STAFF and students at a Stratton school are celebrating after being shortlisted in the top 10 best secondary schools in the country.

The Times Education Supplement picked Kingsdown School as the eighth-best out of more than 4,000 schools around the UK in its annual awards.

Headteacher Emma Leigh-Bennett nominated the school for the honour after overseeing what she described as "something uniquely transformational".

In the last two years, the school has adapted to the pandemic's challenges and impressed Ofsted inspectors who bumped the educational facility's rating from Requires Improvement to Good for the first time in over a decade.

She said: "This last 18 months has presented all our teams and our families with immense challenges. It’s taken a great sense of teamship to see us through.

"We have focussed first on ensuring our students feel safe and calm, then that our students feel connected to their Kingsdown family and that they feel a sense of hope for their future.

"As part of this they know that their voice is important and will be listened to, but it’s been challenging. This has been made achievable because everyone has supported the school.

"In any community, the school is the aspirational heart. What’s happened here is the result of everyone’s effort in our North Swindon community."

Emma said the school's road to improvement began after it joined the River Learning Trust, appointed Lynne Scragg as the new chair of governors, and got a new headteacher in 2018.

She credited the hardowrking students - who received the school's best-ever GCSE results in 2019 - with helping the school get better and better, along with a new leadership strategy teachers called 'the wheel of excellence' which highlighted areas to focus on improving.

Year 11 student Dan Farmer said: "The school gives you the confidence to take every opportunity it offers. The teachers champion you to be better than you think you can be”.

Classmate Faye Stratford added: "To be a student here is to be part of a family and to strive to be the best version of yourself. The teachers now know us and champion us through each day.”

Their headteacher added: "Our students have been incredible, I am so proud of them. They have continued to embody and promote our Kingsdown Beats of pride, ambition, stretch and challenge, respect and responsibility inside and outside of the classroom.

"Our parents, our governors and the trust have been there with us supporting and challenging us as leaders.

"The whole Kingsdown team – our teachers and support staff have all understood the school improvement agenda and worked tirelessly to make and bring about the changes needed.

"Our wheel has provided the clarity and coherence to help everyone keep going."

The winner of the TES awards will be revealed at a later date.

Emma added: "If we win, I will whoop loudly - it's likely to be heard all the way across North Swindon - and then celebrate this wonderful achievement with our community and our stakeholders. especially our students.

"Then we will turn the page for the next Kingsdown chapter. Together, we will continue with our ambitious plans for all our students and ensure these plans become permanent and sustainable."