Baxter College is a state comprehensive

Comprehensive school

A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

 mixed secondary school located in Kidderminster

Kidderminster

Kidderminster is a town, in the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, England. It is located approximately seventeen miles south-west of Birmingham city centre and approximately fifteen miles north of Worcester city centre. The 2001 census recorded a population of 55,182 in the town...

, Worcestershire

Worcestershire

Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Prior to September 2002 the school was known as Harry Cheshire High School. The school provides education for pupils aged 11 to 18 years, and offers a wide range of courses at GCSE and A-Level.

History

The school was previously known as Harry Cheshire High School. Due to a lack of good exam results and absence levels of up to 15% the school was placed under special measures

Special measures

Special measures is a status applied by Ofsted and Estyn, the schools inspection agencies, to schools in England and Wales, respectively, when it considers that they fail to supply an acceptable level of education and appear to lack the leadership capacity necessary to secure improvements...

 by the Office for Standards in Education

Office for Standards in Education

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....

. In September 2002 it then became Baxter College. Its results have greatly improved, and it has attained specialist

Specialist school

The specialist schools programme was a UK government initiative which encouraged secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum to boost achievement. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust was responsible for the delivery of the programme...

 status as a Business and Enterprise College.

The school has been paired with Haybridge High School

Haybridge High School

Haybridge High School and Sixth Form is a 11–18 mixed comprehensive school with approximately 1,250 students in Hagley, serving North West Worcestershire. The school is a Technology College, with the two additional specialisms of Applied Learning and Sports...

 in a Leading Edge Partnership

Leading Edge Partnership

The Leading Edge Partnership programme is an educational scheme organised by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in the United Kingdom. It was introduced in 2005 as a programme for High Performing Specialist Schools, a designation launched in 2004....

to assist in the improvement of the school.