Welcome from the Head of School
Natalie Chamberlain
Hailsham Community College is an all through school serving 1,500 students in the secondary phase and approximately 300 students in the primary phase. In the early part of 2018, we were approached by the Local Authority to provide a new Primary and Pre-school provision within the town. In September 2019 we opened a brand-new school approximately a mile from the Secondary site, thus extending the designation of the Trust to a 2-19 all-through school.
By way of an introduction, I was appointed as the Head of School for the Secondary phase of Hailsham Community College in June 2023. Having been a part of the Senior Leadership Team since 2014, I am in the unique and privileged position to know our school and community extremely well. I am proud to now be leading our school that serves our vibrant and diverse market town. Our students are amazing young people and deserve the very best education. Whilst the college has experienced a significant period of change and at times turbulence post COVID, we are now on a journey of rapid improvement.
Since our last Ofsted inspection in March 2023, there have been some important changes that have taken place across the secondary phase of the college, including changes to our leadership structure, a revised pastoral structure to ensure we are providing effective support to our students, and a renewed focus on the quality of education and curriculum implementation.
As of September 2023, the college is also being supported by MARK Education Trust, which is formed of two other local schools (Beacon Academy and Uplands Academy). We are choosing to work with MARK Education Trust as both Beacon Academy and Uplands Academy are based in East Sussex and like us, the Trust believes in the importance of schools retaining their unique identity whilst working in partnership. There are many benefits that this will bring to Hailsham Community College, as these links will support us in building on excellent Teaching and Learning throughout the college and will enable us to provide further support for our students as we build capacity and make efficiencies. Our aim is to establish a formal partnership with MARK Education Trust during this academic year.
At Hailsham Community College, we know that relationships between staff, students and our wider community are pivotal to our success. We ask that our staff have high expectations, are ambitious for our students, and that they know them well. We pride ourselves on our rigorous focus on the child as a unique individual, including our most disadvantaged and those with SEND. We want to ensure that the lessons that our students receive are personalised and inclusive, enabling them to be actively engaged in their learning.
We want our students to be happy, successful and confident by providing the best possible education for all our students. Whilst academic success is fundamental, at Hailsham Community College we also realise the importance of supporting student wellbeing and providing our students with an education which enables them to develop key social and emotional skills which will give them the foundations for success in the working world. For this reason, our curriculum for our students is rightly ambitious – it is as broad as it is balanced, which was recognised during our most recent Ofsted inspection. Our curriculum is planned to enable students to develop keen interests, a lifelong passion for learning and an impressive, coherent, and cumulative understanding of the world. We have been nationally recognised for our CEAIG provision and strongly value the principle of raising student aspirations through education and experience.
We support our whole community through one consistent message that we refer to as ‘The Hailsham Way’.
- Be Ready – we expect our students to attend college, be punctual to lessons and present themselves well, both when in college and within the community.
- Be Safe – we expect students to conduct themselves in a way which keeps themselves and others safe at all times. We have a strong safeguarding culture and safeguarding at the college is everybody’s responsibility.
- Be Working – we expect our students to actively engage with their learning. Our teaching and learning principles focus on ‘clarity’ (making the learning aims and reasons clear), ‘thinking’ (ensuring students are given time to apply their knowledge and skills) and ‘checking’ (ensuring students are assessed appropriately to check understanding).
- Be Respectful – we expect students to show respect to themselves, to others, and to our environment. We regularly talk to students about what this looks like and ask that all adults model this within the college, regardless of what role they play.
We encourage you to visit our college for yourself during this exciting new phase for our school.
Natalie Chamberlain
Head of School Secondary
Tom Redman
Head of School Primary
