We are delighted to welcome all our lovely students back, and a particular welcome to those students new to us, whatever year group.  We are thrilled that you, and your parents and carers, have joined our community.  #25-26AHS #AHSWalksTall #AHSCommunity.  Please see the pictures below of some of our students taken on their first day at AHS.  

Aylesbury High School is Named 15th Best Secondary School in the Country

Aylesbury High School is proud to announce it has been named as the 15th best school in the country by The Telegraph's Top Secondary Schools’ list.  The School achieved an outstanding score of 39 out of 40, which is based on a unique 40-point scoring system.

With Ofsted no longer providing one-word judgments, The Telegraph’s new secondary school league table draws on publicly available data – from exam results to class size – to help parents make informed decisions.  The Telegraph analysed data from nearly 3,500 state sector secondary schools in England to provide each school with a score out of 40.  Just five schools across the country received the full 40 points.  

This prestigious accolade reflects the dedication and hard work of our students, staff, and the entire School community. Our high ranking is a testament to our Vision of  ‘Developing uniquely talented young adults, who are independent, strong and confident’ and we are immensely proud of the validation.

"We are absolutely delighted with this recognition," said Marieke Forster, Headmistress of Aylesbury High School. "It is fantastic to be featured so highly on The Telegraph's list. This achievement is a direct result of our exceptional staff who inspire our students to reach their full potential and the unwavering support of our parents. We will continue to strive for excellence and provide the best possible education for our students. #AHSWalksTall".

For further information about this Secondary School list, please click on this link .

Headmistress' Introduction

Dear Parents and Carers

We hope that you have had a very enjoyable summer break.  We were absolutely thrilled with our exams results this summer and have shared more details below.

I am delighted to welcome our new staff to AHS.  They are:

Lauren Gannie - English Teacher Abi Colcough - PE Technician
Kamila Ciesielka - Science Tech Harry Reardon - Caretaker
Catharine Mannion - Cleaner Paige Fox-Rendle - Drama Teacher
Cerys Emery - Head of Dance Sophia Khan - English Teacher
Elaine James - Computing Teacher Kate Randall - First Aid Administrator
Sarah Watt - Librarian & Reading Champion

I am also delighted to welcome our new trainee teachers who will be with us for this academic year.  We wish them every success with their training.

Sahaana Mithilan - Maths
Madison Hayes - English
Charlie O'Hagan - DT
Marieanne Gilliat-Smith - German
Ebru Guzeloglu - Biology
Zara Gregory - Spanish

Over the summer holiday, whilst most of us have been enjoying ourselves, many of our staff have been busy preparing for the new academic year; we are very grateful to them for all their hard work. We have successfully completed our upgrade to Windows 11 and our new caterers, Pabulum, were mobilised, please see their introductory newsletter below.  We redecorated the dining room and Pabulum have also invested in an outdoor food pod which will be installed during the October half term.  We are also thrilled to show you pictures from our refurbished Food Tech room, which has been funded by a grant from the Wolfson Foundation.

Exam Results 2025

A Levels Results

We are delighted to announce an excellent set of A Level exam results for the Summer 2025 cohort, which are a credit to our students, staff and parents.  We are thrilled that AHS’  2025 results are again an improvement year-on-year,  although, ultimately, we are most excited about the opportunities that these grades will unlock for all of our students.

An impressive 18% of all entries were A* (11* in 2019), 45% of all entries were rated at A* or A (40% in 2019), and 76% were graded at A* to B (67% in 2019). Our students collected a total of 297 A* and A grades between them, sitting a total of 662 A Levels.  11 students collected 3 or more A* grades and 56 students had 3 or more A or A* grades.

Whilst grades are important, at AHS our focus is on the opportunities that these grades offer our students, the facilitation of their ‘next steps’. The very large majority of our students who applied were able to access a preferred choice of university place, with 9 going to Oxford and Cambridge. Our students will be leaving us to study at a wide variety of different institutions, reflecting the careful research and decision making that our students have done to help secure their futures. We are immensely proud of all the well informed decisions our students have made for their next steps; as well as the familiar subject choices, our students will study degree courses in subjects as diverse as International Disaster Management and Humanitarian Response, Aerospace Engineering, Architecture, Journalism, Neuroscience, Marine Biology and Coastal Ecology, History of Art and Film Making. 15 students will be studying Medicine. 

We are delighted that several students have secured prestigious degree apprenticeships to begin their careers with a range of organisations.  

We wish all of our students well and are proud of them all.

GCSE Results

We are also delighted to announce another truly exceptional set of GCSE results for our Year 11 students. The results are a testament to the students’ resilience and dedication, as well as the unwavering support from staff and families.

A remarkable 70% of all grades achieved were at Grade 7, 8, or 9, a figure that not only surpasses the school's 2019 performance but also stands well above the national average (21.8% nationally). This outstanding achievement defies the national trend of a return to pre-pandemic levels and highlights the incredible hard work of the students.

Among the standout performances, an astonishing 18 students achieved 10 or more grades at either Grade 8 or 9. Nearly 20% of all grades were Grade 9. While these individual achievements are impressive, Headmistress Marieke Forster emphasised her pride in every single student.

"I see every day that these grades are the result of sustained hard work, excellent teaching, and the support our students receive from our staff and their parents," said Headmistress Marieke Forster. "This cohort, in particular, has navigated significant disruption during their transition to secondary school years due to the pandemic. Their independence, strength, and confidence in approaching these exams is truly commendable. They should be immensely proud of what they've accomplished."

The school is now focused on supporting its students as they embark on their next steps, with these results opening up a wide range of exciting opportunities for their future.

Wellbeing Paperwork - Important request

Mrs Randall has been appointed as the school's First Aid Administrator. Her working hours will be 9am-3pm. 

Please could parents and carers ensure all Health Care plans and permission to administer medicine forms have been completed or updated and returned to school ASAP, along with any medication that needs to be stored here. These forms can be found on the website in the Wellbeing section or please click on the link below.

https://www.ahs.bucks.sch.uk/page/?title=Health+%26amp%3B+Wellbeing&pid=39

Use of devices at home

While we know that technology offers incredible educational opportunities, we also understand the challenges of managing screen time and ensuring online safety. We have robust procedures in place at school, but are keen to support parents in navigating this at home. Many of you will have already implemented controls and strategies that work well for your families and we'd be grateful if you could email any recommendations to Mrs Queralt at hqueralt@ahs.bucks.sch.uk so that we can share good practice and keep our students even safer online. 

Once again, we are delighted to welcome our students back this week, it is a joy to have the School 'working' again. 

Wishing all well for a lovely weekend and thank you, as ever, for your support.

Marieke Forster