School Categories: Secondary Sixth Forms

Warlingham School

Mission:

Wide Horizons, High Aspirations

Aims and Values

Warlingham School & Sixth Form College is a caring, supportive environment, where children and staff are happy, where we work with integrity and respect, and where everyone is challenged to reach their highest possible achievement.

Warlingham is a welcoming, friendly school. Ofsted, 2022

Learning takes place in a purposeful and well-disciplined environment in which students are encouraged to be actively involved through investigation, problem-solving, discussion, practical work and research.

Ofsted inspectors have praised the strong pastoral support, quality of teaching and well planned curriculum across subjects. Staff have high expectations of students and are ambitious for pupils’ learning. Pupils speak positively about this expectation, and they live up to it. Consequently, pupils achieve well.

We take our motto of “Wide Horizons, High Aspirations” very seriously and build in opportunities for our students to develop as individuals through the taught curriculum and an extensive range of additional activities.

Our Values

The school’s values of ‘courage, commitment and kindness’ run through every aspect of school life. – Ofsted, 2022

Our key values are: Courage, Commitment and Kindness. The Warlingham Learner, which centres on and develops these values, is the means by which we articulate and develop the skills and personal attributes that our students need to become outstanding lifelong learners who are able to be happy and successful in school and in life beyond school.

Our Structure

A happy and harmonious school is the best environment to enable children to realise their potential. Everyone at Warlingham School & Sixth Form College works hard to help the children to be happy and confident.

Children’s academic, social and personal development is overseen by the Heads of our well-established House System and is supported by the Form Tutors.

Great emphasis is placed upon getting to know each individual child and ensuring that his or her needs are being met. The school has a large computer network, with most departments having their own dedicated ICT room, which enables students to engage in e-learning across the whole curriculum. Students (and parents) are also able to access home learning through our Satchel software. The school’s Learning Development Department works closely with students to devise programmes and strategies that enable the child to be successful at Warlingham. The advice of professionals from external agencies is sought where appropriate. Students are well-supported by specially trained teachers and a large team of teaching assistants.

“Teachers have high expectations and are ambitious for students’ achievement.” Ofsted

Learning at Warlingham School & Sixth Form College

Ofsted inspectors have praised the quality of teaching throughout the school and the exemplary behaviour of our students. Staff have high expectations of students and provide a range of challenging experiences for all abilities, leading to good examination performances and an enjoyment of learning.

Our students enjoy learning and achieve good results in the key subjects at GCSE and at A Level. We believe that all students should make outstanding progress, and to encourage them to make that progress, we ensure that achievement is always celebrated. Working together with parents, we set challenging targets, rigorously monitor progress, develop aspirations and encourage students to take responsibility for their learning. We provide regular contact with home to ensure that parents and carers are fully informed and involved with the academic progress of their child.

Our Students

Throughout their time at Warlingham, we encourage students to take on a variety of leadership roles. Under our leadership programme, students are encouraged to participate in and organise a wide range of events in school, raise funds for charity, support younger students by acting as mentors and welcoming visitors. The student voice is a central element to the ethos of the school and each term the students undertake fundraising events which contribute to local charities and help improve the school environment.

Many students develop their leadership skills through the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. At Warlingham, we are proud of our sense of community spirit and we actively promote our students’ emotional health and well-being. It is our aim for students to develop as well-rounded individuals who have positive self-esteem as well as a sense of responsibility for their peers, the community and the environment. We want Warlingham students to be confident young people and valuable citizens who have a strong sense of their own place in society.

“School leaders value students’ views and through the school council, students have a voice and are able to contribute to school life in a range of ways. They are encouraged to take on responsibilities.” Ofsted

Professional Development

We believe at Warlingham that a shared commitment to high performance helps to focus attention both on more effective ways of working and on the monitoring and evaluation of performance to raise quality of learning and the achievements of students. We provide an appropriate and effective professional training programme to ensure job satisfaction, a high level of expertise and the progression of staff.

The key focus of the programme is to maximise the opportunities for teachers to plan together, observe each other and share best practice. We also insist that teachers reflect continually on their practice in order to impact positively on their own and other’s practice and improve outcomes for their own careers and for the lives of those they teach.