A HIGH-flying Cirencester school will pass on tips for academic excellence to neighbouring institutions in recognition of its achievements.

Kingshill School is already recognised as a sporting centre of excellence but now the popular secondary school has been awarded specialist status for science and a further accolade for high exam results in the core subjects of maths, science and English to become one of just a handful of schools to have triple specialisms.

Headteacher Christine Oates said the new accolades, particularly the award for raising attainment transforming learning (RATL) were a reflection of the school's success.

Less than 20 schools in the UK have achieved RATL status which brings with it the responsibility of raising achievement levels at neighbouring schools by passing on advice and good pratice.

She said: "We are really chuffed about this. We were classed as a high performing school and invited to apply for two specialisms.

"It brings us a lot of extra funding. Each of the two additional specialisms brings us £60,000 so that is £120,000 more for the school which we can use to improve facilities. Our science rooms were refurbished last September and now we want to offer separate sciences at GCSE - the extra resources will allow us to do that."

Commenting on the RATL status Mrs Oates added: "We were offered specialist status in RATL because of our excellent results in the core subjects of maths, English and science.

"We get 70 percent A* to C grades in those subjects at GCSE. The specialism means we will be able to offer help and advice to other schools on how to improve their results.

"The reason the school has been chosen as high performing is the good results and that is down to the hard work of pupils and staff and the tremendous support of parents."