MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

BET continues to go from strength to strength. Wokingham’s first Ofsted Report last term was very pleasing, with Good overall and Outstanding judgement on leadership and management, personal development and pupil welfare. For a new school, this is a major achievement; the staff have laid solid foundations over the last four years for the first cohort’s GCSE exams next summer.

The Trustees and I are delighted with this year’s GCSE results. As a whole, the Trust continues to outperform the national picture, demonstrating particular strength in core areas such as English and Maths. Many students from all of our schools had superb results, with several gaining more than 8 GCSEs at grades 7 to 9, and more than 25% of all grades achieved being grade 7 and above. All this against a background of major changes to the individual course curricula, a totally different grading scheme and a harder marking regime!

Worthing’s first cohort to take GCSEs produced a set of results that are the best in the town, for which many congratulations. A gratifying and very positive confirmation of the Ofsted judgement last September that the “quality of teaching… interested and motivated students.”

As always, Liphook and TPS continue to provide outstanding education in depth and breadth, confirming their positions as the schools of choice for East Hampshire and further afield.

Mention must be made of the amazing results from Liphook’s Year 9 CLiL Mandarin entrants, 100% of whom achieved grades 5 to 9 (96% grades 7 to 9) – particularly impressive considering that they took these exams two years earlier than normal!

Since joining the Trust in 2014, Priory results have continued to improve, with five pupils this year achieving an impressive 9 GCSEs at grades 7 to 9.

Costello School achieved record results, being some 7% above those of last year. The changes brought about by the new leadership team will consolidate and improve upon this base to the benefit of pupils going forward.

Liphook’s first Sixth Form cohort also produced excellent A-Level results, with 88% of all grades being at A*-C, a performance surpassing that of the two main local Sixth Form Colleges. This is a tribute to the efforts of both the pupils and teachers, underlining further the benefits of the collaboration between Liphook and TPS to provide the very best teaching at this tertiary level. Recruitment into the new Year 12 has reached another high, due to the growing reputation of Liphook as a Sixth Form provider, coupled with these excellent results. All pupils were enabled to join their desired courses for the next stage of their education, including several students who are proceeding to Oxbridge places, as well many others joining other prestigious Universities.

In May, following an enormous amount of work by Georgette Ayling and her (then!) small team, supported by the Trust central staff, the DfE approved all the facilities, curricula and plans for the new Free School for Bohunt Horsham. As the Trust was asked only last December to open the Horsham school in September 2019 (a year earlier than our original plan), this Ready to Open approval is an amazing achievement. Partly as a result of this, Georgette and I (as Chair of the Trust) were invited to a special networking event in the House of Commons early in July. Bohunt Horsham has now opened with a full roll in Year 7 in its temporary accommodation, and we look forward to the transfer to their new permanent school in September 2021.

Welcome to the Achieve issue of Better Times – the final element of the ERA trilogy - it is almost as if it was planned to coincide with a summer of record breaking successes!

At the time of writing term is just beginning across our schools and it is always wonderful to see so many smartly dressed, relaxed and happy people, and that is just the staff, eager to face the challenges and opportunities a new academic year brings.

I would like to convey my thanks and gratitude to all teachers and support staff who have given so much to ensure the many tremendous successes of our ‘Class of 2019’. Inaugural public examination results at Bohunt School Worthing and Bohunt Sixth have set the bar high for the cohorts which follow, several schools and many subject areas have recorded their best ever results and estimated Progress 8 scores for many have also improved from last year. Already high standards have been maintained or exceeded.

As the historians among us will be aware, when planning for the future, we forget the past at our peril. I fully endorse the Chairman’s message of congratulations for the very many individual and collective successes of this summer’s A Level and GCSE results. There is undeniably good cause for celebration. However, there remains a group of pupils in our schools for whom we must all continue to do everything in our power to improve their life-chances and outcomes.

The Virtual School has been created to help us all do better for those children from disadvantaged backgrounds and I am convinced that as a collective, we have the passion, determination and mind-set to ensure that these students continue to close the gap with their more privileged peers.

The considerable investment in Lexia PowerUp across the BET for all of our new year 7 promises much in our drive to improve literacy for all. The research is indeed compelling, as is the centrality of high quality teaching and learning in our schools. Our Trust Subject Directors and Coordinators are working hard