Our School
The school opened in1977 as a split-site comprehensive school near Durham City. Since that time it has moved onto single-site premises in Belmont and has established a considerable reputation for its excellent educational provision and caring approach to pupils.
Belmont School is a close knit community where staff and pupils work well together. Each teacher is there to provide help for the pupils when necessary, and there goal is to ensure that the pupils get the education that they deserve.
All students follow a broad and balanced curriculum which fulfills National Curriculum requirements, and allows pupils to choose specialist subjects for further study. Students with Special Educational Needs are given additional help and excellence is promoted in all subject areas. Students in the upper school follow a full programme of careers guidance which includes a period of work experience as well as having a wide range of optional subjects to choose from. For example, Belmont is one of the few comprehensives in the county which continues to offer Chemistry, Physics & Biology as a triple package of separate sciences at GCSE.
As a school, the building is used by the community, bringing new faces in. The large sports hall is used for P.E lessons during the day, and often team practices after school. During the evening, the sports hall, gym, and floodlit astroturf are used by Belmont Community Association for many activities such as art classes,
The school has approximately 850 pupils and approximately 75 members of staff. Pastoral Care is based on a horizontal year system. Each year group of pupils is led by a Head of Year and a team of tutors who stay with their pupils from year seven to year eleven. Such organisation is to facilitate the building of strong links between teacher and parents. This partnership forms the foundation on which each pupil's academic progress and personal and social development is securely based. It also allows sufficient time for tutor and pupil to forge a positive relationship through five years of schooling. The Pastoral Team plays a crucial part in monitoring progress, advising, counselling and encouraging pupils as they progress through the school, and twenty years of experience as providers of 11-16 education means that we can guide each pupil into the right type of post-16 education according to their ability and vocation.
Our school has the Regional Resource Center for the partially sighted and those with hearing disabilities. It supports approximately 40 pupils from this section who integrate with mainstream school every lesson. A member of support staff provides help for each pupil during lessons, ensuring they get the same educational opportunities as those without disabilities.
On the same site as the Comprehensive School, there is also an Infant and Junior School. These are situated next to each other you can see the other buildings from anywhere on the site. This allows pupils to start at the Infants and progress through their education without changing site, staying in familiar surroundings. These two schools also have a Resource for the partially sighted, enabling those pupils to stay with friends.
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