In our latest inspection, published in June 2017, the Inspectors reaffirmed that ‘This school continues to be good’ and that ‘Safeguarding is effective’. They commended leadership and management, including governance, and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment across the school. 

Following the publication of the school performance tables in October, we were thrilled to learn that as a result of the high quality of teaching, learning and assessment and the achievements and progress of pupils in our ‘Class of 2017’, Cirencester Deer Park School continues to be a leading comprehensive school in Gloucestershire and we are proud to be one of the highest performing schools in the South Cotswolds on all measures.

Over the last two years, we have been working closely with Carol Dougill, the Executive Headteacher of Kemble and Siddington C of E Primary Schools and her governors to form a multi-academy trust. This is based on the principles of collaboration and school improvement. We were delighted to learn that our application to form The Corinium Education Trust was approved by the Department for Education in November. We are now working towards a formal launch of the Trust in April 2018.

We have also been working closely with the Royal Agricultural University and Cirencester College. As members of an ‘education quarter’ in Cirencester, we have been exploring ways of working together and developing progression routes etc.

Although 2017 has been a challenging year nationally for much of the public sector - we have all heard stories of cuts in funding and education is no different. As an all-inclusive comprehensive school, we have no plans to ask parents to help with funding but, like all state schools, we have had to make some adjustments to our provision. The education and safety of our children is of course our priority and in March Headteacher, Chiquita Henson, and local secondary heads had a meeting (read more below) with the Cotswolds’ MP, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown,who as a member of the F40 group, is an ardent campaigner for fairer funding and we appreciate the work he did in support of Gloucestershire schools.

We take pride in our site and encourage our pupils to look after the facilities we have. Following a successful capital bid to replace a temporary building which has been on site for over 40 years, work commenced on a new suite of classrooms for English and Computing over the summer and we are pleased with the progress that has already been made. Our new build is still on target for completion in May 2018 and you can follow its development on @CDPStoday. These new classrooms should be ready for use in June.

Furthermore, we replaced the surfaces on our all-weather pitches which are used through the school day, into the evenings and over the weekends by our PE Faculty and local sports’ clubs, but primarily Cirencester Hockey Club. Our astroturf is a valuable community asset and we appreciated the contributions we received from local charities to help us achieve this goal.

News stories on our website:

1. Support your school (January)
2. School Funding (March)
3. Youth Market (March)
4. New Build Funding Announcement (April)
5. Being a Leading School (April)
6. Parent Surveys (May)
7. Ofsted Inspection (May)
8. Year 9 Key Stage 3 Celebration of Achievement (May)
9. Ofsted Report (June)
10. Working towards a Multi Academy Trust (June)
11. New Astro Pitch Surfaces Announcement (June)
12. Class of 2017 Results (August)
13. Governor Mark (September)
14. School Performance Table (October)
15. Multi Academy Trust Approval (November)
16. Class of 2017 Celebration of Achievement
17. Helping Deer Park (November)
18. Offical Opening of New Artificial Pitches (November)

We look forward to leading and contributing to further developments in the South Cotswolds. This is reflected in our three core priorities:

A.   To be the leading school in the South Cotswolds;
B.   To tailor our provision to meet the needs of all of our learners;
C.   To ensure disadvantaged pupils make the progress of which they are capable.