The Cotswold School A GSG School
- The Cotswold School
The Avenue
Bourton-on-the-Water
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire
GL54 2BD - Head: Mr Will Morgan
- T 01451 820554
- F 01451 810658
- E admin@thecotswoldschool.co.uk
- W www.cotswold.gloucs.sch.uk
- A state school for boys and girls aged from 11 to 18.
- Boarding: No
- Local authority: Gloucestershire
- Pupils: 1,422; sixth formers: 287
- Religion: None
- Open days: September open morning and evening visits - see websites for details
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
-
Ofsted:
- Latest Overall effectiveness Outstanding 1
- 16-19 study programmes Outstanding 1
- Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding 1
- 1 Full inspection 18th March 2015
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
What The Good Schools Guide says..
Could so easily be a stale, quiet rural comp yet this vibrant, forward-thinking school constantly pushes itself to meet the diverse needs of its students in ever more imaginative ways. Lively lessons are run by sparky, kindly teachers who work hard at encouraging these youngsters to really engage. We watched a spirited Romeo and Juliet inspired debate comparing drugs and love, while ‘my life as a river’ made for reflective ponderings in a philosophy and ethics class. The winner, though, has to be the Spanish class where...
What the school says...
Highly popular, happy and successful, The Cotswold School consistently appears amongst the country's top state schools at both GCSE and A Level. Judged 'Outstanding' across all categories by Ofsted (2015), The Cotswold School is The Sunday Times Comprehensive School of the Year in the Southwest 2023. In 2022, three quarters of the A-Level grades achieved were at A*, A or B, with just over half of all grades either A* or A, and 94% at A*to C. In GCSEs, 41% of grades achieved were at 9-7, with 83% of students achieving the benchmark of five or more 9-4 grades, including Mathematics and English. The school is known for its highly effective preparation for university education, curriculum enrichment programme and flourishing facilities. ...Read more
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Sports
Unusual sports
Equestrian centre or equestrian team - school has own equestrian centre or an equestrian team.
What The Good Schools Guide says
Principal
Since 2011, Will Morgan BSc NPQH. Born in Wales, the lilt lingers. Born to teach too, something that strikes you at once, in his case vocation being not so much innate as congenital, for his father was also a teacher. Economics degree from Aberystwyth, followed by ‘nearest teacher training opportunity’ in Worcester. Thence to Cheltenham, ‘where I found a girlfriend who settled me down and is now my wife!’ Has been at The Cotswold since 1997 – ‘a quarter of a century!’ Promoted to head of sixth form in 2002. Loves that the school is a ‘true comp’, covering the complete Cotswold spectrum, and that it has only had three heads in its entire history: ‘With every one of us, the school has meant everything.’ So how does he stay motivated? By continually upping...
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Overall school performance (for comparison or review only)
Results by exam and subject
Subject results
Entry/Exit
Special Education Needs
The Cotswold School has a dedicated Special Education Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENCo), a trained team of Teaching Assistants, and a dedicated Inclusion Officer. We value the contribution that every child and young person can make and aim to make all pupils feel valued as individuals. The school seeks to raise achievement, remove barriers to learning and to increase physical and curricular access for all. All children with SEN are valued, respected and equal members of the school. We seek to work closely with pupils and parents, to listen to what they have to tell us and to work together to achieve positive outcomes academically, socially and for life. Most pupils who need additional support are identified in the Year 6/7 transition. The SENCo, Assistant SENCo and the Learning Support team liaise with feeder primary schools and hold individual meetings with parents to listen to their views regarding their child’s needs, and strengths and strategies that have proved successful, in order to gain as clear a picture of the pupil as possible. All the information gathered at transition is used to draw up a pupil profile to inform staff and their planning. On entry in September all Year 7 pupils take a reading and spelling test and use the Accelerated Reading programme. This can help to highlight any pupils where special needs have not previously been recognised. Year 7 pupils also take CATS tests on entry which gives a profile of verbal, non-verbal and quantitative ability, and highlights areas of difficulty. Some pupils are identified as being in need of additional support at a later date when concerns are raised by a parent/carer, by a subject teacher, or by the pupil. We use a range of different screening tools including Dyslexia Portfolio, LUCID RAPID and Dyscalculia Screener. Where necessary the school would seek support and guidance from outside agencies. The Educational Psychologist and the Advisory Teaching Service are involved in training and providing advice for staff as well as NHS specialists such as Speech and Language Therapy.
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
Who came from where
| School | Year | Places |
|---|---|---|
| Pinewood | 2023 | 1 |
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