HARROW WAY CELEBRATES SPECIALIST SUCCESS (Statement to the press)
We are all thrilled to announce that we have been designated as a Specialist School in Mathematics and Computing with effect from September 2008. 

This will be a huge boost for our entire school community, helping us to drive up standards still further, right across the curriculum and not just in the Specialist subjects. 

Harrow Way already has a very high profile in the local community and our Specialist Status will give us the impetus to build increasingly strong links with the wider community which we serve.  This is great news for education in the Andover area.

Our Mission Statement is “Learning for Life, Success for All” and this vision resonates completely with all that we want to achieve by becoming a Specialist Maths and Computing School.  We consulted very widely before choosing our areas of Specialism and our expertise and leadership in these two subjects in particular will enable us to contribute to the long term employability and aspirations of members of the community.

Constructing a complex and competitive Specialist Application takes many hundreds of hours and whilst recognising the team effort that characterises so much of our work here at Harrow Way, I would like to pay special tribute to Tony Parsons, one of our Assistant Headteachers, for his huge commitment as the Lead writer of our Application.

Our success as a Maths and Computing Specialist School follows a series of recent successes of which we are extremely proud.  For example, we were delighted to learn last summer that we have been awarded the prestigious Artsmark Gold Award by the Arts Council of Great Britain. This recognises our excellent provision and expertise in the performing and creative arts. 

Also, our GCSE results last summer were the best in the history of the school with an unprecedented 54% of students gaining 5 good GCSEs.  Compared with the figure of 31% three year’s ago, this represents a massive 74% improvement in our students examination performance.   

Last month the Government’s Contextual Value Added (CVA) tables were published.  CVA is a measure of the progress that students make throughout their school career and creates a level playing field between all schools regardless of the abilities of their intake.  On this scale, widely accepted as being a truly fair system, we were delighted to discover that out of the 71 secondary schools in Hampshire, Harrow Way has moved up some 40 places during recent years to 19th position, outperforming every other school in the immediate area, even many of those known to have very successful reputations and which have therefore been attracting students away from the Andover area.

We recognise that there is always work to do in creating a cycle of continuous improvement in the provision of first class education and opportunities for the young people and wider community, to whom we are totally committed.  Nevertheless, our recent successes and now our Specialist School Status represent huge leaps forward in making Harrow Way Community School the obvious first choice for our families in and around Andover. 

Visitors to the school are always extremely welcome and if any reader would like to receive a conducted tour of the school, please contact the Headteacher’s secretary, Mrs Helen Vanderplank, on 01264 364533 or at adminoffice@harrowway.hants.sch.uk

Use the following link for a printable copy Statement to the press

Please use the following link to view a copy of the letter sent home to parents.  Specialist School Designation letter home

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