Welcome

Castle is a high performing Community College, which has one of the best value added scores for GCSEs of any Secondary School in England. We are extremely proud of our vastly improved academic results and the fact that we have individualized learning programmes for pupils of all abilities.

In Castle Community College every child really does matter.

Our school has an impressive range of newly purchased computers, a brand new all-weather football pitch and excellent sports facilities. As a newly designated Sports College, Castle Community is the lead school for Dover, Deal and Sandwich in the SSCO scheme.

The College has also recently been awarded the Gold Artsmark. This recognises many of the drama, dance and music clubs offered at Castle, with regular public performances. We also organise trips to theatres and other cultural events. There are over 40 other extra curricular activities, to cover the full range of   interests  for all students.

We have recently been awarded emerging community school status, in conjunction with two local   junior  schools. Castle Community College works very closely with local schools, especially at Post 16  level. It  has a joint sixth form offer with the other three secondary schools and the local colleges.

Our primary aim is to ensure that all students are cared for and nurtured in a welcoming, but also   challenging, environment. Please do visit and discover for yourself the wonderful teaching and learning   support programmes provided in our college.

Very high levels of attendance and extremely good examination results reflect the commitment of staff and students to Castle Community.

Yours sincerely  

Christine Chapman MA BA Dip.RD Sip. PCC
(Principal)

 am the Key Stage Learning Manager for Years 7, 8 and 9. My role is to ensure that students settle into Year 7 quickly and achieve their potential in their early years in the College. I visit all students in Year 6 who have decided to join us, to explain how we work in secondary schools and I continue to work with and monitor the students until they choose their options and move into Year 10.  I work with Mr. Partridge the Key Stage Pastoral Manager, who helps me to check on attendance and other issues. In Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11) Mr. Grogan Jarvis and Mrs. Keyte are the Key Stage Learning and Pastoral Managers respectively.

We believe at Castle Community College that students should feel happy and supported in school and we work really hard to make sure that this happens. We work hard but we have fun too.

Apart from all the sports activities and fixtures, each year group goes on a social trip at least once a year. Year 7 and Year 8 go bowling in the Autumn terms, for example. At the end of Term four we are going to a theme park and that is a whole school trip, so anyone can take part.  You can start saving for these trips at the start of September, if you wish, by bringing in some of your pocket money a little at a time. It’s good to start learning to budget early in life!

School life is good, if you involve yourself as much as possible. You could join the School Council, become a Peer Mentor, join the Wellbeing Committee, take part in assemblies or help to run various charity events or campaigns. We need you to make a difference to your school.

I hope you enjoy reading your section of the school website and that you will contribute to these pages and to the life of the school.

Nigel Sanne
KS3 Learning Manager

The Curriculum

The English course includes language and literature and leads to a double GCSE award.  Similarly
the Science is a double award course.  In addition to the compulsory subjects students have a
choice of a further GCSE subject from a range of French, Spanish, Geography, History, Sociology
and Music. They must also follow a GNVQ vocational award course, in Health & Social Care,
Art, Business, Leisure & Tourism or Information Technology.

These two year courses provide the groundwork for further study in our 6^th form, where a
range of vocational courses are available at foundation, intermediate and advanced levels.  These courses include:

Art & Design                              Business                                    Health & Social Care

General Studies                         Leisure & Recreation                  IT

Law                                          Psychology                                 Sociology

A/As level courses are offered by the Deal/Sandwich Post-16 consortium, which comprises of the
four local Secondary schools.

Procedures relating to complaints about the curriculum are available at the college, as are statutory instruments, circulars and memoranda published by the Department for Education and Employment in relation to the college curriculum.

Introduction