Welcome

Since its foundation in 1614 Steyning Grammar School has offered high quality education to the young people of Steyning and its surrounding areas. Today is no exception.

We are a thriving comprehensive school that has a clear focus on increasing student learning and improving examination results. As Headteacher I am delighted to be leading a school that is proud of its heritage and confident in its ability to meet the needs of its current and future students.

We are a very successful school that offers each student a wide range of opportunities for success in a secure and caring environment. The quality of relationships in our school are outstanding with teachers, students, and parents working closely together in promoting independent learning. We also have very good relations within our local community.

We were last inspected in September 2009 and were identified as a good school with outstanding features. Our eleven outstanding elements included the effectiveness of care, guidance and support, engagement with parents and
carers, effectiveness of safeguarding procedures, community cohesion and the work of our sixth form. We are a Church of England School and received an outstanding Section 48 report from the Diocese of Chichester at the same time. Our OfSTED report for our Boarding provision was also outstanding.

Our aspiration is that every student should be the best they can be both within and outside the classroom. We want to help every child find their talent!

We have developed an understanding within our school where each student takes responsibility for their own learning.  Our aims clearly focus us in our mission to equip students as independent 21st Century learners. We support our students to:

• be creative
• develop leadership skills
• be innovative
• develop a ‘Can-do’ mind-set
• learn how to take calculated risks and understand the consequences
• work in a team
• make informed decisions
• be flexible
• show commitment

We are proud of the fact that our examination results identify us as a very successful school. Examination success is important to us. Good results will open doors that would otherwise remain closed for our students. We have a comprehensive and successful programme in place that ensures all of our students are well prepared for their examinations. Each of our students has clear aspirational targets in each subject area to ensure that they know what we expect of them.

We believe that school life is about developing the individual. Therefore, in order to develop social learning, we have a broad range of very popular extra curricular activities. For example, we have:

• sports teams that are recognised as some of the best in West Sussex
• a very successful Music department
• an outstanding Art programme
• many high quality school productions.

I am pleased to confirm that student behaviour at Steyning Grammar School is very good. In our school the vast majority of students behave well and as a result they learn effectively and benefit from our extensive curriculum. The school has a clear discipline policy that is supported by both staff and students. As a school we do not allow any student to disrupt the learning of others.

We have changed our college specialism to Science with Business and Enterprise. Historically our specialist status has had a very positive impact on student learning. Our specialist status has allowed us to further develop our curriculum to support our links with local businesses and primary schools. It will allow us to promote enterprise education in the future. We believe that Enterprise Education will give our students an invaluable additional strand to their learning that will be of great value in their working lives. We will also retain our second specialism as a High Performing Specialist School in Applied Learning.

I believe that students should enjoy their time at school. I want your child to be confident, comfortable and challenged both during lessons and during extra curricular activities and unstructured time. I hope that in the years to come our ex-students will look back on their time at Steyning Grammar School with affection and warmth and acknowledge that the school gave them the skill to know what to do when they don’t know what to do.

As Headteacher I have made my expectations clear to students. They are simple and straightforward. I expect students to:

• take responsibility for their learning
• behave well
• enjoy school life!

I look forward to working with you to ensure the social and academic success of your child.


Chris Taylor
Headteacher