Local MP Maria Miller visited Brighton Hill School to meet members of the School Council & to hear more about the possible Academisation of the school following a strong Ofsted report.
Maria said, “I want all schools in Basingstoke to be ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’, it's great to see Brighton Hill School is now ‘Good’ with three ‘Outstanding’ elements, demonstrating the importance of leadership, hardworking staff, and ethos”.
Led by headteacher Chris Edwards, Brighton Hill School has gone from having 502 pupils in 2017 to now having 1210 pupils in 2023.
Maria added, "From this very positive position it is interesting to hear that the school is currently in a consultation period, considering joining the South Farnham Education Trust, as their lead secondary school."
Chris Edwards said, “This relationship with South Farnham would bring enormous opportunities for our school and for the wider community. We already lead on training for Early Career Teachers in the region and will be looking forward to working collaboratively with SFET and the existing BASCITT to bring a new dimension of Initial Teacher Training to Brighton Hill and the wider area. A major positive for us is that many new opportunities would be created for our current staff, which would ensure teacher retention at the school. The aspiration is to be the best school in the county, and beyond, and the centre of early career teacher training in Hampshire”.
Meeting some of the pupils Maria also discussed local issues that the children were concerned about. The importance of a aving Old Down Woodland Park, the need ti reduce the number of trees cut down and the large amount of new houses being built across Basingstoke were hot topics of discussion.
Maria said, “All the pupils were already forming great plans for their futures, including working in animal health, performing arts, dance and studying higher level courses at college”.
