Welcome from the Headteacher
We are a vibrant school community which empowers girls to become resilient and to fulfil their potential as future leaders.
Welcome to Didcot Girls’ School. As the only all-girls’ comprehensive in Oxfordshire, we are proud of the superb opportunities we offer to all of our girls to develop in an environment which fosters resilience, leadership skills and a commitment to the highest educational standards. Our co-educational Sixth Form, shared with St Birinus School, offers excellent progression to study in a vibrant and growing Sixth Form community. Didcot Girls' School is consistently one of the highest performing schools both in Oxfordshire and the UK. In November 2022, Ofsted judged the overall effectiveness of our school to be Outstanding once again. We are pleased that the report recognises and validates our mission statement (provided above), describing the distinctive elements of our provision. Please click here to read the report in full. In August 2012, the school converted to academy status and created the Ridgeway Education Trust. Recent years have seen exciting developments in the Trust as St Birinus Secondary School joined in September 2015 and Sutton Courtenay Church of England Primary School followed in April 2019. We are delighted with the opportunities the growth of the Trust has created to further strengthen collaboration between our schools and, as a result, all three schools are flourishing under the inspirational leadership of our Executive Headteacher, Rachael Warwick.
Our core values of mutual respect, inclusivity and high expectation underpin the developments that we work towards together as a learning community. Student Voice is powerful here. We work in partnership with our students who actively participate in the running and decision-making of the school. The School Council is a very important group in our school and you will find their welcome message sits alongside that from the Chair of Governors and myself for this reason. The wide range of leadership opportunities in the school - there are over 80 Year 11 Prefects, House and Deputy House Captains, Sports Captains, Science, Reading and Music Ambassadors, Advanced Learner Mentors - are recognised and celebrated through the Leadership Ladder which runs from Years 7 - 11 inclusive. We offer a rich choice of extra-curriculur clubs, over forty run each week, and encourage all of our students to participate. The House system is a strong feature of the school and this facilitates girls mixing across year groups, to foster friendly but fierce competition, and to focus on powerful and influential female role models. The seven Houses are named after Helena Kennedy, Ellen MacArthur, Jacqueline Wilson, Susan Greenfield, Jessica Ennis, Darcey Bussell and Kate Adie.
Summer 2024 GCSE results were superb with 81% of all students achieving 4+ in English and Maths, and 66% doing the same at 5+.Results at A level in the mixed sixth form shared with our partner school, St Birinus School, are also extremely strong with 30% of grades awarded as A* or A and 62% achieving Grades A*-B. These results place us as one of the highest performing schools in the county. To find out more about Didcot Sixth Form please visit www.didcotsixthformcollege.co.uk
We focus on the wellbeing of our students alongside academic excellence and a vibrant extra-curricular provision . It is important to us that our girls are known and valued as individuals and that they enjoy their time with us. We have opened our own Wellbeing Centre to provide time for our students to reflect in a quiet space and to access pastoral support where helpful. We have a raft of highly qualified and excellent pastoral staff dedicated to supporting students and their families.
I am immensely proud of Didcot Girls’ School. Our girls are strong, confident and passionate: they are ambitious and aspirational for themselves and their futures, and yet deeply conscious of their role in creating a caring and just society. We are a vibrant community of students, staff, parents and governors which is truly 'committed to excellence' in all that we do. There is no better way of judging a school than making a visit on a normal school day and we are always very happy to welcome visitors. We very much look forward to welcoming you to our school.
Best regards
