Testbourne Community School in Whitchurch,

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, England, has been a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

since the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

and is a

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. Foundation schools were set up under the School Standards and Framework A ...

. It educates around 900

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementar ...

s aged 11–16. The Headteacher is currently Jon Beck, who was appointed in September 2017.

Academic standards

The school was rated as ''Outstanding'' by the school regulator

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

in its most recent inspection, which took place in November 2010 (up from ''Good'' in May 2007). The OFSTED inspectors praised the previous headteacher at this "exceptionally well-run school" for her "excellent leadership" and her "relentless focus on improving the school from its good quality at the last inspection".

Notable achievements

The school was awarded the

Artsmark Artsmark is the creative quality standard for schools and education settings, awarded by Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is ...

Silver award in 2004. It previously had performing arts specialist status from 2005.

Kid Witness News

Students have won several awards in the 'Kid Witness News' competition over the years. In May 2010, a video called ''B is for Apple'' won the award for Best Story at the European competition held in Hamburg. They had won the UK Grand Prix and UK Best Story-telling awards at the UK competition held in Derby earlier that month. In 2009, students won the Global Citizenship Award at the International KWN finals in Japan for their video called ''Dansez What You Can’t Sez''. The following year, the student's film ''Won’t Listen Can’t Hear'' won 'best soundtrack' and came third overall (out of 626 schools worldwide).

Sport

In June 2005, although the school has no dedicated

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

pitch or posts, their U12 rugby team won its age-group final at The Daily Telegraph Emerging Schools Final at

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

in a competition involving 2,000 teams and 40,000 children across the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

."Harrow set tone for year of high achievers"
Gareth A Davies,

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

, 12 June 2005

References

External links

* {{authority control Secondary schools in Hampshire Foundation schools in Hampshire Whitchurch, Hampshire