Cirencester Kingshill School is a Comprehensive school

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...

 located on the south east side of Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

 in 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...

. Opened in 1976, it is one of two secondary schools serving Cirencester and the surrounding area.

The school received an OFSTED

Ofsted

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 ....

 inspection in November 2007 and was named an Outstanding school in all categories by the inspection team.

The school won the School Achievement Award for 2003.

Background

When first opened, the school originally admitted 120 pupils each year. This was then raised to 135, and has increased since 1996 to 159 new admissions per year. The school now has an overall enrollment of 802 pupils.

The school has been a Foundation School

Foundation school

In England and Wales, a foundation school is a state-funded school in which the governing body has greater freedom in the running of the school than in community schools....

 since September 1999. In 2000, it was named as an Outstanding School in the HMCI annual report. It went on to become a Beacon School and be the first school in Gloucestershire to gain the Eco-Award.

In September 2002, the school received its first specialism, gaining Sports College

Sports College

Sports Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enables secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, PE, sports and dance. Schools that successfully apply to the Specialist Schools Trust and become Sports...

 status. This provided funding for a new sports hall, changing rooms and other sports facilities. In 2006, the school became a Science College

Science College

Science Colleges were introduced in 2002 as part of the now defunct Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, science and mathematics...

 and earned creditability in Raising Achievement Transforming Learning.

Curriculum

Throughout Key Stage 3

Key Stage 3

Key Stage 3 is the legal term for the three years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9, when pupils are aged between 11 and 14...

 (Years 7-9), pupils are taught in mixed ability groups except for Mathematics and Modern Languages. All pupils study English

English studies

English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...

, Mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, Science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, History

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

, Geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

, Design and Technology, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 or French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Religious Education

Religious Education

Religious Education is the term given to education concerned with religion. It may refer to education provided by a church or religious organization, for instruction in doctrine and faith, or for education in various aspects of religion, but without explicitly religious or moral aims, e.g. in a...

, Physical Education

Physical education

Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....

, Art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

, Drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

, Music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, ICT

Information and communication technologies

Information and communications technology or information and communication technology, usually abbreviated as ICT, is often used as an extended synonym for information technology , but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of...

, PSHE and IT.

In their second year (Year 8), pupils with high language skills can begin to study a second language (French or German).

When students reach Key Stage 4

Key Stage 4

Key Stage 4 is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs, and other exams, in maintained schools in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland—normally known as Year 10 and Year 11 in England and Wales, and Year 11 and Year 12 in Northern Ireland, when pupils are...

 (Years 10-11), they work towards their GCSEs. Pupils can choose up to three or four subjects to study, depending on their ability. They will study the core subjects, which are: Science, Mathematics, English Language and Literature, Modern Languages, PE, ICT, RE and Citizenship. The other three or four choices include: Art, Design and Technology, Music and ICT. The school also offers vocational courses such as Leisure and Tourism, Health and Social Care or Catering. A BTEC

Business And Technology Education Council (BTEC)

The Business and Technology Education Council is the British body which awards vocational qualifications. Such qualifications are commonly referred to as "BTECs"....

diploma in Sport is also available.