Welcome to our school
Welcome to the Harrow Way Community School website, and thank you for showing interest in our school. We are very proud of Harrow Way and we hope that we have conveyed something of its qualities on this website. We hope that we have provided the information you require but if there is anything else you need to know please feel free to telephone or email the school.
Whatever our students aspire to be, we are here to support them. We value each of them, not just for who they are but also for what they can become. Ambitious for them, we challenge them to aim for careers of significance, influence and service, gaining the results needed to work at the best colleges, universities and companies. But we also want them to live lives that are personally enriched and fulfilled and that is why we also seek to develop in them a love of the arts, culture, sport, public service, charity and community involvement.
We believe that every student can succeed, every single one of them without exception, as long as they’re given the right spark to ignite their passion. We also believe that students should enjoy their time at school; that enjoyment is the basis of success. We see it as our task to draw out of them all that is good within them: their personal qualities, their interests and their talents. None of them should leave school without knowing what their talents are, without achieving something significant with these talents while they’re with us and without a clear pathway to show how they can further develop them when they leave us so they can find success and fulfilment in their lives.
All of this is possible because of the quality of our staff. Our most recent Ofsted report praised the quality of teaching and learning. What you’ll find here at Harrow Way are teachers who love their subject, who love teaching it and who want students to love it too. They’re ready to show them the beauty of art, music and literature, the excitement of sport and drama, the possibilities of technology, computing and design, the magic of science, the power of language and number, the wonders of our world and the mysteries of the past.
We believe in equality of opportunity and want you to be able to participate fully whenever you visit the school. Please let us know beforehand of any special arrangements that may need to be in place for this to be the case. We have two designated parking bays for disabled people; one at the main reception and one near the exit gate.
Pupils feel safe and know that they have someone to talk to at school if they are worried.
Pupils say that bullying is not tolerated. Pupils are very well cared for.
Behaviour in lessons is very positive. Pupils listen to the teacher and support each other with learning.
Pupils’ conduct around the school is very good. They are sensible and polite.
Pupils enjoy attending school. Staff have high expectations for all.
The school encourages pupils to ‘Be ready, be respectful and be their best‘.
The wider personal development of pupils is exceptional.
Differences are respected.
Pastoral support is a strength of the school.
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A dedicated staff led by an exceptional Headteacher.
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Harrow Way continues to be a good school
with many outstanding features.
Headteacher Introduction
I am so proud to be the headteacher of this happy and successful school. An ethos of high standards and high expectations underpins everything that we do. We work hard to create a caring and challenging learning environment where every individual discovers their self-worth.
At Harrow Way, we are unashamedly ambitious for our school and our students, and we make no apology for this. We hold a strong belief in the power of education to change children’s lives and the right of every child to receive an excellent education. Our students are valued as individuals and encouraged to develop their talents to the full in a community where effort as well as achievement is celebrated.
We believe that our students should leave us with life-changing qualifications. We do this by offering a broad, knowledge-rich curriculum and a caring, supportive learning environment. By the time they leave Harrow Way, we want our students to acquire the skills and attributes needed to live and work in our global society, including the values and morals to be good citizens. Most importantly, it is our mission to educate and inspire our students today so that they may achieve their dreams tomorrow.
Working with valued partnerships in our feeder primary schools and Higher Education institutions, education is very much a life-long journey.
We offer our students the most richly personalised education we can:
I very much look forward to welcoming you to our school.
Mrs DL German
Our Vision:
"Learning for Life - Success for all"
At Harrow Way Community School, we have a simple ambition: to be the finest secondary school for miles around.
By this we mean that all our students will receive a better education at Harrow Way than they would at any other local establishment.
We want Harrow Way students to leave us with:
In the Footsteps of Kings
The ‘Harrow Way’
The oldest road in Britain!
The Harrow Way, from which our school derives its name, is one of the oldest roads in Britain. Originating as a Neolithic trackway, that includes the ceremonial avenue leading to Stonehenge, it crossed almost the entirety of Southern Britain.
The very name “Harrow Way” speaks of the great antiquity of this trackway. The name may derive from herewag, a military road, or har, which in Old Saxon meant “ancient, old or venerable”. Another suggestion for the name comes from heargway, meaning the road to the shrine (a possible reference to Stonehenge). Whatever the origin of the name, this ancient road carried pilgrims and travellers from Dover to Devon. Stone Age farmers trekked to Woodhenge to make sacrifices in the hope of securing a good harvest. Cornish tin went east along the Harrow Way for export to continental Europe.
The Romans came and built the Portway linking their Ermin Way to the Harrow Way and building a camp at Anton while they were here. The Viking King of Denmark converted to Christianity in Andover and carried that religion back to Scandinavia. The Witan or Saxon Parliament met in Andover and it is possibly no coincidence that the Anglo-Norman execution site at Weyhill (under the carpark at Aldi) would have had its gibbet visible from the Harrow Way.
From Medieval merchants fleeing the Black Death through to Puritan Roundheads on their way to the Battle of Cheriton, what the Harrow Way does is remind us that Andover has long been connected to often momentous historical events.
As we walk into school every morning we are indeed walking in the footsteps of our ancestors.
