Dormston School

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Dormston School is a secondary school located in Sedgley, West Midlands, England. The schools has specialist status as a Mathematics and Computing college.

The school currently has more than 1,100 pupils aged 11 to 16 on the roll, and there are approximately 80 staff employed at the school.

Contents

[edit] History

Dormston School was established in 1935. It originally consisted of a single two-storey building that contained 19 classrooms as well as a dining hall, assembly hall and library. This building remains in existence to this day, although substantial alterations have taken place since the mid 1990s. The school was built by Sedgley Urban District council, but since 1966 has existed within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.

GCSE pass rates regularly passed the 50% mark at Dormston during the 1990s and early 2000s, and during this time demand for places at the school was high, with as many as 70 applicants per year having to be refused places. In recent years, however, pass rates have declined to as low as 42%.

In July 1996, the National Lottery granted the Dormston School with £4million to build an Arts and Sports Centre, which was completed three-and-half years later. The construction of this complex saw the demolition of the old staff room and toilets, as well as the loss of a playground.

In March 1999, the school made headlines when almost 50 girls were either sent home or isolated from lessons for wearing short skirts. [1]

In spite of a great staff turnover in recent years, there are still teachers at the school who have been there since as long ago as the 1970s.

Miss Stephanie Sherwood, the current headteacher, was appointed in January 2001 to replace the retiring Mrs Barbara O'Connor, who had been headteacher since 1983. Miss Sherwood is the former headteacher of Buckpool School in Wordsley.

In 2000, just before Mrs O'Connor's retirement, Dormston School was credited with the Charter Mark in recognition of its excellent standards. Mrs O'Connor's last day (19 December) was marked with a farewell assembly, presented by her long-serving deputy Mr Wally Francis - who himself retired four years later.

The school has five year groups, each of which contain eight classes of approximately 28 children. The tutor groups are split into 'X' and 'Y' populations who are educated separately for all lessons, although pupils mix for some subjects at GCSE level.

The school has extensive playing fields, which include two football pitches and a large multi-purpose outdoor sports area for sports including netball and hockey.

A memorial garden was erected at the back of the main assembly hall in 2007 in memory of former school caretaker Mr John Hopson, who died on 26 September 2005 having collapsed in school grounds from a brain tumour seven weeks earlier.

[edit] Timeline

  • 1935 - Dormston Secondary School opened, consisting of one building containing 19 classrooms, an administration area, library, two playgrounds, a playing field, gynmasium and dining hall.
  • 1970 - 'B' and 'C' Blocks (Science, Technology and Art) are opened.
  • September 1972 - The school's capacity is reduced by 25% following Dudley MBC's decision to raise the primary school/secondary school transition age from 11 to 12.
  • September 1983 - Mrs Barbara O'Connor is appointed head teacher.
  • September 1986 - Computing becomes part of the school's curriculum. A computing department is established, and the first head of computing is Mr Alan Bradford.
  • September 1990 - 'D' Block opened (fourth school building), containing the English department, Music studio, Drama studio and Dance studio as well as senior management offices, along with two new Art classrooms. These extensions help accommodate extra pupils following the local authority's decision to lower the primary school leaving age from 12 to 11. The former senior management area is divided between the resources and individual needs departments. There is also an extension to 'C' Block which sees the addition of two Art classrooms and a Resistant Materials laboratory. The two former Art rooms in 'B' Block are converted into Science laboratories, while the old Woodwork/Metalwork room in 'A' Block is converted into a Modern Languages room. A mobile building with two classrooms is laid out on one of the car parks.
  • December 1994 - Pupil Neil Skidmore, 15, dies from a blood clot while playing a football match for Brierley Hill Bullets.
  • July 1996 - The National Lottery awards a £4 million grant to Dormston School, and contributes towards the cost of a £5.5 million sports/arts centre.
  • September 1997 - Dudley College opens a new sixth-form centre at Dormston to replace the now-defunct High Arcal sixth-form as Sedgley's post 16 education facility.
  • January 1998 - Construction of the Dormston Centre begins, with a targeted completion date of September 1999.
  • March 1999 - Almost 50 girls are sent home or removed from lessons for wearing short skirts which were more than 2 inches (51 mm) above the knee. This action was taken after several complaints from various sources, including members of the local community, who had expressed their concern about the way some of the girls were dressing.
  • September 1999 - A substantial refurbishment programme is completed which sees the conversion of the boys' changing rooms and an adjoining office into an ICT suite, while the girls' changing rooms and former careers office are converted into offices for the Year Heads.
  • March 2000 - The Dormston Centre opens six months behind schedule. The complex includes a theatre, sports hall, art gallery, gymnasium and bar.
  • December 2000 - The Dormston Centre is officially opened and Mrs Barbara O'Connor retires after 17 years as head teacher.
  • January 2001 - Miss Stephanie Sherwood is appointed head teacher.
  • September 2001 - The Dormston Youth Club closes following a string of attacks by vandals, which had left the buildings unusable.
  • September 2002 - The Dormston sixth-form is expanded by Dudley College to include a site at nearby High Arcal, in a bid to gain more popularity among post-GCSE students who up till now were choosing other establishments including Halesowen College as their post-GCSE destination.
  • September 2003 - 'E' Block is opened, housing a Science laboratory and an Art room.
  • April 2004 - The Dormston Youth Club is re-opened following a major refurbishment project which saw one building totally rebuilt.
  • December 2004 - Mr Wally Francis retires after more than 20 years as deputy head.
  • July 2005 - Mr John Hope, deputy head, retires after 24 years teaching at the school.
  • September 2005 - Mr John Hopson, long-serving school caretaker, dies aged 63. * December 2005 - Mr John Turner retires after 21 years as deputy head.
  • July 2006 - Dormston School receives specialist Mathematics and Computing College status.
  • July 2006 - Mr Laurence Tozeland, Technology technician, dies.
  • September 2006 - Mrs Pat Turton, former Head of R.E, dies aged 52. The school is closed as a mark of respect on the day of her funeral.
  • October 2006 - Miss Sherwood bans the school's pupils from lunching out at local food outlets including Subway - a decision which proves largely unpopular with pupils, parents and the local community; including one local person who criticised the policy as a "dictatorship" in a letter to the Express and Star.
  • December 2006 - Mr Andrew Turner, former Head of Languages, dies, aged 58.
  • January, 2007, Mr. Alan Beardsmore, Teacher of Maths and Science at Dormston since 1975, retires.
  • July 2007 - Permission is granted for an extension to C Block. The extension will include a library as well as classrooms for Science, Art and ICT, and completion is estimated for early 2008.

[2]

  • August 2007 - Mr Peter Hughes (aged 43), former Science teacher, dies in a fire at a hotel in Newquay, Cornwall. The suspicious fire also claimed the life of Mr Hughes's mother Monica (aged 86) and an 80-year-old woman called Joan Harper. [3]

[edit] School buildings

Science and Technology blocks were added in about 1970. These have since been expanded. A fourth block, housing music, drama, dance and English classrooms was built in 1990, at the same time as three Modern Languages classrooms, two mobile classrooms (mostly for teaching English) and two Art rooms were added. These expansions took place to accommodate the extra pupils following the local authority's decision to reduce the secondary school starting age from 12 to 11.

Two science laboratories were opened in the autumn of 2003, as was a Sixth Form Centre (owned by Dudley College) in 1997.

[edit] A Block

The original part of the school. It was built in 1935 and accommodates a sports hall, dining hall, learning resources centre, Careers office and Pastoral Care office (which was previously a smoking lounge).

The offices for the Heads of Year and Isolation Room were added in 1999 after a remodelling of the former girls changing rooms and the Careers office.

A Block originally contained the offices for the senior management, but on the relocation of these facilities to D Block this area was converted into the Individual Needs department as well as a Resources centre.

Classrooms in A Block are used for the teaching of Mathematics, Geography, History, English and ICT.

A Block included changing rooms until 1999. The boys' changing rooms were knocked through into an office to create an ICT suite. The girls' changing rooms were knocked through into an office to allow space for the offices for the Heads of Year as well as the Isolation Room.

[edit] B Block

B Block is the second oldest part of the school, built in about 1970. It houses six science laboratories as well as two Food Technology suites. Two further B Block classrooms - actually within C Block - were added in 1990 and house the art department.

It has not been substantially altered since its construction, although all of the laboratories have been refurbished, as have both of the Food Technology suites - now known as the Brian Gibbons Technology Rooms. On the construction of a new Art department in 1990, the former Art suites were converted into Science laboratories.

[edit] C Block

C Block was built at the same time as B Block. The downstairs of the building includes two Science laboratories, a CAD/CAM centre as well as laboratories for Graphic Design, Resistant Materials and Systems & Control. The upstairs of the block is given over to a Textiles suite and two computer suites.

The two Science laboratories were refurbished in 2001. The Graphic Design and Systems & Control laboratories remain virtually identical to how they were on their completion, but the Resistant Materials laboratory was built in 1990 and has yet to merit refurbishment. And R.E.

[edit] D Block

D Block houses the senior management offices, reception area, nurse's office, music studio, drama studio, dance studio, one music classroom and five Modern Languages classrooms - which before September 2006 had been English classrooms. It was built in 1990 and was detached from the rest of the school until the Dormston Centre was added in 2000.

Being a modern structure, no substantial alterations have yet been made to D Block, although carpets have been replaced and some of the walls have been re-painted or even re-plastered.

D Block was officially opened by local councillor John T. Wilson, a former member of Dudley MBC, about a year after the buildings were first used by pupils.

[edit] E Block

E Block was completed in September 2003 and houses two classrooms used for Art and Science.

[edit] Dormston Centre

The Dormston Centre includes a sports hall, gym, fitness centre, art gallery, theatre and cafe. It cost nearly £6 million to build, £4 million of which was provided by a grant from the National Lottery. The go-ahead for the centre was given in July 1996 when the Lottery grant was given, and the facilities were in use by March 2000 - six months behind schedule. The official opening took place on 1 December 2000. At the time, these facilities were virtually unmatched anywhere in the West Midlands.

The staff room for Dormston School is located in the ground floor of the Dormston Centre.

The theatre in the Dormston Centre has hosted numerous Drama productions by various acting groups, but the school's pupils have also performed several excellent productions of their own at the school. These include West Side Story (March 2000), Oliver! (March 2001) and Macbeth (July 2001).


[edit] Youth club

There is a long-running youth club on the grounds of Dormston School, which is run by volunteers several evenings a week. It closed in September 2001 following an extensive vandalism attack by several pupils and a member of the public; however, was re-opened in 2004 following a substantial refurbishment and the replacement of a mobile building.

[edit] Notable pupils

[edit] Notable staff

[edit] Current management

  • Miss Stephanie Sherwood - Head Teacher since January 2001
  • Mr Simon Carroll - Deputy Head Teacher since January 2003; formerly Head of ICT
  • Mr Peter Davies - Deputy Head Teacher since January 2003; had previously been Head of Mathematics since September 1987
  • Mr Stephen Dixon - Deputy Head Teacher since January 2005 and Director of the Dormston Centre

[edit] GCSE results

41% of the pupils who left the school in July 2006 attained 5 or more GCSE grades at A to C.

This meant that Dormston was ranked as the 12th out of the Dudley borough's 22 secondary schools, its lowest ranking since 2002, when it was 13th in the borough. At its peak in 1998, it was joint fifth in the borough, with 57% of pupils gaining 5 or more A to C grades at GCSE level.

[edit] Gifted and Talented

The school actively promotes academic, spiritual and personal development all pupils, while recognising that some students have special abilities and talents. These students are recognised as "gifted and talented".

Year 7 pupils take a series of "MIDYIS" tests which give the teachers an insight into each pupil's potential. Each pupil's progress in then closely monitored, and some students will be given the option of attending Summer Schools - an event organised by the National Academy at Warwick University. They can also attend a Science club which is open to key stage 3 pupils. There is also an optional day visit to Oxford University for some of these pupils.

Since September 1999, certain pupils entering key stage 3 have been selected for accelerated key stage 4 courses which will see them complete a GCSE in year 10 and an AS Level in year 11. There are normally 20 pupils per subject in every year group who take each course.

Mrs Elaine James, a long-serving Science teacher at the school, is consultant for the "Gifted and Talented" policy.

There is also an annual presentation evening, held every December, for the previous adacemic year's school leavers. Subject prizes as well as several achievement and effort awards are awarded to students nominated by staff. Several of these awards are named in honour of Thomas Walker, a pupil who died in tragic circumstances on 24 January 2005, aged 14. The PE subject prize is named the Neil Skidmore Memorial Trophy in honour of Neil Skidmore, a 15-year-old pupil who died in December 1994 from a blood clot during a school football match.

[edit] Extra curricular activities

The school offers an extensive and wide range of extra curricular activities, which include:

Many of these extra curricular activities are represented in school teams who have achieved considerable success in various competitions between local schools.

There are also after-school clubs for subject including Science and Technology.

With direct access to the state-of-the-art Dormston Centre, the school has regularly featured in Drama productions; the first of these was West Side Story in March 2000. Each key stage gives an annual Performance Arts Evening for pupils to display their various talents.

Year 10 pupils are involved in the Young Enterprise initiative and in 2005 received a local award for being the "Most Enterprising Company".

Year 9 and GCSE pupils have the opportunity to attend revision and coursework support classes which are organised by staff who teach the appropriate subject.

Pupils with individual educational needs are encouraged to attend small group or one-to-one sessions organised by the Learning Support Department.

Year 10 pupils have the opportunity to apply to become a Senior, which gives them extra responsibility during their final year of compulsory education. This system has long been in place, having originally been pioneered during the days of Mrs O'Connor's stewardship. New to the policy since September 2005 has been the appointment of a "Head Boy" and "Head Girl" (who each have deputies). These students work closely with staff and pupils to give them an exceptionally prominent responsibility.

There is also an active School Council and each year pupils are encouraged to vote for a pupil in their year group to be elected as councillors.