The Blue School A GSG School
- The Blue School
Kennion Road
Wells
Somerset
BA5 2NR - Head: Mark Woodlock
- T 01749 678799
- F 01749 836215
- E office@thebluesch…ol.somerset.sch.uk
- W www.theblueschoolwells.co.uk
- A state school for boys and girls aged from 11 to 18.
- Boarding: No
- Local authority: Somerset
- Pupils: 1,435; sixth formers: 257
- Religion: Church of England
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
-
Ofsted:
- Latest Overall effectiveness Good 1
- 16-19 study programmes Good 2
- Effectiveness of leadership and management Good 2
- 1 Short inspection 18th May 2023
- 2 Full inspection 17th October 2017
Short inspection reports only give an overall grade; you have to read the report itself to gauge whether the detailed grading from the earlier full inspection still stands.
- Previous Ofsted grade: Good on 23rd October 2013
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
What The Good Schools Guide says..
Work is in hand to make the school more environmentally sustainable, with the lead coming from the unusual 250-person school council, hailed nationally as an example of best practice. Twenty-five council teams raise awareness and funds for what really matters to them, eg Fairtrade, buddying, fitness, cuisine...
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What The Good Schools Guide says
Head
Since September 2017, Mark Woodlock, previously head of Teign School in Newton Abbot.
Entrance
Around 250 a year from local primary schools – mainly from within the city of Wells and surrounding villages. Oversubscribed and estate agents don't help this problem. Worth getting a map of the catchment area from the school.
At sixth form, external candidates need 5 GCSEs at grade 4 or above, including English and maths.
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Overall school performance (for comparison or review only)
Results by exam and subject
Subject results
Entry/Exit
Special Education Needs
All students are encouraged to be as fully integrated into every aspect of the life of the school as possible. To help achieve this, The Blue provides classroom support and individual withdrawal sessions as appropriate. Teachers are also kept informed of particular students' difficulties which, in turn, enables a match between lesson content, teaching approaches and the needs of individuals. Individual Education Plans are used where appropriate to target specific learning or behavioural needs. This may involve one-to-one tuition or group work. Specialist teaching in the department is carried out by appropriately qualified staff. The school welcomes questions parents may have on any aspect of their children's special needs and endeavours to build an effective partnership with the home. The school has a Student Support Centre for pupils with emotional difficulties. The Centre offers a range of creative strategies to enable pupils to be successful in school.
| Condition | Provision for in school |
|---|---|
| ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder | |
| Aspergers | |
| Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders | |
| CReSTeD registered for Dyslexia | |
| Dyscalculia | |
| Dysgraphia | |
| Dyslexia | |
| Dyspraxia | |
| English as an additional language (EAL) | |
| Genetic | |
| Has an entry in the Autism Services Directory | |
| Has SEN unit or class | Y |
| HI - Hearing Impairment | |
| Hospital School | |
| Mental health | |
| MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty | |
| MSI - Multi-Sensory Impairment | |
| Natspec Specialist Colleges | |
| OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability | |
| Other SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | |
| PD - Physical Disability | |
| PMLD - Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty | |
| SEMH - Social, Emotional and Mental Health | |
| SLCN - Speech, Language and Communication | |
| SLD - Severe Learning Difficulty | |
| Special facilities for Visually Impaired | |
| SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | |
| VI - Visual Impairment |
Interpreting catchment maps
The maps show in colour where the pupils at a school came from*. Red = most pupils to Blue = fewest.
Where the map is not coloured we have no record in the previous three years of any pupils being admitted from that location based on the options chosen.
For help and explanation of our catchment maps see: Catchment maps explained
Further reading
If there are more applicants to a school than it has places for, who gets in is determined by which applicants best fulfil the admissions criteria.
Admissions criteria are often complicated, and may change from year to year. The best source of information is usually the relevant local authority website, but once you have set your sights on a school it is a good idea to ask them how they see things panning out for the year that you are interested in.
Many schools admit children based on distance from the school or a fixed catchment area. For such schools, the cut-off distance will vary from year to year, especially if the school give priority to siblings, and the pattern will be of a central core with outliers (who will mostly be siblings). Schools that admit on the basis of academic or religious selection will have a much more scattered pattern.
*The coloured areas outlined in black are Census Output Areas. These are made up of a group of neighbouring postcodes, which accounts for their odd shapes. These provide an indication, but not a precise map, of the school’s catchment: always refer to local authority and school websites for precise information.
The 'hotter' the colour the more children have been admitted.
Children get into the school from here:
regularly
most years
quite often
infrequently
sometimes, but not in this year
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