About The School

Aston is a hard working, friendly and open school community where all pupils are treated as individuals and challenged to reach their full potential in all aspects of their development. Aston Comprehensive is the largest school in Rotherham delivering a broad and flexible curriculum across 3 key stages.  The school achieves high levels of attainment across the curriculum in external examinations at 14, 16 and 18 and is also fully committed to learning outside the formal curriculum. We achieved our best ever GCSE results this summer with 57% of our Year 11 students achieving at least 5 A*-C grades. For the last four years 99% of our Year 11 students have achieved at least 5 A*-G grades, we believe that this is testimony to our commitment to the inclusion of all our pupils.

We are proud of the excellent pastoral care our students receive and we have an excellent Support for Learning Department providing quality provision for students with Special Educational Needs. Aston is committed to providing a rich and stimulating learning environment for all students, irrespective of ability. Recent investment through the National Government’s “Excellence in Cities” programme has enabled us to introduce extra challenges for particularly gifted and talented students and to reinforce our support for those who find learning more difficult.

We are currently undergoing a review of the curriculum at all key stages. For this academic year all pupils at Key Stage 3 study English, Maths, Science, Technology, ICT, Modern Foreign Languages (French or Spanish), History, Geography, Religious Education, Art, Music, Drama, Physical Education, Information and Communication Technology. Personal and Social Education is currently taught by the Group Tutor to his/her form but from September it will be taught as a discrete period by specialist teachers. Setting is introduced in some subjects in Y7 and the majority of those in Y8 and Y9. Most Special Needs support occurs in class rather than through withdrawal.

Students at Key Stage 4 can take courses leading to GCSE and GNVQ qualifications. Every student must take a balanced course containing Maths, Science, English, ICT, Religious Education and Physical Education and then they may choose from: History, Geography, Information Studies, Spanish, Art, Music, Drama, Child Development, Business Studies, Leisure and Tourism, Health and Social Care, Performing Arts and Technology. Every student in Year 10 and 11 also takes a course in Personal and Social Education course. A small number of students will also study an AS General Studies and enrichment programme. Other students may be invited to enter GCSE Mathematics at the end of Year 10 and subsequently follow AS modules in Year 11.

We are really proud of our sixth form. We offer a wide range of AS, A2, GNVQ and other vocational courses which deliver consistently strong results. All students have a Personal Tutor, good study facilities and a thriving common room. We also offer a Life Skills course and the General Studies course both of which are designed to develop key skills and critical thinking. We are delighted with the developments of the Aston Sixth Form. More and more students are continuing their education at school, examination results have been good and we have invested in specialist facilities to meet their needs. Each year we send the majority of our Year 13 students on to University. We are also able to offer students a rich programme of extra curricular activities, in past years students have had the opportunity to visit our partner school in Makunduchi.

Aston is in its third year of Specialist School status in Mathematics and Computing. This has provided greater opportunity to raise standards of attainment and further support an already exciting and innovative approach to Education. The school has extensive links with the community with a large state of the art ICT suite in conjunction with the Community Library Service providing Broadband connection for school and community use.  A number of maths and ICT courses are delivered to the community in conjunction with our Specialist School partners. Last academic year, a new Maths ICT suite has been completed in a joint commercial venture.

The school works closely with local businesses. Irwin Mitchell Solicitors worked with staff to aid the content development and delivery of a conference for all KS5 students designed to develop key skills in communication. Initiatives with Vantage have included a sponsored web design competition and web design club through to a project management work experience for 2 teachers, developing a proposal for producing materials for online learning. This culminated in the Aston/Vantage partnership being selected as finalists in the 2003 Sheffield Business Awards.

The school achieved Training School status in 2003 and this is the second year of the programme.  The school has a strong ethos of CPD and has held the IIP award for a number of years.  One aspect of Training School status has led to the development in partnership with Vantage Technologies and Sheffield Hallam University of a web enabled system of tracking CPD.  This will allow University Staff, teachers and trainee teachers to monitor progress on line.  It is an exciting and innovative approach to continuous professional development enabling self-analysis, diagnostics and evidence storage.  The school also has an extensive programme of Initial Teacher Training and Graduate Teacher Training placements.

I trust this brief outline provides some sense of Aston and what we intend here. We welcome colleagues who are committed to comprehensive education and to meeting the needs of all children. In joining us, you would be assured of working in a school of proven excellence, which aspires to achieve more still. Your talents and energies would be vital in that endeavour. In return, we would promise you a commitment to professional development and to shared professional growth. It is an exciting school to work in.