year.
County High School has specialisms in science and languages with an Able and Talented Focus, and is also accredited as a "Consultant School" by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
Together with Westley School, part of the Bury St Edmunds All-Through Trust, it is the Area Hub for West Suffolk and East Cambridgeshire for the Computing at School Network of Excellence as part of the joint effort by the BCS, Chartered Institute for IT and the Computing Industry to provide leadership and strategic guidance to all those involved in Computing education in schools.
The school is accredited with the National College for School Leadership as a Teaching School and is part of the West Suffolk All-Through Teaching School Alliance, to train and develop teachers from September 2013 and it is also the lead Suffolk school in the Suffolk and Norfolk Initial Teacher Training initiative, in partnership with Suffolk County Council and University College Suffolk, which is part of the Department for Education's School Direct Training Programme.
In 2019, the school received an 'inadequate' inspection from Ofsted.
In 2023 due to the reorganization of four schools in Bury St Edmunds, the name of Bury St Edmunds County Upper School was changed to Bury St Edmunds County High School
Organisation
As a school rated by Ofsted as "Outstanding", under the Academies Act 2010 County High School applied to become a High-Performing Academy – a publicly funded independent school.Together with Horringer Court School, Westley School, Tollgate Primary School and Barrow Primary School, and working closely with Howard Middle School, it forms the 4-18 Bury St Edmunds All-Through Trust with the potential for students to move flexibly through the pyramid in accordance with their ability and aptitude allowing the six schools to work together strategically to drive up even further their standards and results.
The All-Through Academy Trust received the go-ahead from the Department of Education in September 2015 to create a Technical Academy alongside its traditional academic pathway offering 14-18-year-old students vocational education in Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering working alongside industry to allowing a work-place based study. The Technical Academy plans to open in September 2017. Current industry and university partners include Microsoft, ARM, Bosch, British Sugar, Claas UK, BT, EDF, Marshall Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, Redgate Software, Treatt, UK Power Networks, Vitec, Suffolk Education Business Partnership and the University of East Anglia.
The Trust, in this instance led by County High, has become an Early Adopter of the World Class Schools Quality Mark.
Origins
County High School traces its origins back to the Education Act 1902 that gave county councils the status of local education authorities, greatly expanding their powers and their expenditure. Within a few years it was normal for half a county's budget to be devoted to education and the West Suffolk County School was opened in Northgate Street in Bury St Edmunds. A large red brick building, the former Falconbury School and site of the original Northgate House, had been purchased for the purpose in 1904, then altered and improved. This original building was then extended in 1907. At this time it was co-educational, with separate playgrounds. In the early 1950s the school became the County Grammar School for Girls with eligible boys from Bury and its surrounding villages attending the King Edward VI Grammar School.In 1964 the County Grammar School for Girls moved from its Northgate Street site to brand new premises at the end of Tollgate Lane in north west Bury St Edmunds. For many years the girls had walked to this new site to make use of the playing fields that the local education authority had acquired there. These long walks now became unnecessary. The school premises in Northgate Street gradually became used as an annex to the West Suffolk College until 1988. Today, the old red brick building forms part of the Northgate Street Business Park, housing, amongst other enterprises, a dance school, a chiropractic clinic, the headquarters of the East of England Ambulance Service and the . In 1972 the County Grammar School for Girls became the co-educational and comprehensive County High School. The old single-sex state grammar school system, which separated children by gender and ability in Suffolk no longer exists.
The original West Suffolk County School coat of arms, seen above the old Northgate Street building entrance, consist of a gold cross fleury between five martlets on a blue shield and were the arms of Edward the Confessor, who in the 11th century granted land to the abbey of St Edmund, and those of the old West Suffolk County Council. The contemporary County High School coat of arms has four birds around a cross surmounted by the Saxon Crown of St Edmund, the last King of East Anglia. The blue sweaters with an all gold crest worn by today's pupils echo the colours of Edward the Confessor and are used by the school sports teams and on the school flag.
