Principal

Stratton Upper School

Part of Meridian Trust

We are ambitious for our students. All our colleagues contribute to the development of the young people we serve regardless of their role:

One Team, One Mission

Our one team includes every student, every family and every Stratton colleague Our one mission is simple: Great outcomes for every student.

We will create self-assured, successful citizens of tomorrow through:

Achievement: Providing outstanding education to all, ensuring our work is purposeful and planned, allowing our students to make rapid progress whatever their starting points.

Challenge: Giving our students confidence to embrace challenge, to be resilient and to own their future.

Partnership: Modelling an environment of strong relationships and positivity, based on mutual respect, trust and understanding of our shared commitment to continuous learning and development.

Aspiration: Opening up an exciting world of possibilities to our students through hard work and endeavour.

Trust: Knowing that everyone wants to achieve the best for themselves and each other.

Stratton Upper is a 13 to 19 school with a roll approaching 1,000 students. This includes just over 250 students in our Sixth Form. We are the only upper school serving Biggleswade and the surrounding villages. This has both advantages and responsibilities. An advantage is that any competition from neighbouring schools is minimal and this has enabled us to develop increasingly collaborative relationships with them. Our unequivocal responsibility however, is to ensure that we support the needs of all students within our catchment. It follows that we accommodate students from across the full spectrum of ability and that we are truly inclusive.

Information concerning our 2019 and 2022 exam outcomes can be found on the school website. We are now embarking on an ambitious programme to raise standards, transform our curriculum and help our students realise what they are truly capable of achieving. Our ambition for school improvement continues with even more purpose, driven by our commitment to open as many opportunities for our students as we possibly can.

To achieve our vision we guide our students to be self-motivated, enthusiastic learners who are equipped and inspired to love learning throughout life as much as we do.

In practice, our approach is based on high expectations, high aspirations and high levels of trust. Our starting point is our working assumption that staff and students alike are committed to personal fulfilment and expect to work in an environment of success and respect.

We find there is very little need for traditional lists of dogmatic school rules and attendant lists of sanctions and consequences. Our expectation is that our students will always “do the right thing” because we have inspired them to commit to our shared values, which centre on aspiration, mutual support and of course, learning. When this is challenged (and it is, we are a school with 1,000 13 – 19 year olds!) we resolve the issue swiftly, but we also reflect the extent to which our own actions, as adults and professionals, contributed to the situation.

We recruit professionals who share our vision, who focus on the long game, knowing that schools thrive on quality relationships between staff and students.

Candidates should be aware of our adherence and commitment to these values.

The holistic experience of being a Stratton student is of vital importance to us. Our staff are incredibly giving of their time, which means we can offer a vibrant, extracurricular range of activities. In 2014, we took part in a humanitarian expedition to Peru, in 2016 students returned from a similar expedition to Borneo and our latest humanitarian visit returned in August 2018 from Costa Rica.

Performing and visual arts are a strength with regular multimedia exhibitions, drama, music and dance productions. Our sports facilities are excellent and support a full range of individual and team sports and our students have enjoyed particular success in racket sports over recent years. Our current push is to become a centre of STEM excellence in the local authority.

General Information

Our Stratton catchment area incorporates the town of Biggleswade and a number of small villages in the Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire countryside.

Biggleswade lies on the A1 and mainline railway, making it an ideal town for commuting into London (35 min to King's Cross). Other centres of employment include Cambridge, Bedford, Stevenage, Milton Keynes and Peterborough. Each of these towns and cities are accessible within 45 min travel time from Biggleswade. Employment in Biggleswade has traditionally been in market gardening and engineering. Both these industries still have a presence in the area, but are no longer the significant employers they once were.

Biggleswade is set to expand over the coming years. Population is expected to rise by at least 25% and we are already seeing significant economic investment in the town. Biggleswade has been featured in a number of national newspapers as the place to live, combining with its strong communication links, reasonable house prices and of course, good schools!

The school is ready for an expected expansion in numbers due to these demographic changes. Our new science centre was opened in September 2017 and has provided the additional 13 classrooms needed.

The welfare and well-being of all members of our community is of central importance and we expect staff, pupils and students to give high priority to the needs of others and their development. The school is known for its strong pastoral care and support for students with special educational needs and disabilities.

We aspire to be a school where learning is fun and fosters the joy of learning within the boundaries of good order and discipline.

Staff Development

Stratton Upper School places a great deal of emphasis on the continual development of its colleagues. We are an outward facing school and play a significant role in the following organisations:

The Biggleswade Community Union of Schools (BCUS) an association of all education providers in our area dedicated to developing seamless education provision from ages 0 to 19;

Central Bedfordshire Upper Schools Heads Group;

Redborne Teaching School;

The Academy of Central Bedfordshire, an alternative provision free school established by the Central Bedfordshire Upper Schools;

Cambridge University Department of Education;

Colleagues expect to engage in professional development through a mixture of school-based training, addressing holistic priorities and an individual assessment of needs.