George Abbot School

Infobox UK school
name = George Abbot School


size =
latitude =
longitude =
dms =
motto = Non Sibi Sed Toti (Not For Oneself But For All)
motto_pl =
established =
approx =
closed =
c_approx =
type = Secondary school
religion =
president =
head_label =
head =
r_head_label =
r_head =
chair_label =
chair =
founder =
founder_pl =
specialist =
street = Burpham
city = Guildford
county = Surrey
country = England
postcode =
LEA =
ofsted =
staff =
enrollment =
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses =
colours =
publication =
free_label_1 =
free_1 =
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
website = http://www.georgeabbot.surrey.sch.uk/
website_name =

George Abbot School is a large state secondary school with Arts College status in Burpham in Guildford.

Surrey County Cricket Club's Cricket Academy is located in the grounds of the school.

The school is currently under the leadership of headteacher Danny Moloney BEd (Hons), MA, FRSA. The school caters for seven years (years 7 to 13, typically ages 11 to 18) with years 7 to 11 each split into ten 30-pupil classes totaling 300 students a year.

George Abbot School is located on the north-eastern side of Guildford, within 25 miles of London. The school is often oversubscribed with up to 350 students applying for the 300 spaces available in September each year. It currently has 1,924 students on roll with around 400 in the sixth form, and is the fourteenth biggest school in England. [cite web |url=http://ga.digitalbrain.com/ga/homepage/home/ |title=George Abbot School Homepage |accessdate=2007-12-15 |format=html |work= ]

The school is named after the 17th-century Archbishop of Canterbury George Abbot.

School buildings

The two main buildings are Elmslie and Raynham, named after the two headteachers when the buildings were separate schools, Miss Elmslie for the girls, and Mr Raynham for the boys.

In addition to these, the school has a textiles block, art block, sixth form centre (which houses photography), USIC, sports hall (Surrey County Cricket Club's Cricket Academy), Wilson building (for English), and is currently building a million pound performing arts centre and extra sixth form centre.

School house system

The old school houses were originally named after eight notable Britons, including Livingstone, Scott, Kelvin, Shakespeare, Harvey, Dryden and Newton in the 1970s. This was subsequently amended so that the house names were those of local villages and places, for example Clandon, Albury, Loseley, Onslow and Sutton. From 2003, the names were changed to mythical creatures, and the houses are called Falcon, Gryphon, Marlett, Phoenix and Wyvern.

Each house is made up of two forms. At the beginning of year 7 a girl and a boy from each form are nominated to be the sport captain. Each year after that the students vote for the sports and form representatives in their class for that year.

Throughout the academic year events are staged for students to win points for their houses, including musical, sport, maths and English events. The final totals are collated after the School Sports Day (which is usually in the last week of term) and the House Cup is awarded soon after.

The second letter in each form represent the house they are in (e.g. the form 7PG would be in gyrphon)

House colours and forms

*Falcon-Blue-F and C (Falcon are highest creative scorers)
*Gryphon-Red-G and P (Gryphon are highest credit scorers)
*Phoenix-Green-O and M (Pheonix have won the last 4 consecutive sports cups and the 2007-2008 overall house cup)
*Martlet-Purple-A and W (Martlett are acers of the reading challenge and language competitions)
*Wyvern-Orange-Y and E (Wyvern are trying to be all rounders, but are best at Rugby)

School subjects

George Abbot offers students opportunities to study in a variety of subjects. In Years 7 to 9, students are required to participate in five creative/expressive subjects: dance, drama, music, textiles and art. They also are taught two foreign languages out of three choices: French, German and Latin, one of which is allocated to them when entering the school (French or German only as first modern language)along with Latin until year 8 when they have the option of doing German instead or keep on doing Latin

At Key Stage 4, students have the option of expanding their studies to include photography, sociology, Spanish, child development, food and nutrition and curriculum physical education in addition to the subjects that were available to them in Years 7 to 9.

All GCSE students have to take one humanities subject, one technology subject (for example food technology, graphics, or control technology) or child development, one arts subject (such as photography, textiles or art) and one subject which they can choose from the other blocks.

Some students also take triple science GCSE, leading to three GCSE qualifications and approximately 50% of years 10 and 11 also take full course religious education, whereas the other half take short course. Some also have the option of taking fast track languages [a year early] so they are able to learn another language [Spanish, German or French] and get 2 language gcses. Fastrack German has also been introduced, and it is possible to get 3 full language GCSEs. Or fast track art. Although requests for Fastrack Music and PE has been made, after building the new 6th form block, hopefully the requests will be given at least SOME attention.

Sixth Form College

George Abbot also benefits from a contained Sixth Form College with over 400 students currently being taught in the facility. A-level courses are taught in a wide range of subjects. George Abbot Sixth Form host regular social events for its students in order to unify the sixth form. A new sixth form has just been built with state of the art equipment, including a professional recording studio. It is estimated that if used properly, with the great help the block will give to students, there is a significant chance of A level grades improving.

School Librarian of the Year

On 16 May 2007, the school's principal librarian, Ingrid Hopson, won the School Library Association's School Librarian of the Year 2007 award at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Jim Knight MP, Minister for Schools and 14-19 Learners, commented:

"People like Ingrid fulfil an extremely important role in sparking young people's interests in books and ensuring that children from all backgrounds get the chance to read a broad range of literature."

On 13 June 2007 Ingrid Hopson was one of the "public sector champions" thanked by Prime Minister Tony Blair at a reception at Lancaster House in London. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px69EviqDvs YouTube video of official reception.]

Notable alumni

* Matthew Jarvis, professional footballer
* Ashley Giles, cricketer
* John Renbourn, folk guitarist and former member of Pentangle.
* Iain Ballamy, professional saxophonist

References

External links

* [http://ga.digitalbrain.com/ga/homepage/home/ Official website]