Let us introduce ourselves...

At Imberhorne we strive to be a supportive community that empowers everyone to be successful, open-minded and fulfilled.

High challenge, high support

Imberhorne is an inclusive school, with a curriculum that is academically rigorous and which values arts, creativity, sports, and vocational learning. We have an excellent range of extra-curricular activities which we promote to help students form deep connections.

Our values of Achievement, Ambition, Community, Resilience and Respect guide our culture - we take a high challenge, high support approach with students to help them build a deep foundation of knowledge and develop skills as they grow socially, emotionally and academically.

We have high standards and believe in showing unconditional positive regard to everyone in our community. We celebrate all forms of success, whilst challenging everyone to be the best they can be.

Broad & balanced

Our view is that students learn best when they are appropriately challenged and where strong relationships are formed. We always have high expectations of every student and they are taught to lead their own learning through questioning deep thinking, discussion, and reflection.

It is important to build resilience so that students persevere and overcome challenges, helping them to understand that any struggles are a normal part of their journey to success. The core subjects of English, Maths and Science are complemented by a carefully constructed curriculum that stretches students to be the very best they can be.

We take pride in our excellent curriculum and teaching, which takes a scholarly approach and where students are guided to become experts and enthusiasts. Our Key Stage 3 curriculum remains over three years so that we maintain a broad and balanced offering, building deep knowledge, strong literacy and numeracy, whilst continually practising skills.

At Key Stage 4 we offer an extensive range of subjects for students to choose from across Arts, Humanities, Languages and Technology. Careful Careers information, advice, and guidance helps students to make informed choices that suit their interests and aspirations. We aim for as many students as possible to continue their studies with us in our Sixth Form.

“The headteacher and senior leaders lead the school with passion and determination.”
Ofsted
“As a parent it is reassuring to know that my children are being taught by such passionate teachers.”
Parent
“Teachers' excellent subject knowledge fosters an eagerness to learn across the school. Pupils show highly positive attitudes.”
Ofsted
“Imberhorne has a fantastic culture of warmth and inclusion, highly supportive whilst encouraging independence.”
Parent
“There is a caring, nurturing feel about the school and both of my children are thriving there.”
Parent

Compassion, guidance & support

Our school is one caring community spread across two sites. Relationships and connections between all members of our school community are at the very heart of what we do. Our pastoral care is excellent; each year group has a Head of Year and a non-teaching Pastoral Support Assistant, and there are non-teaching Assistant Heads of Year for Key Stage 3 and 4. These key staff oversee student wellbeing and progress, maintaining high standards and a strong sense of collective identity and community in the year group. The first point of contact for families are Form Tutors, who provide a bridge between home and school, supporting with enquiries about both academic and social issues.

Students begin their journey in Year 7 at our Windmill Lane site and will remain there throughout Years 8 and 9. The site is friendly and intimate, welcoming students into the challenge of secondary education with the warmth of a smaller school. For Year 10 onwards students will transfer to our Imberhorne Lane site, marking their transition into Key Stage 4 and the studying of examined courses. The transfer is a carefully managed process to support all students to be fully prepared.

We are proud of our relationships with local primaries and work closely with them to put in place a carefully planned transition programme that is personalised to support students with the step up to Imberhorne. To ensure this transition is as smooth as possible our Pastoral and SEND Teams visit all primaries to gather information about prospective students, using this to plan for individuals and the year group as a whole.

Our Induction Day takes place in July and gives students the experience of a normal school day, with the opportunity to meet their Form Group and Form Tutor, attend lessons, and make new friends before they start. We also have well-established projects in Literacy, Numeracy, and Science which run in partnership with local primary schools, led buy staff and students from Imberhorne School.

Appropriate support and adjustment is in place across both school sites and is set up depending on individual student needs. Our experienced Support Staff help students in the classroom, with targeted interventions for a small number of students. Each site has a SEND Hub which is a quiet and well-resourced space for students with specific needs to learn safely with appropriate support and guidance.

Ambition & community

It is important that classrooms are calm, focused, respectful, and disruption free spaces. All staff are role models, modelling our core values and the behaviours that we expect from all members of the school community at all times. We ask them to be warm-strict and ensure that there are always clear routines in order to develop trusting relationships and keep standards high.

We track student engagement and celebrate effort, participation and achievement. If we have concerns about student engagement and attitudes we will share these with parents and carers, putting in place support to help students to reflect and change their approach.

Character development is central in our culture and curriculum. We aim for students to be active citizens who contribute positively to the world when the leave us at sixteen or eighteen. A core part of our mission is to help students to develop their empathy, resilience, communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking.

Our core values of Achievement, Ambition, Community, Resilience, and Respect underpin this focus on character development as we encourage students to engage as much as possible with our range of extra-curricular and leadership opportunities. We are extremely proud of the breadth of this offering which enables students to create memorable experiences by participating in a wide range of activities, day trips and residential trips.

Imberhorne School values the Arts and they have a high profile in our school. Students have many opportunities to sing, dance, perform, act, and exhibit across a plethora of activities and events in the school calendar. Sports have an equally high status and we celebrate the achievement and participation of our students in clubs, events, tournaments, and competitions at both local and national levels.

The Duke of Edinburgh Award is well-established and thriving, and significant numbers of students participate at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.

Continually improving

We are currently undergoing significant improvement to our school premises and facilities, investing in projects that improve the experience of students in their time at the school. We have recently re-modelled all student toilets at our Windmill Lane site, with the most recent set opening in September 2026. We have also opened a new Music classroom and made major improvements to Drama facilities in our Main Hall at Windmill Lane.

We have future projects earmarked to improve our Canteen spaces on both sites, our Sixth Form facilities, and break time spaces for students. In the next two years we will also gain some significant improvements to the sporting facilities at our Imberhorne Lane site that will be of benefit to the whole community.

Let us introduce ourselves...

High challenge, high support

Broad & balanced

Ofsted

Parent

Ofsted

Parent

Parent

Compassion, guidance & support

Ambition & community

Continually improving

Useful Links

Our Curriculum

Exam Results

SEND & Inclusion

Clubs

The School Day

Travel and Transport

Search form

Let us introduce ourselves...

High challenge, high support

Broad & balanced

Ofsted

Parent

Ofsted

Parent

Parent

Compassion, guidance & support

Ambition & community

Continually improving

Useful Links

Our Curriculum

Exam Results

SEND & Inclusion

Clubs

The School Day

Travel and Transport