Head of Media Studies

The Borough

Bromley, the largest of the 32 London boroughs, stretches from urban Anerley, Penge and Crystal Palace to the open countryside of Kent. Its schools serve an intelligent and articulate community which has a great respect for, and expectation of, the education system.

Student numbers in the 17 secondary schools are high. There is much cross border traffic with many parents in neighbouring boroughs intent on securing places for their children in Bromley schools.
16 of the secondary schools in the borough have converted to academies.  Networks of staff across the schools are good, and there are many significant local partnerships, both in and out borough.

The School

This school dates back to 1919 when it began life as Beckenham County School for Girls. It changed from a grammar school to a comprehensive in 1976, some 17 years after moving to its present parkland site in South West Bromley. Our location provides a good rail link with Central London as well as easy access to the countryside.

It is now an all-ability school of 1700 students with a large co-educational Sixth Form. Currently there are 115 teaching staff , 58 associate staff (full and part time) and an annual budget of over £8 million.

We are consistently over-subscribed (last year 820 applications for Year 7 places and 520 applications for Year 12). Our current admission number is 240 (8 forms of entry) organised into 8 tutor groups. Heads of Year have responsibility with tutors for students’ academic and personal well-being and for monitoring their learning and progress. Rigorous tracking and target setting systems inform students’ learning and social inclusion issues, including SEN, are comprehensively and promptly covered by the Personal and Learning Support (PLS) Faculty which has its own dedicated area in the main school building.

Facilities are good although there is little spare capacity. We have a commitment to maintaining a pleasant, modern technological environment and our site staff and cleaners work hard to ensure that this is so. New build projects recently completed include a dedicated Dance Studio, and an extended and enhanced Sixth Form social and study space.

We encourage positive support from parents; we have a committed Governing Body and an active PSA; relationships between staff and students are very good; clubs, sport, music, drama, educational visits, residential visits and foreign tours all provide further opportunities for personal development for both students and staff.

If there is any information here about which you are not clear, please don’t hesitate to ring and we will be happy to clarify. Additionally please look on our web site at www.lpgs.bromley.sch.uk. You can access our prospectus, and if you click on the ‘NEWS’ tab, you can read in our monthly and termly Newsletters to Parents about the sorts of things that are our daily and weekly concerns.
I am very proud of this school, of the quality of its fabric and facilities, but more particularly of the quality of the experience it aims to provide for both students and staff. I know that they, and parents and Governors, share that pride with me. It does not, however, lead us into complacence. Regular self-scrutiny and a commitment to betterment are implicit and explicit in the way that we work here.