May I welcome you as a visitor to our website whether you are a parent, student, professional colleague or a member of our local community.

On 1 August 2015, we launched ourselves as The Bicester School, part of the highly regarded Activate Learning group, an educational provider which includes FE colleges, UTCs, a studio school and two 11-18 secondary schools.

Previously known as Bicester Community College, we have been working relentlessly to build a strong reputation for excellence in all we do. Parents and students think of us as a school that will go the extra mile to ensure success for its students. For example, we run a Saturday School every fortnight which is open to any of our Year 11s to complete additional work or revise areas that they might be struggling in.

Our school motto is ‘Aspire and Achieve’. By this we simply mean that we want all of our students to have ambition for their futures and be determined, curious and resilient in all they do. If we can encourage and promote these attitudes then with the support of parents and teachers they will undoubtedly achieve academic success.

After achieving a rating of Good in every category in our Ofsted inspection in May 2014, we went on to achieve another ‘Good’ rating in a further Ofsted inspection in June 2018. In March 2024, the school achieved it’s best ever Ofsted grade with ‘Good’ in every category and the 6^th form being cited as a huge strength of the school.

We take a real professional pride in all we do. We are keen to equip our students for the future world. Our young people are living in a competitive society where both qualifications and personal qualities matter. Universities and employers are increasingly looking for young people with integrity and ambition who are superb team players and have leadership potential. It is a world of incredible opportunity, not least in the fields of science and technology where there are still huge skills gaps across our country and beyond.

Our staff are committed and passionate about their work. A number of them are new to the school and many have given great service over a number of years. We share a common philosophy of education: the core belief that every student is of equal value and has the right to learn in a calm, disciplined, purposeful and safe environment so that all can achieve to their maximum potential. Teaching and learning is at the heart of this. Good and great teaching in every classroom on every day of the week: developing students’ passion, interest and curiosity for all subjects, not just the ones they naturally like or shine in. A love of core subjects such as English, maths and science but also foundation subjects such as languages, art, music, history, computing and geography. If we can develop this interest and love for learning then exam success will certainly follow and students will achieve beyond their target grades.

It is not just our staff who are responsible for developing this interest in learning but at a fundamental level our students must have a positive attitude of wanting to give their personal best in every lesson, even when the learning is sometimes hard and challenging. A determination to succeed and a willingness to meet new challenges are important qualities for success in life. On a practical level, it also means having a very good attendance record, completing all classwork and ensuring that all homework is finished on time to a high standard. To this end, we will not allow our students to accept anything but the best for themselves. If they fall behind in their work, we will ensure that they catch up and are supported to do so in extra lessons, clubs and sessions before school, at lunchtimes and after school. Of course, we greatly value our parents’ support in this important work and realise the profound and important impact that parents have on their children’s aspirations, attitudes and achievements. Working in partnership with our parents is central to our mission here at The Bicester School and we are keenly building this through our ‘parent voice‘.

I trust this website will give you a flavour of some of the work here at The Bicester School. If you would like to visit us, or indeed are interested in working at the school we welcome visitors at any time of the year and would be delighted to meet you.

Best wishes,

Tony Rushworth
Headteacher