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Home > About Our School
About Our School
 St. Bartholomew's School was founded in 1466 and is proud of its excellent heritage and traditions. It is now a thriving 11-18 comprehensive school of 1,650 students, with a Sixth Form of over 420, serving Newbury and a wide area of West Berkshire and the Hampshire/Wiltshire borders.
 The school is highly successful academically. Each year many students are Oxbridge candidates, a good number obtaining places. The 2011 Sutton Trust Report listed St. Bartholomew’s as one of the most successful comprehensives in the UK, in terms of students going on to top universities. At GCSE, the breadth and quality of the curriculum offer is reflected in the new English Baccalaureate measure, which recognises our students’ achievements as being in the top 4% in the country.
The school was designated a Business & Enterprise college in 2002; enterprise activities characterise the school, providing opportunities for creativity and skills development, in a range of contexts.Partnership work was identified as being an outstanding feature of St. Bartholomew’s by Ofsted. In addition to our work with primary partner schools and businesses, we have forged links with schools in China, Germany, Spain and France for foreign exchange visits; we also have a link with George Green’s School in Tower Hamlets and one as far afield as the Free Pentecostal Mission Academy in Sierra Leone.
In September 2011, St. Bartholomew’s gained Academy status; this was a natural extension of the school having been Grant Maintained and having enjoyed Foundation status previously. Becoming an academy will help the school to continue to offer the best possible provision to meet students’ needs.
St. Bartholomew’s was chosen by West Berkshire Council to benefit from a multi million pound investment of central Government funding for redevelopment in 2008. The school moved into its new, environmentally friendly accommodation at the beginning of November 2010. The superb new building reflects the importance of the House system, with House blocks, sited around a covered outdoor Hub space which is large enough to accommodate whole school assemblies.
The new school buildings include outstanding teaching facilities: drama and dance studios, extensive music practice rooms, IT and media suites, specialist design technology rooms and well equipped laboratories. Sports provision is exceptional including a multi- purpose sports hall, with indoor cricket nets, a well equipped gym, an outdoor synthetic turf pitch, a multi use games area and extensive playing fields.
 The wide range of extra- curricular enrichment offers all students new opportunities for learning and enjoyment. This includes clubs and activities such as debating, equestrian, moth club, craft and horticulture, as well as Chinese and Latin classes and a huge range of activities in music, drama and dance. House competitions and activities involve all students. Sporting traditions are very strong with an exceptional range of sports teams competing successfully at the highest standard.
If you would like to apply for a place at St.Bart's, please contact the school.
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Click Here for the latest Ofsted inspection report. |
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Click Here for an application form for a place in the Sixth Form  PDF (53KB) |
Please Click Here to order a copy of our school prospectus
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