Woolmer Hill School

Proud to belong – Proud to achieve

“Pupils are overwhelmingly respectful and polite”

“There is a happy atmosphere in this school. Staff know pupils well and care about them. Relationships are overwhelmingly positive. The values of ‘proud to belong, proud to achieve’ are reflected in pupils’ behaviour generally and in how they approach their work.”

OFSTED, January 2023

Woolmer Hill is a successful 11-16 mixed comprehensive academy based on a wonderful 25-acre site on the outskirts of Haslemere on the Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire borders. The school attracts students from a wide area including Thursley, Grayshott, Beacon Hill, Chiddingfold, Grayswood, Hindhead, Liphook, Churt, and Farnham, as well as Haslemere itself. We are a growing, over-subscribed and friendly school with a strong and supportive community spirit and inclusive ethos. We have high expectations of all members of our school community.

We have an inclusive approach to educating the whole person, based upon an ethos of mutual respect and active involvement in all aspects of school life. We believe that all members of our school community should be challenged to achieve their full potential. We place a great deal of emphasis on developing independent, life-long learners and work closely with our post-16 partners to ensure that our students have the qualities necessary to succeed in post-16 settings and beyond to university and the workplace. Our students are a wonderful group of young people to work with.

It is important to us that the views and contributions of our students are valued and that they are involved in decisions that affect their school. We have an active House Council and student leadership group, who meet regularly to discuss whole-school matters or to lead their own projects.

We have a House system with four houses, through which we encourage competition in a wider variety of academic, sporting and fun competitions each term. The Houses are led by staff House Leaders with student House Captains, which affords another great opportunity for student leadership.

We make maximum use of the exceptional resources available to us on the site, including our 25 acre grounds and The Edge sports centre with its large multi-purpose sports’ hall and two flood lit all-weather pitches.

Since April 2017, we have been a member of the Weydon Multi Academy Trust (WMAT), which provides many opportunities for students and staff to collaborate. Please see the WMAT staff prospectus for more details.

We are also an active member of the Waverley Federation, which includes ourselves, Broadwater, Glebelands and Rodborough schools working in partnership with Godalming College. This partnership allows our students to access a range of vocationally related courses at KS4 that the Federation procures from a number of different centres. The Waverley Federation also supports students in Key Stages 3 and 4 through the Aspire project. This is a project that is intended to support students who struggle with the demands of full-time school-based programmes and offers a range of courses and experiences aimed at supporting them to integrate back into mainstream education later in their educational careers.

We offer a wide range of subjects taught by specialist teachers with specialist resources. We organize our curriculum in order to maximise opportunities for our students and ensure a broad and balanced three-year KS3 curriculum. We are organised on a faculty basis with English, Mathematics, and Science at the core. The vast majority of our Year 11 students continue with full-time education at Sixth Form level, with many going to Godalming College and other students pursue their studies at various other colleges in the local area.

The staff are the most important resource in any school, at Woolmer Hill we have an excellent staff team, and both teachers and associate staff make a valuable contribution to the life of the school. The quality of teaching is very good and we work hard to make the experience for the students in the classroom the best that it can be. Teachers are supported by curriculum support staff and technicians. The Admin team encompasses a broad range of administrative roles that enable us to function efficiently as an Academy without over-burdening teachers with administrative tasks. All staff are generous in their use of free time to support individual students, events and activities outside the classroom.

Surrey schools are well known for their standard of academic excellence. Woolmer Hill is no exception. We are a successful school and achieve very high standards across the board, and with a Progress 8 Score of +0.88 in 2024 we are the top performing 11-16 secondary school in Surrey. We constantly work hard to develop and improve both opportunities and outcomes for all our students. We have high expectations of anyone who joins our team, but are in no doubt that the professional and personal rewards for those who work with our students are many.

Visit our website www.woolmerhill.surrey.sch.uk for more information or visit us to see the school in action.

“One parent described the school as having ‘a family approach’, a view mirrored by staff and students during the inspection”

OFSTED, January 2023