Staff and students at an Amersham grammar school are celebrating after winning two accolades.

Dr Challoner’s Grammar School, in Chesham Road, was recently named in the National School Sport magazine’s top 200 sporting schools for 2020 list – coming in eighth place.

The top seven schools were independent schools, with Dr Challoner’s named the top sporting state school of the year for the first time.

John Deadman, director of sport and co-curricular activities, said: “We are delighted by this recognition of our school’s achievements.

“Our PE staff work hard, however the whole sport and PE team, which includes over 20 ‘non-PE’ staff who volunteer their time, and the Parents Sports Strategy Committee (made up of 10 parent volunteers) ensure that we as a school maximise every facility at all times of the week to provide these opportunities for our students.”

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The school’s U13 cross country team was a national champion, while the 1st XI Football and 1st XI Hockey teams reached the National Cup semi-final stages before the pandemic scuppered their “unprecedented winning runs”, Mr Deadman said.

The school was also awarded the School of Character Kitemark by the Association of Character Education, which “summarises the educational attitude that promotes the development of positive values and attitudes in young people”.

Headmaster David Atkinson said: “Achieving the Kitemark award demonstrates that the school combines sound policy with active implementation of a shared set of values that benefit our students.”

He added: “We are very pleased to have our work educating our students in the broadest possible sense recognised in this way.

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“We set great store by good character, its capacity to form strong positive communities and to help individuals flourish in life.

“The pandemic has shown how important this is more than ever.

“We will continue to develop this work because future generations of Challoner’s students will benefit from a school culture that promotes this.”