About Our School
Chessington School is a high performing mixed secondary school and sixth form that keeps all children at our very centre. We believe that every child can achieve great things when supported by excellent teachers, a challenging curriculum and engaged families.
Everyone at Chessington is Valued. We care deeply about our students and our staff. We do all we can to ensure each child is known, that they are happy, and they make progress in their learning based on our knowledge of how they best learn. We are highly inclusive and very successful with students that are on track for Oxbridge or those that need significant support from our excellent team. This is our first promise.
Every day at Chessington is an Opportunity.
Our school operates for 32.5 hours a week. Our children can be as busy at seven in the morning trampolining, running or preparing for their day ahead as they may be at five thirty in the afternoon at subject booster sessions, basketball or at science club. School is more than just lessons, it’s a journey of many memories. Lessons, most importantly, are great opportunities for knowledge, critical thinking and personal development. We expect our students to take full advantage of all of these opportunities. This is our second promise.
Every moment at Chessington is focused on success. Results are not the only thing that matters, but they do matter. They are the doorway to life chances and so every moment at Chessington we seek opportunities to ensure excellent academic outcomes. We are forensic in our monitoring, rigorous in our support and relentless in driving our students to achieve more than they believe they could. Irrespective of prior learning and results, we make great academic progress with our students. Our third promise.
21st Century School
Our 21st Century environment and beautiful atrium ensure we can have an agile approach to learning for groups of 3 to 500. Such facilities give students and teachers the resources they need to be creative and to learn in a variety of ways that suit their need. Cutting-edge facilities enable our students to engage with the most up-to-date developments in learning technology. We actively embrace online learning, app-based investigation and digital resource creation. As well as our sports and learning facilities ensure students can be prepared for the 21st century in every element of their learning.
Our students
Every student, from year 7 to year 13, is known, and their individuality is valued. Students’ potential will be stretched through a broad and innovative curriculum provision, high-quality teaching and setting our aspirational targets against the top 20% of schools nationally. Student voice is hugely important. The School Council is run by the student body, is closely involved in the school’s development, including our future planning so that leadership is dispersed across the student body. We believe that every big decision needs to have student voice as part of it. It’s their school.
Our community
We may not have the word community in our school name any more, but trust us, this school is centred around our community and we do so very much to ensure every person is proud of their community. All students and members of staff contribute to a thriving and caring community within and beyond the school. We are a busy school offering a wide range of extracurricular activities and opportunities before, during and after school, as well as in the holidays. Many of these are linked to our locality, where we work in partnership with primary schools, sports clubs and community groups. For example, the establishment of Piglets Nursery on our site has enabled our students to work with children from this excellent nursery and get a really broad education as a result. At the other end of the scale, we work with local old people and dementia homes. We believe that it takes a village to bring up a child and so want all to be involved as much as possible. Accountability to each other is important and all are expected to participate. Our diversity makes us a great community. We commit to developing students’ potential as healthy, well-balanced, informed citizens who respect one another. Most importantly we want our students to contribute each day to make our school and local community a better place.
Our parents
We believe that teachers and parents need to work closely together and take equal responsibility for the young people in our school. We encourage and expect a partnership between home and school so that every student feels supported both academically and in their personal development. Parents are closely involved in the school’s development through our active Parents’ Association and Parent Evenings. We value the contribution that parents and carers make to the life of the school and welcome opportunities to develop this further. We expect parents to act as critical friends as well as ensuring their child is suitably prepared each day for the learning journey and the opportunities ahead of them that day.
The wider world
Every child leaves Chessington with a suitable next opportunity. Normally further study on to A Levels or College but sometimes work or apprenticeships. The important thing is that they are prepared. In this rapidly changing world, we aim to equip our students with the skills necessary to adapt and develop as individuals: social, flexible, creative and co-operative. We have links across the world, including South East Asia, Africa and Europe. At Chessington, we maximise the opportunities that are on offer to students and the community as a whole. We believe travel breaks down barriers and changes lives and so are committed to ensuring our students get the opportunity to see the world.
Reaching great heights
Chessington School is proud to have a curriculum that enables students to reach the very highest heights in terms of academic grades and progress. Over the last few of years, we have had students who have performed in the top 2% of all students nationally hitting the highest Grades be it A*s or 9s across the board. We do this by boosting their learning with inspirational and challenging teaching but also by teaching them to be agile of mind and creative of thought. This means extra boosters for high-level analysis combined with facilitating their extra independent study to ensure they are able to compete with the very best students nationally. If your child has aspirations for the very best universities our challenging curriculum extra guidance and enhanced extracurricular programmes such as Latin and Critical Thinking will accelerate their journey. However, not all students join with the highest academic outcomes from primary school and many join with a challenge to their learning. For these students we do incredibly well both academically and ensuring they are ready for the wider world.
We are so very proud of how well these students do, and we take this as our greatest success. Our progress outcomes for those students who have previously struggled or have some unique needs are in the top 10% nationally over the last two years. How do we do that? We put them on the right path, with the right teachers, the right curriculum and the right level of support. We never ever give up on these students and go above and beyond for every child every day to do their very best.
We are proud of our school. Don’t just take these words, come and visit us yourself. We look forward to meeting you.
If you would like to visit Chessington School, please email csapsed1@chessington.kingston.sch.uk