The Community College was founded in 1973, and was originally known as Thurston Upper School.[2]
In 2023, the school was one of those identified as having buildings that could be structurally unsound because reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete had been used in their construction.[3]
Transition to two-tier education structure
In September 2014, the school underwent a large transition in order to become a secondary school and follow the two-tier education structure. Because of this, the Thurston Sixth Form Centre was relocated to Beyton, on the site of the former Beyton Middle School, and is now known as Thurston Sixth: Beyton Campus. This also meant that the most junior year group was lowered from Year 9 to Year 7. The old Sixth Form Centre, now a humanities department, was opened in 2002 by Rt Hon David Puttnam.
The college today
The school's facilities include a community library, a large sixth form centre (based in Beyton) and an Air Training Corps building. It has a total staff of around 170. In its most recent Ofsted inspection report in 2018, the school was rated Good.[4] The school has been rated Good every inspection except for in 2010 when the school was rated outstanding.[5]
A new external building was constructed in 2023, containing 3 social sciences classrooms and 2 science labs.[6]
Houses
Until 2020, the school was divided into five houses, named after famous British people with Suffolk connections. The school has changed these houses into year group blocks.[7]
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(January 2022)
Joanne Jennings, represented Great Britain and England at high jump
