Denefield School is a secondary school

Secondary school

Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 located in Tilehurst

Tilehurst

Tilehurst is a suburb of the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It is also, with different boundaries as described below, a civil parish in West Berkshire district.-History:...

, Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

, Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, 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...

. The school was founded in 1976 and opened with 180 students in Year 7. Since then Denefield has continued to grow, with approximately 1,200 students attending during the 2005-2006 school year. The school became a grant-maintained school

Grant-maintained school

Grant-maintained schools were state schools in England and Wales between 1988 and 1998 that had opted out of local government control, being funded directly by a grant from central government...

 in 1992, and was awarded a specialism as a Technology College

Technology College

Technology College is a term used in the United Kingdom for a secondary specialist school that focuses on design and technology, mathematics and science. These were the first type of specialist schools, beginning in 1994. In 2008 there were 598 Technology Colleges in England, of which 12 also...

 in 1994. In 1999, Denefield became 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....

. In January 2012, Denefield will controversially become an academy school.

The 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 ....

report from 2005 described Denefield as a 'good school with outstanding features', however in 2009 it was graded 'inadequate' by OFSTED and put into special measures. In November 2010 Denefield was taken out of special measures, and is now making significant progress in improving the academic attainment of its students. In 2011 students achieved the best GCSE results in the school's history with 80% of students achieving five or more A* - C grades.

Building

The original school building, although only meant to be temporary, is still standing today. However much of the school is currently being rebuilt and refurbished to bring it up to modern standards, with brand new facilities for the Science, Technology and Expressive Arts curriculum areas, and new sixth form facilities under construction. The school overlooks beautiful open country side.

Special Measures

Due to unsatisfactory examination results in some key subject areas, and despite the success of some other areas (Denefield was awarded an Arts Mark Gold award by the Arts Council of England in May 2009 for its Arts provision) the school was placed in special measures. The current Headteacher, Glyn Whiteford, made it clear that he would improve the school, and this indeed has happened. These improvements were highlighted by the OFSTED inspectors.

In November 2010, following improvements to the quality of teaching over the preceding years, Denefield was removed from special measures following a two day ‘no notice’ inspection by Ofsted. The inspection report stated:

"[The] Chief Inspector is of the opinion that the school no longer requires special measures. It is now providing a satisfactory education because there have been improvements in most aspects of the schools work, particularly the quality of leadership and of teaching as well as students attendance. These changes have led to an increase in the rate at which students make progress and so their attainment has risen, demonstrating that the school has a good capacity to improve further.

"Over the last two years students attainment in GCSE examinations has risen and is now in line with the national average. In spite of a legacy of underachievement lower down the school, in 2010 Year 11 students made satisfactory progress overall. The accelerated progress in their final two years at the school was partly the result of a very comprehensive system of mentoring for all Year 11 students and personal support targeted at specific students who were underachieving. However, improvements to the quality of teaching across the school and the curriculum are also starting to bring about long-term sustainable change in the quality of learning and thus an increase in the rate of progress for students in every year group."

External links

• Denefield School Website