The Hurst School

About the school

The Hurst is a thriving mixed 11 – 16 comprehensive school of approximately 1000 pupils. Our catchment covers the small town of Tadley and surrounding villages, although due to our strong reputation, 25% of our roll comes from out of catchment by choice.

Currently we employ 62 teachers and 36 support staff (full and part-time). Staff turnover is exceptionally low since colleagues enjoy working with us, citing a friendly atmosphere, flexibility of approach and a highly supportive SLT as key factors for them. There is a good balance between those new to teaching and those with more experience. A well-developed Performance Management system is in operation and the school places high quality staff development at the centre of its approach.

Our most recent Ofsted inspection in March 2019 classified us as a ‘Good’ school: ‘‘Leaders have worked well together to create an inclusive and celebratory culture evident throughout the school’’; ‘’Pupils are well behaved, confident and articulate’’; ’’The values of ambition, commitment, excellence and respect….are shared by all’’.

Central to our respectful and caring ethos is a ‘vertical’ pastoral system based around four House groups. There are 40 tutor groups of approximately 25 pupils in each. The key role of the form tutor and the associated personalisation of approach have resulted in significant recent improvements in attendance rates and lowered exclusions.

We are proud of our community status, the site being a natural hub for our catchment. This adds extra facilities to accommodate evening and weekend lettings, adult education, sport and leisure facilities and a day nursery/after school childcare (with attractively discounted rates for staff). Our school is thus open seven days a week from 7.00am–10.30pm.

Further details are available on our website – www.hurst.hants.sch.uk.