Facilities
The original girls' grammar school building, opened in 1964, provides the main teaching and administrative area. There are additional specialist facilities, built in the 1970s, to support the teaching of science, art and design technology. New facilities for humanities were built in the 1990s. In 2004 the school kitchens were refitted, and a new block containing a secondary eating area was created alongside a gym; above the eating area two classrooms were constructed, which are now the Sixth Form common rooms. This was extended in 2014.A new library opened in October 2006, and a completely refurbished Performing Arts Centre opened Easter 2007 which contains facilities for dance, drama and music. This was dedicated to the memory of Michael Woodhouse, a pupil who use a wheelchair, who had unexpectedly died during Easter 2007. Work on new facilities for food technology and art were completed in summer 2008 which forms part of a visual arts centre, a business studies centre was completed during summer 2010, the science block was refurbished in summer 2011 and the main sports hall in summer 2012.
Staff
Since 2021 the headmistress has been Sally Kennedy. Between 2005 and 2021, the school was led by Mrs Vicky Neale, following the retirement of Adrian Williams, who obtained a CBE for Services to Education after many years at the school. As of 2014, there are around 90 teaching staff. The most recent workforce statistics from the Department for Education indicates the Academy's pupil-teacher ratio of 14.4:1 is lower than both the Suffolk LEA average of 16:1 in Secondary Schools and 15.7:1 for England as a whole.Ofsted inspections
The Ofsted inspection on 18–19 September 2013 rated County High School as Grade 1 - Outstanding for overall effectiveness and Grade 1 - Outstanding in all 4 inspection categories: Achievement of pupils; Quality of teaching; Behaviour and safety of pupils and leadership and management for both the main school and Sixth Form; its 8th successive "Outstanding" rating from Ofsted since 1998The June 2013 Ofsted Report into the achievement of the top 30% most able pupils in non-selective comprehensive schools in England visited County High School and gave a Grade 1 "Outstanding" rating for all five categories it inspected: Transfer, transition and induction; Most able achievement; Teaching, learning and assessment; Curriculum; Support and guidance
The Education Act 2011 proposed that schools assessed as being Grade 1 "Outstanding" on their last inspection will not be subject to routine inspection unless concerns are raised with Ofsted about their performance. As with similar schools Ofsted wrote to County High School on 28 March 2011 with an "Interim Assessment" stating that based upon pupils' academic performance, very low rates of absence and having taken into account the results of survey visits carried out since the last routine inspection. they considered that the Outstanding performance had been sustained. Ofsted stated they would continue to undertake annual assessments of County High Schools' performance.
Following the most recent inspection in March 2019, County High School was downgraded to 'inadequate' by Ofsted following the failure of leaders to "ensure pupils' safety". It criticised the exposure of pupils to drug dealing and gang related activity; with reference to the criminal activity of students - absent at the time - being marked as present.
Pupils were quoted as saying they do not feel safe on the school site, with concern raised for the perceived ease of access of unauthorised visitors to gain access to the site.
Academic achievements and attendance
County High achieved a 92% A*-C pass rate in the summer 2015 and 88% A*-C pass rate in the summer 2014 A-level examinations versus a national percentage of 76.5%. These both were the best state school A-level results in Suffolk topped only by Ipswich School.County High Sixth Form students regularly achieve entry to Oxbridge colleges with an average of 6% of Sixth Form Pupils achieving entry to Oxford or Cambridge making it the 7th most successful non-selective school in England. Research by the Sutton Trust shows around three-quarters of students leaving Year 13 attend university after leaving County High, with one third attending the 30 most selective universities and colleges.
The 2015 and 2014 GCSE results showed similar success with 86% A*-C pass rates and 70% of students gained 5 or more A*-C passes including English and Mathematics compared with 55.5% for England nationally. The 2014 result was the joint second highest percentage awarded for a state school in Suffolk and joint highest in the Western Area together with neighbouring St Benedicts Roman Catholic High school.
42% of students achieved an A*-C pass rate in 2014 for the GCSE subjects required to gain them the English Baccalaureate qualification, surpassing the 35% government target for that year.
Attendance in 2013 was recorded at 96.8% compared with a national figure of 94.1% placing it in the first quintile of all schools in England and Wales and which is the highest attendance figure in Suffolk of any secondary school.
The 2014/15 Schools Guide rated County high as the best performing State Secondary school in the Bury St Edmunds area with the Westley and Horringer Court campuses of the All Through-Trust following close behind.