Buile Hill High School

Buile Hill High School is an educational secondary school, in Salford, in the North West of England. The school is over 100 years old in some parts, with the school itself owning a playing field with a nearby college, Pendleton College [http://www.pendcoll.ac.uk/] , which is across the field.The school has a strong Arts and Drama department and received an Artsmark Gold Award [http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/artsmark] in May 2006. It is one of the few schools in the area with a fully working theatre and performance space.The current number of students attending Buile Hill High School is 944 (2006), with all students in the 11-16 age range.

The School is to be rebuilt on the adjacent field, and is planned to be completed by 2008. The new buildings are to be funded through the Private Finance Initiative.

Grades for 2007

GCSE figure for 2007 show a marked rise from 26% of students gaining 5 A* to C the previous year, to 52% in 2007. Coupled with rise there has been significant success in its Key Stage 3 performance for this Year. The school's contextual Value added now stands at 999 - 1000 being the countries national average.

The school under went a OFSTED inspection in October 2007 which described the school as satisfactory overall with elements of good. [ http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/index.cfm?fuseaction=summary&id=105974 OFSTED School Report The OFSTED report of Buile Hill High School.]

Awards and prizes for students

In order to raise morale and attendance among students, the school hosts various award schemes, which make it stand out from other schools due to this unique system, such as;

"Merit/Stamp collection"

When a student behaves well or their work is of a pre-set standard, that student is awarded with a "stamp or sticker" in his/her "planner diary". Once a student has collected enough, they may be exchanged for prizes at the school office. Prizes range from pens, colour felt-tips, rubbers, pencil cases, and Parker Pens. This has since stopped, but has now been replaced by "merits" instead of "stamps", which are achieve under the same conditions, but are received on yellow strips of paper.

"Be in to win"

When a student achieves over 95%+ attendance for a half-term, they are entered into a draw which takes place on the last week of the relevant half-term, with many posters around the school advertising and reminding students. Such prizes for this draw include stereos, TVs and shop vouchers.

"100% Attendance"

To be entered into this draw, a student must attend every school day for a half-term, and is automatically entered. There is little-to-no advertising for this in the school, however, there is only one winner and one prize; £100 (£50 for the student and £50 for the student's parents).

"Triple Level 5"

This award scheme has no real name, but has since been introduced to the school in 2005/6. Any student who gains three Level 5 (or over) grades in their Year 9 SATs Exam are given shop vouchers worth £10, usually, they are shop vouchers for the Trafford Centre.

The £100,000 a year 'Superhead' brought in to turn the school around has since left [ cite news
last = Fitzgerald
first = Emma
coauthors =
title = Super head gone super quick
work = Salford Advertiser
pages =
language =
publisher =
date = 2007-02-15
url = http://www.salfordadvertiser.co.uk/news/s/223/223567_super_head_gone_super_quick.html
accessdate = 2007-02-22 ]

Notable past pupils

* Wes Butters the TV and radio presenter.

* Albert Finney is a five-time Academy Award-nominated English actor.

* Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner of Joy Division and New Order

* Paul Lockitt award-winning radio newsreader, who was named commercial radio's Newsreader of the Year at the Independent Radio Awards in 2005 for the second year running.

* Mike Leigh film director who joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as an assistant director in 1967. He later achieved lasting fame for plays such as Nuts in May and for his films including the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and five Academy Award nominations. His latest film (2005) is Vera Drake.

* Eddie Maguire scriptwriter who wrote "Ray's A Laugh" (with Ted Ray) for the BBC among other successes

* Tony Mercer became interested in stage lighting at school and gradually got into artistic direction. He now lives in Moscow but returned to Salford recently to direct the latest dance spectacular The Sleeping Beauty at The Lowry

* Mark Phillip Hendrick is the Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament for Preston.

* David Quinn is a British bird artist. He won the 1987 "Bird Illustrator of the Year Award" of the British Birds magazine.

* Danny Matthews, Radio Presenter and Producer working for Piccadilly Radio, Key 103 and Century Radio

* Gillian Doherty is an author and editor of educational books for young children formerly working for Usborne Publishing but now freelance.

References

External links

* [http://www.builehillschool.co.uk/ Buile Hill] - The school website.