Search this site Home School Senior Dept Team News Admissions Jobs Q&A Friends Facilities Hire Contact Secure Senior Dept Subpage Listing Assessment Key Stage 3 Levels Reporting in the Senior Department Curriculum Extracurricular Activities (ECAs) Parental Portal Pastoral Care Permanent Site Senior Department News Senior Head Senior School Day Senior Teaching Staff Vision & Synopsis We delighted to announce that we have now signed a Variation to our Funding Agreement with the Department for Education confirming our change of status to an all-through school and also secured a permanent site for our Senior and Junior Departments - details can be seen in the press releases in the news section. This means we are now ready to open our doors to our first Year 7 cohort in September 2014. The 72 new pupils will be based at our Portsmouth Road site for the first year of operations and preparations are almost complete to adapt the building in readiness. We are making good progress with our Senior Department site plans and will share more news as soon as we are able. Year 7 Admissions Round for September 2014 Entry is now CLOSED but we are accepting late applications We have a couple of places available to join our new Year 7 cohort and we are pleased to confirm that we are accepting late applications. Please complete our late applications form on our admissions pages. The formal admissions round for our Founder Year 7 cohort at Cobham Free School closed in February and applicants will have heard if they have been successful in securing a place by 3 March 2014. Full details of our over-subscription criteria (applied to determine the allocation of places if we are full) can also be found on our website under the admissions pages. A number of Open Days for the new Senior Department have been held from November 2013 through to June 2014. All future Open Day dates will be published on the website. Why are we opening a Senior (Secondary) Department and changing to an all-through school? Following the successful opening of Cobham Free (Primary) School in September 2012 we submitted a proposal on 4 January 2013 to the Department for Education to open a secondary Free School to serve the children and parents of Cobham and surrounding areas (a new, much larger "Senior Department" to the existing Primary.) It was apparent from the number of parents who approached us, and from other local sources/indicators, that there was a need for a new non-fee paying secondary school in the Cobham area, to extend choice and offer high quality, local provision for all pupils in the community. The Senior Department of the school will grow to be 4 form entry with a maximum of 24 pupils in a class (96 pupils per year). The new department will offer continuity of excellent provision for our existing pupils, as well as creating new places each year for children leaving other primary schools at the end of Year 6, including (but not limited to) those residing in the local communities of Cobham, Oxshott and Downside. Please note that we have no specific catchment area hence as long as we have spaces available we will accept pupils irrespective of distance from the school. Up until early 2013 our focus had been wholly on establishing Cobham Free School (Primary) and securing the Police Station site for the school. Only once this had been accomplished were we able to consider adding a Senior Department via the Free Schools application process run by the Department for Education. What age groups will the Cobham Free School Senior Department cater for and what will it aim to offer? Opening in September 2014 for boys and girls aged 11-18 years A similar ethos to our existing Primary school and providing a natural upward progression for our existing pupils Small class sizes (target of 24 per class and 4 form entry) Broad and balanced curriculum, including a choice of Modern Foreign Languages and Classics Wide variety of extra curricular activities and a strong Music and Sports ethos, supported by excellent facilities and local partnerships Free group instrumental lessons for all children Extended school day option for working parents Chromebook laptop for every child and leading-edge cloud-based ICT for collaborative and extended learning Focus on high pupil expectations, raising self-esteem and academic success for all DfE Approval Letter Letter from DfE on 22 May 2013 (PDF) Following the submission of our proposal in January 2013 and having demonstrated sufficient demand, we attended an interview with DfE on 10 April and on 22 May we received word from DfE that our application had been successful. This meant that we could work with DfE to move to the next 'pre-opening' phase of the project, to refine and agree details of the proposed school and build an implementation team. Report Abuse|Print Page|Powered By Google Sites