Hills Road Sixth Form College

Hills Road Sixth Form College
File:Hills Road Sixth Form College Logo.png
Address
Hills Road Cambridge , England , CB2 8PE
Coordinates	52.188151°N 0.135297°E / 52.188151; 0.135297
Information
School type	State sixth form college
Motto	Virtute et fide ("By virtue and faith")
Established	1974 (HRSFC)
School district	In co-operation with Cambridge CAP Partnership
Authority	Directly government managed in co-operation with Cambs LEA
Specialist	No specialism - Designated Outstanding
Ofsted	Reports
Principal	Linda Sinclair
Teaching staff	165 (sixth form)
Gender	Mixed
Age range	Generally 16-18 (full time), all ages (evening classes)
School roll	c.2000 full-time, c.5000 part-time
Average class size	20
Language	English
Classrooms	94
Sports	Badminton, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, netball, rounders, rowing, rugby, squash, tennis, volleyball
Nickname	"Hills"
Rival	Traditionally Long Road Sixth Form College
Test average	98% pass, 48.8% A grade
Newspaper	The Phoenix (Hills Road Sixth Form College)
Website	http://www.hillsroad.ac.uk/

Hills Road Sixth Form College (commonly HRSFC) is a state funded co-educational sixth form college in Cambridge, England, providing full-time AS and A-level courses for approximately 1,800 sixth form students from the surrounding area and a wide variety of courses to around 4,000 part-time students of all ages in the adult education programme, held as daytime and evening classes.

History

Hills Road Sixth Form College was established in September 1974 on the site of the former Cambridgeshire High School for Boys, when education in Cambridgeshire was reorganised on a comprehensive basis, and grammar schools and secondary moderns were replaced by a system of (mainly) 11-16 comprensive schools and sixth form colleges.

Since then, the college has expanded from its original single building, with the addition of the Sports and Tennis Centre in 1995; the Colin Greenhalgh building, which houses most arts subjects such as English, Modern Languages and History; The Rob Wilkinson building housing the Physics, Chemistry, and PE departments was developed in 2004; in 2005 the Margaret Ingram Guidance Centre provided specialist tutorial accommodation. Although the College previously had ambitious plans for a major redesign between 2010 and 2013, the economic crisis reduced the scope of the plans: in 2010 the College administrative areas were redesigned, more classrooms added in the Physical Sciences, Psychology and Art departments, the staffroom enlarged and relocated, the library partially refurbished, an extra resource area built to compensate for the space used to build new classrooms and the student social area rebuilt.

In the early 1990s, responsibility for further education was removed from local authorities (as part of reforms aimed at reducing the level of the council tax), and Hills Road like other colleges moved to direct funding from central Government.

Hills Road had been building up a reputation for academic excellence, mainly through a standard set by the old Grammar School, but this developed under Colin Greenhalgh, who led the College to obtain the Queens Anniversary Prize in Education and become the first institution nationally to become "Designated Outstanding" and thus win freedom from OFSTED.

Admissions and destinations

Hills Road is one of seven post-16 centres in the Cambridge Area 14-19 Partnership. The state-maintained secondary schools in the city and Village Colleges in the surrounding areas are the main feeder schools to the centre, although it attracts students come from all over the county and further due to its strong reputation. Currently, about 98% of students come from the school's catchment area, and 87% of students are from state maintained schools. Hills Road is permanently over-subscribed. The college typically requires candidates to achieve a B (sometimes A) grade in a related GCSE to study an A-Level course, whereas the nearby Long Road Sixth Form College typically requires a C grade for entry to AS courses.

Priority for places is given to those who have attended a school in the catchment area. However, due to its reputation, the college also attracts students from out of area establishments, although such applications are only considered after places have been offered to all qualifying applicants in the Cambridge area. The College runs a relative admissions program, meaning that the grades which got you in one year may not get you in the next, as all applicants are judged relative to all the others who apply.

About 90% of Hills Road students go onto higher education following their time at the college, for 40% this is after a gap year. About 5% of students enter full-time employment. Over the last five years, half of students have gone onto attend one of just fifteen universities (Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, East Anglia, Leeds, Loughborough, Manchester, Oxford, Nottingham, Sheffield, Sussex, Southampton, UCL and Warwick). In 2006, fifty-two Hills Road students gained places at Oxbridge; this was a larger number than at any other state "school" and represents one in every sixteen students. Hills Road was recently ranked third in a list of the schools with highest levels of Oxbridge entry, after Westminster School and Eton College.

The UCAS offer rate is around 97%.

Results and reputation

The College has consistently ranked among the top three state sixth form colleges, with an average of 404 A-level points per student (equivalent to, among others, 3 A grades at A-level and a B for an AS) in 2005. In 2010, the College had an A-Level pass rate of 99.7%, 52% of which were A* or A. It is currently fifth on the Sunday Times list of the best Further Education centres in the country. National measures also place the College in or around the top decile amongst all types of institution for added-value: students of all abilities achieve better results in GCE AS/A levels than expected from their starting points. For example, the 2009 Alps Report places the College third in the sixth form college performance table and in the top 1% for all institutions. On the most recent edition of the BBC league tables, Hills Road Sixth Form College achieved a contextual value added score of 1009.1.

The academic success of students at Hills Road means its retention rate is well above the national average: students tend to finish the courses they start.

At its most recent OFSTED inspection, teaching and learning was judged to be 'Outstanding', the top grade, in the eleven departments inspected. Leadership and management was also reported as 'Outstanding'. It therefore became the first centre in the country to receive 'designated outstanding' status, meaning it is no longer subject to routine inspections, but is liable to be 'spot checked' at any time to ensure standards are kept high.

Student newspaper

Founded in 2008 by then-Hills Road student Jeremy Smith, The Phoenix is the only regular (but unofficial) Hills Road Student Newspaper. Although the first edition (December 2008) was produced as a PDF only due to cost, it has, since then, been printed full-colour on newsprint (December 2009, March 2010, September 2010). All editions can be viewed online at http://issuu.com/thephoenixnewspaper/. The Phoenix is currently edited by Harriet Allen, Jodie Baker and Will Simmons. In 2009-2010, the editors were Sarah Gashi and Yuming Mei, in 2008-2009 it was Jeremy Smith.

Pastoral care

Attention has been drawn by Ofsted to the quality of the College's caring support and guidance: "the appointment of specialist tutors has been successful in providing students with effective academic and personal support …. Students receive very effective tutorial support both through their regular meeting with one of the team of specialist tutors and through the high levels of less formal support they receive outside of lessons from their teachers. Students enjoy coming to college and feel that they are recognised and respected as individuals" (Ofsted).

The College has a wide variety of resources to help students with learning needs. Staff from the College's Study Skills Centre are qualified to carry out assessments, to diagnose specific learning difficulties and then to offer appropriate support; they have extensive experience of supporting students with specific learning difficulties including dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD and other conditions within the autistic spectrum. The emphasis placed on ensuring that students are correctly assessed and reviewed throughout their course is evident in both the last Ofsted report and in the published prospectus.

Notable alumni

Cambridgeshire High School for Boys

• Martin Amis - novelist and son of Sir Kingsley Amis
• Syd Barrett and Roger Waters of the rock band Pink Floyd; there is a suggestion that the song Another Brick in the Wall Part II, written by Waters, which includes the famous lyrics "we don't need no education", bears reference to Waters' miserable stint endured whilst at the County High School for Boys
• Bob Klose - an early member of Pink Floyd
• Storm Thorgerson - co-founder of the Hipgnosis partnership, who designed record covers for artists including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Muse

Hills Road Sixth Form College

• Katie Rowley Jones - West End actress currently starring as 'Sister Mary Robert' in the Original London Production of Sister Act (musical).
• Nicholas Astbury - Ambassador to Eritrea from 2006-8
• Alison Balsom - trumpeter signed with EMI Classics
• Christian Howes, musician
• Conor O'Neill - Essex Cricket captain
• Ben Thapa - member of male singing quartet G4
• Mark Pettini, Essex County cricketer (and former captain). Former member of England Under-19 team.
• Tom Westley, Essex County cricketer and captain of England Under-19 at the 2008 Under-19 Cricket World Cup
• Tom Findlay - Musician, half of Groove Armada
• Max Rushden - Presenter, Soccer AM
• Robert Harris - the Cambridge academic and author
• The Arrangement including Jono Miles, Tom Curran, Nathan Rasdall, Joe Chivers, Hannah Godfrey, Amy Dickens, Lara Le Court De Billot and Ellie Davies
• Alex Thomas - World Billiards Champion 2008

Principalship

The College is managed by the College Strategy Team, consisting of the Principal, the Deputy Principal and four Assistant Principals.

The management of the college is split into five areas of responsibility (Teaching & Learning; Support & Guidance; Planning & Quality; Resources plus Staff Development & Lifelong Learning), each of which is assigned to a member of the CST.

Current CST Structure

Role	Name	Area of Responsibility
Principal	Linda Sinclair
Deputy Principal	Jo Trump	Teaching & Learning
Assistant Principal	Nigel Taylor	Support & Guidance
Assistant Principal	Dave Jones	Planning & Quality
Assistant Principal	Jill Aberdour	Resources
Assistant Principal	John McCann	Staff Development & Lifelong Learning

Previous Principals

• Colin Hill (1974–1984)
• Colin Greenhalgh (1984–2002)
• Rob Wilkinson (2002–2008)
• Linda Sinclair (2008–present)