- Norton Hill, a large academy in the market town of Midsomer Norton, near Bath, began life as a grammar school in 1911, before converting to a comprehensive in 1971.
- To aid pupils’ transition to year 7, staff visit them at their primary schools during the summer term, invite them to join taster days at the school and run activity sessions during the summer break for children who need extra support.
- Year 7s are assigned a tutor group and a tutor, who will stay with them until the end of year 11, then placed into one of five houses, each with its own striped tie. There are plenty of inter-house contests and events to encourage healthy competition.
- Norton Hill has been recognised as a specialist maths and computing school, and has a web design suite.
- Reading for pleasure is encouraged and students receive certificates for doing so at home. Form tutors also read novels aloud to pupils.
- A wide range of lunchtime and after-school clubs includes everything from Dungeons & Dragons to a Taylor Swift society, as well as dance groups, sports clubs, a daily Send lunchtime club and an after-school homework group.
- The majority of students stay on to attend the sixth form, which offers more than 40 courses and is a link school for Harvard. Pupils regularly go on to study at Oxbridge or Russell Group universities, and in recent years two Norton Hill pupils have achieved full scholarships to study in the US.
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