Lord Grey School

Infobox UK school
name = Lord Grey School


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motto = Excellence, Dare to Succeed
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city =Milton Keynes
county =Buckinghamshire
country =England
postcode =MK3 6EW
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gender = Mixed
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses = Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Rome
colours = Dark Green
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free_label_1 = Specialism
free_1 = Language College, Humanities College
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website = [http://www.lordgrey.org.uk]
website_name = Official Website

The Lord Grey School is a comprehensive co-educational secondary school in West Bletchley, Milton Keynes. The school is a dual specialist Language College and Humanities College [http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_providers/full/(urn)/110531] .

Ofsted report

Ofsted inspected the school in January 2003. In their report summary, they say [ [http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/pdf/?inspectionNumber=252105&providerCategoryID=32&fileName=\school\110\s10_110531_20030429.pdf Ofsted inspection report] ]

Lord Grey is a good school. It has improved significantly through very good leadership with a strong focus on learning. Standards have risen and GCSE results are at the national average. Students achieve well from their standard of attainment on entry. Teaching is good, because many teachers are enthusiastic and give good support to individual students. However, in some lessons students need more opportunities to think for themselves. Students’ attitudes and behaviour are generally good, though a minority have attendance problems. Management is good at all levels and both teachers and support staff work well as a team in students’ interests. There is good potential for further improvement. The school gives satisfactory value for money.

pecialist curriculum

Lord Grey school teaches German, French, Spanish and Italian as its core languages. Depending on what band students are in they take either one or two languages. Band A students take two lessons each of two core languages a week. Band B students have three lessons of one core language a week. The school also offers extra curricular languages: Russian, Mandarin-Chinese, and formerly Japanese. Japanese studies will no longer be continued in 2007 because of the departure of the Japanese specialist, Ben Gale.

Banding

In order to make sure each student works up to their full potential, Lord Grey has a student banding system. In the previous system there were 3 bands (A, B and C) and six groups in each band, in September 2006, C was removed. E.G, 8a-Ge1 (the 8 representing the year group and the Ge1 representing the class the student is in).Since September 2007, this was changed to "X" and "Y" which were determined by which language they were studying (those who are learning French or Italian would be in X and those learning Spanish or German in Y), the number group would mean best and worse so X Maths 1 and Y Maths 1, for example would be of equal intelligence.

General information

Lord Grey has four school houses: Rome, Paris, Madrid and Berlin, representing the capitals of the countries of the four core languages taught there. Throughout the year, there are a number of events that give 'house points' as prizes.

Lord Grey's infrastructure has undergone a large amount of development in the period 2003 - 2006 and this has led to the creation of a Maths block, a Language Block (completed November 2005), a pavilion and a new library. In the school summer holidays 2006, the large water tower in the front entrance of the school was demolished and replaced with new tarmac. New carpets were also laid and the tower block was re-painted.

Head-teacher controversy

The previous head teacher of Lord Grey, Despina Pavlou, caused much controversy for her management methods. Ms Pavlou was finally suspended [ [http://www.miltonkeynestoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=415&ArticleID=1419680 Milton Keynes Today "Headteacher suspended as governors' chairman quits"] ] in 2006 for allegedly assaulting the deputy head, Mrs Linda Lennox. Ms Pavlou was mentioned in the national press twice in 2006, once for the assault and a second time for winning a court battle [ [http://www.miltonkeynestoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=415&ArticleID=1396905 Milton Keynes Today "School wins legal battle"] ] with an excluded student regarding an arson attack on the school that she believed he had caused although he denied it. From February 2006, Ms Pavlou was replaced by Dr Jones, who was already part of the Lord Grey staff. She, however resigned at the end of the school year (July 2006) after being offered a job as headteacher at another school. When a new school year started Jill Coughlan was officially made the headteacher.

Science block

In February 2008 the Science block was refurbished and also an extension to the block which is attached to the maths block was completed.

References

External links

* [http://www.lordgrey.co.uk/ Lord Grey School website]
* [http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_providers/full/(urn)/110531/ OFSTED Report]