NORTON Hill School is one of the biggest in the region and is regularly in the top 10 per cent in the country in performance tables. It has 1,600 students aged 11 to 18, including 400 in the Midsomer Norton Sixth Form, and serves the town of Midsomer Nor

tougher GCSES in English and maths. The national figure was 42.

The Attainment 8 average point score - measuring results across eight subjects – was also high at 53.4, compared with 42.7 in England overall.

Norton Hill has a far higher proportion who sit the English Baccalaureate - English, maths, science, and language, history or geography - at 63 per cent (38.2 nationally). Thirty-nine per cent achieved the Ebacc (21.3).

The sixth form achieved record results in 2017, with an average of AAB per student and an average of a B grade per entry. Thirty five per cent of students went on to Russell Group universities.

The imaginative curriculum aims to meet the needs of all learners and is complemented by extensive extra-curricular activities.

The school, which is co-educational and non-selective, dates back to 1911, and is proud of high standards and traditional values.

It has retained its Good rating from Ofsted, with inspectors in 2017 noting that parents rate it highly and staff morale is good.

Student behaviour was described as exemplary and leadership highly effective.

Norton Hill has recently been named a National Support School and its executive head Alun Williams a National Leader of Education. It is an academy in the Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership.