The Governors, Staff and I are delighted to announce that we have received news that our application to offer the International Baccalaureate has been approved following a rigorous inspection process and that we are now officially designated as an IBO World School. We will commence teaching towards the IB Diploma from September 2008. This, and the fact that we are now able to combine "Humanities" with "Business and Enterprise" within our Specialist School status, means that we can confidently state that we are a leading edge College of the 21st Century which operates as an educational business for the benefit of students and the local, national and now international community.
Business and Enterprise status allowed us to breathe new life into our well-established beliefs here at Tollbar - hard work, good behaviour, examination success, responsibility, uniform, homework and consideration for others, delivered through an entrepreneurial and business-like ethos. With our new specialism promoting English, students are now given every opportunity to acquire and extend the basic skills so necessary for the world of work and higher education.
We are, of course, a Foundation College. Foundation status, with its emphasis upon self-determination, supports our absolute commitment to take local responsibility for all that we do. I am particularly pleased that since becoming a Foundation College, our examination results have continued to improve so that this year we topped the local league tables at GCSE with 83% of our students achieving five or more passes at Grade C and above and with 76% achieving five or more GCSEs at grade C and above, including English and maths, we are confident that we are one of the top performing comprehensive schools in the country.
As our graduation to IB indicates, we do not believe in resting on our laurels. We have provided our students with the best educational technology that money can buy, together with a clean, pleasant and safe working environment and I will continue to strive to use every penny available to us to get the best deal possible for our students - they deserve it!
My aim is to maintain our College at the forefront of educational innovation by promoting the business and enterprise ethic alongside the traditional values described above and the goal of general academic excellence, now given a global dimension.
I hope this gives you some flavour of what we believe, what we do and what we have. Please take time to visit the new IB section of our website to get an idea of the tremendous opportunities that can now be offered to students in the region. If you would like to find out more, call my PA any time (on 01472 502253) and come and see for yourself that……
'Tollbar really does mean business'.
David J Hampson. BSc, BA.
Principal