Sir James Smith's School

Infobox UK school
name = Sir James Smith's Community School


size = 100px
latitude = 50.62170
longitude = -4.68434
dms = dms
motto =
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established = 1679
approx =
closed =
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type = Comprehensive
religion =
president =
head_label = Headteacher
head = Mr Jon Lawrence
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chair =
founder =
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specialist = Humanities College
specialist_pl =
street = Dark Lane
city = Camelford
county = Cornwall
country = England
postcode = PL32 9UJ
LEA = Cornwall
ofsted = 112039
staff = 60
enrollment = 716
gender = Coeducational
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses = Chydeme, Tredeme, Poldeme & Landeme
colours = Bottle Green and Red
publication =
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website = http://www.sirjamessmiths.cornwall.sch.uk
website_name =

Sir James Smith's School is a small humanities college in the town of Camelford, North Cornwall, England, providing education at secondary level. The headteacher is Jon Lawrence, who succeeded Angela Perlmutter in January 2007.

Founded as a grammar school in 1679, at a property overlooking the town, the school has been state run since 1962 when it moved to Dark Lane. It was the first purpose-built comprehensive school in Cornwall.

The catchment area for Sir James Smith's is largely rural and covers an extensive and sparsely populated region of north Cornwall, stretching along the coast from Crackington Haven down to Port Isaac, and reaching inland as far as St Breward and the isolated hamlets and farmsteads of Bodmin Moor. Other villages in the catchment area include Tintagel, Boscastle, Delabole and St. Teath. The catchment area covers one of the most economically deprived areas of the EU. Available employment is frequently part-time and/or seasonal and the average wage is the lowest in the UK; whereas property and living costs are among the highest. The school has 600 pupils aged 11-16 and a further 50 students in the Sixth Form. It is one of the smallest state secondary schools in the UK. For comparison, neighbouring secondary schools have between 1200 - 2100 pupils aged 11-16 and 200+ 6th formers.

The last decade has seen an extension to the adult education building; the Salon United for careers in hair and beauty therapy (2007); the West End music and drama suite (2004); a new reception and office suite (2003); a new Maths block (2001) and The Princess of Wales Design Centre (Arts and Technology) (1992). The school is undergoing further building work to facelift sections of the exterior (whose concrete facade has not aged well.

In October 2007 it was announced that the school's Sixth Form block would be closing with immediate effect. No new students were to be taken on the following September. The news was greeted with grave concern among many teachers, students, parents and locals. Year 12 will be permitted to finish their studies at the school. Future year 11 graduees will henceforth have to travel to other Sixth Form centres at Wadebridge, Bude or Truro College. [http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144125&command=displayContent&sourceNode=232510&home=yes&more_nodeId1=232470&contentPK=18759496]

Uniform

The school uniform consists of;
* Bottle green sweatshirt (with the school emblem - a red camel - embroidered on the top left)
* White polo shirt
* Black or white socks
* Black or grey trousers; bottle green skirt for girls

In 2001 a protest by students, requesting that shorts to be added to the uniform, resulted in many being locked out of the school. As of 2008, shorts have not been added to the uniform. In 2007, a redesigned P.E. kit was introduced, consisting of a blue shirt with a black horizontal band.

Deme system

In 2004 the "deme" system was introduced: Deme being a Latin term for a house or group. The demes are equivalent to the House system followed by many neighbouring schools. An in-school competition followed to name them: those selected were all from the Cornish language, with "deme" added to the end. Despite the recent adoption, some demes have already attained distinctive characteristics: Tredeme, for example, have a reputation for academic prowess whereas a stereotypical Landeme student would be expected to excel in sport.
* Chydeme- blue
* Tredeme- orange
* Poldeme- purple
* Landeme- yellow

Humanities

In 2005 Sir James Smiths school became the first specialist humanities college in Cornwall.

2008

At the end of the term in 2008 at the deme presentation awards ceremony Tredeme were announced as the winners of the award for best deme in the 2007-2008 term. This was the first time since the introduction of the deme system back in 2004 that tredeme have won the award.

References

External links

* [http://www.sirjamessmiths.cornwall.sch.uk/ Official website]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/06/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/908_4141.stm 2006 Sir James Smith's School results on BBC Education]