The Purbeck School

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR APPLICANTS

The Purbeck School is a very successful school, currently celebrating a highly impressive Progress Eight score at GCSE, with last year’s Year 13 students also attaining record-breaking results. Once again our students have gone on to study Medicine, Law, Physics and English Literature (to name but a few) at universities including Oxford and many other Russell Group establishments, whilst others have secured highly competitive places on Higher Level Apprenticeships with companies such as JP Morgan and QinetiQ.

Location

The Purbeck School is located in a highly desirable area in which to live and work. The school itself is situated in Wareham, a Saxon-walled market town in the central southern area of Dorset known as the Isle of Purbeck. It is a gateway town to the World Heritage designated Jurassic Coast that stretches south west from Swanage to East Devon. We are on the edge of Dorset’s wonderful Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and adjacent to Poole Harbour, the world’s second largest natural harbour.

Our 1000 students mostly come from the towns of Wareham and Swanage, both tourist and commercial centres, and the neighbouring villages of East and West Lulworth, Corfe Castle, Wool, Bovington and Studland. It is a predominantly rural area of some 200 square miles. The Winfrith Technology Centre, and extensive army garrisons at Bovington and Lulworth, are all nearby. The towns of Poole, Bournemouth and Dorchester are within easy reach by car, train or bus and offer good cultural, shopping and sporting facilities.

The School

The school has recently undergone a significant £8.5 million building development. As a result, much of the existing school has been transformed and we now boast a new Design Technology block, a suite of highly impressive Science laboratories, an excellent new Learning Resource Centre, a brand new café and canteen and a state of the art Sixth Form Centre. Indeed, all school accommodation is new or has been refurbished recently.

Our ICT network currently comprises over 350 networked computers located around the school and in our excellent Learning Resources Centre. All staff have their own laptop computers and a wireless network covers the whole site, allowing sixth form students to access the school network with their own devices.

An outstanding on-site sports centre with a sports hall, bar, floodlit all-weather tennis courts and astro pitches, gym, dance facilities, squash courts and a six-lane, heated indoor swimming pool is shared with the local community.

The school has a largely comprehensive rural intake. Our roll includes around 200 in the Sixth Form. Staff turnover is low.

Leadership and Management

The school’s Senior Leadership Team comprises the Headteacher, a Deputy Head, five Assistant Heads and the School Business Director.

The school is organised into 8 curriculum areas and we offer wide choice and diversity. Our curriculum is rich and we provide a wide range of learning opportunities in a variety of contexts through both the formal curriculum and the extra-curricular programme.

The Governing Body meet termly, as do their sub-committees for Finance, Teaching & Learning, Pay & HR, Student Development and Chairs’.

Pastoral Care and SEN

We are committed to providing an inclusive education for all of our students and work closely with the range of education support services. In addition to excellent SEN provision we provide outstanding on-site provision for students at risk of disengagement and share a full time youth worker with the youth centre.

The school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We enjoy accredited Healthy Schools’ Status and are a completely non-smoking site.

A well-established pastoral care system, based upon our four houses of Swift, Skylark, Kestrel and Kingfisher, provides many opportunities for students to develop their leadership skills and also forms the basis for our healthily competitive academic, sporting and cultural competitions. Students are part of a same-year tutor group, with each belonging to one particular house.

Achievement

As you will see from our examination results, we continue to work hard to improve progress and achievement at The Purbeck School. In the summer of 2015 we became one of the few secondary schools in England (and only the second in Dorset) to gain the prestigious NACE Challenge Award for the teaching of able students, reflecting our commitment to providing excellent opportunities for every student, regardless of their prior attainment. Similarly, The Purbeck School invests heavily in professional development to continually improve practice and are looking to appoint teachers who share this same aspiration and potential.