School Information
Hello and welcome to the Park High School website.
Park High is a vibrant and a successful school and we have a long tradition, having opened back to 1939. I hope when you look through this website you’ll see that we’re well up to date in all kinds of areas.
We’re very proud of our young people in this school. They are ambitious for themselves and they achieve highly, but they also look out for other people and again as you look through this website I’m sure you will find lots of examples of what they do for others.
If you want more information about the school you can e-mail us or you can call us and if you’d like to visit we’d be very pleased to see you.
About Park High
Park High School is a high achieving mixed comprehensive secondary school for pupils between the ages of 12 and 19 years. From September 2010, we will increase our age range to 11-19, taking in an additional 300 students. We are part of Harrow’s highly successful community of schools and build on the achievements of local first and middle schools with whom we keep close contact.
Park High has a distinctive ethos and is a strong learning community. We combine the best of traditional values with a leading role in important and exciting new developments in education. In particular we stress:
• A working atmosphere. Pupils come to school to learn and it is our job to help them. High achievement is our central aim and we expect all our pupils to try their very best.
• Respect and good manners. These are fundamental to our community. We have high expectations about behaviour, respect, politeness and the consideration which should be shown to others. In this we are both supportive and firm.
• Developing maturity, capability and the power to learn. Our job is to provide the foundations for a successful and happy adult life. Our pupils must leave us not only with good qualifications but also with a wide range of skills to help them in an ever changing world. Learning now continues throughout our lives. We want our pupils to be highly skilled learners, able to make the most of opportunities as they arise. We value responsibility, initiative and enterprise and build these into our curriculum.
We are a very focused school, clear about our purposes. Our school principles can be read in the next section and we welcome discussion on how these are put into practice in our curriculum and in the everyday life of the school. Parents’ views matter.
Qualifications, of course, are vitally important and our examination results speak for themselves. But we are also proud of all the other ways in which our pupils achieve to a high standard, for example in the arts and sports.
And the future? You will find Park High confident and optimistic, but certainly not complacent! We are confident in our pupils, our staff, our achievements and reputation. We became a Beacon School in September 2001 and a Technology College in September 2002. In 2003 we became one of the very first Leading Edge Schools and this status has recently been renewed because of our excellent examination results and overall first class track record in a wide variety of areas not commonly seen in schools. In 2003 we were awarded ‘Pathfinder’ status for our work on the 14-19 curriculum. We are constantly updating our specialist facilities, particularly for ICT and science, and further new buildings opened for our Sixth Form in September 2009. Park High was last inspected by Ofsted in 2009, who confirmed our view that this is an outstanding school.
We have been awarded the highly prestigious ‘Charter Mark’ on three occasions.
This is awarded to schools and other organisations which can prove they have a high quality of service. ‘Investors in People’ status has been awarded and re-awarded to Park High on five occasions since 1996 and shows the commitment we have to the training of our staff. And in 2005 and again, in 2009, we were presented with the ‘Healthy School’ award, which tells parents a lot about our commitment to healthy living for young people.
Our new Sixth Form opened in September 2007 and offers exciting and extensive new opportunities for young people. Please see our Sixth Form site for further information.
Our examination results are always among the best in the Borough. Over the past four years, they have continued, year on year to set new highs. In 2009, they were our best ever. We are optimistic we can build on our successes and preserve those aspects of the school we value. At the same time clearly there are many challenges ahead. Complacency has no room at Park High.