Welcome

Swakeleys is a really special place – visitors always tell us about the family feel of the school and talk about how incredible and impressive our students are – we are so proud of them!

We work incredibly hard to ensure that every child is known as the unique individual that they are. Everyone wants to known and to be celebrated and this is what we work hard to achieve at Swakeleys. We recognise that children have a wealth of experience and interests and work hard as a school to provide a myriad of opportunities for students to shine and feel successful whilst at Swakeleys. Some of the things that make Swakeleys so special are as follows:

• We have an incredibly diverse student body who travel to Swakeleys from a wide geographical area because they want to attend a girls’ school. We celebrate the wide diversity of our school, indeed students and staff chose diversity to be one of our school values.
• We recognise the many barriers that girls and women will face and we provide a safe environment as children grow into adults and over the course of their time with us they are encouraged to think critically and compassionately about the world around them.
• We have a very experienced staff body – many colleagues have only worked at Swakeleys and so know our school community and the craft of teaching incredibly well
• We have an extensive pastoral team to support children as they manage the bumps in the road that inevitably occur when going through the teenage years – this includes a bespoke counselling service provided by the Place2Be charity, home school liaison and pastoral staff available throughout the day to support the children
• We are an inclusive school and welcome all students of all abilities and we support them to achieve their very best. We have an experienced and extensive special needs team including provision for students who benefit from being taught in a more creative way/setting
• We have highly effective systems that show us how everyone is feeling at school – benchmarked surveys for students, parents and staff and this shows us our many strengths and the areas that need to continue to be a focus for us
• We are lucky to have a modern building and facilities with extensive grounds for the students to enjoy and to play in
• We are committed to providing opportunities for students to enjoy themselves whether through being involved in trips, clubs, visits, sporting events, being part of the glee club or the school production
• We know that part of our purpose is to ensure our students can progress on to follow their passion whether that be through attending University/undertaking an apprenticeship or starting work and we have an extensive programme of careers guidance and support including real experience of the world of work. This give our students confidence in their abilities when they do move on to further training or to a work place
• We know that in an increasingly polarised world it is important to listen and to be heard. We have a real focus on oracy – in the classroom and through our extensive student leadership opportunities and school council. We know that our girls love to talk and we love to hear what they have to say!
• We know that you will need qualifications in subjects you are passionate about in order to be successful. We are so proud of our broad curriculum offer and the fact that our students are learning Physics, Psychology, Food Technology, Dance, Music, Further Maths and Triple Science – and because they can study the subjects that make their heart sing they do brilliantly – our results at GCSE and A level are in the top 20% of schools in the country
• We know it’s important to be able to focus on your learning and when you visit our school you will see that students are concentrating and are able to learn without distraction – students only have one chance at education and it is our privilege to provide it to them.

Thank you for reading about Swakeleys!