Our History

In 1966 Cirencester Deer Park was established as an 11-18 Mixed Comprehensive School. It combined a Grammar school, dating from the C13th, and girls' and boys' secondary schools, which operated on the current site in buildings, erected in the early 1960's.

In September 1991 the School was reorganised by the LEA into an 11-16 comprehensive of 1000+ pupils. It now shares the campus with Cirencester College which offers a wide range of A level, Vocational and Leisure courses for 16-19 year olds and adults alike.

In 1993 the school took the decision to ballot parents for Grant Maintained Status which it achieved. In September 1999 the Governing Body adopted Foundation School status.

In January 1995, the school was successful in its bid to become a 'Technology College' as part of the Government's Specialist Schools' Initiative.

The school became a Beacon School in 1999 before contributing to 'transforming the school workforce' in 2002 as a Pathfinder.

The school was successful in its applications to become a Leading Edge Partnership (2003) and Enterprise Learning Pathfinder (2003-05).

In 2004 the school was recognised as a designated Training School and has achieved the International School Award (2005 and 2008).

In 2005 and 2006 the school was invited to take advantage of the 'Opportunities for High Performing Specialist Schools' and successfully applied for additional specialisms (Arts and Applied Learning) to ensure a balanced curriculum and to complement its existing Technology College status by building on its strengths.

The school was successfully redesignated as a Specialist School in 2005-6, its Fortieth year as a comprehensive. This also secured its future as the lead school in our Leading Edge Partnership and as a Training School subject to the continuation of funding and the achievement of challenging targets. In September 2009 we became a designated 'School of Creativity'.

In May 2007, our Ofsted Report confirmed ‘Cirencester Deer Park School is a good school with many outstanding features’ and noted the school’s ‘very special qualities’.