Crossley Heath Grammar School

Infobox UK school
name = Crossley Heath Grammar School


size =
latitude = 53.7116
longitude = -1.878
dms =
motto =
motto_pl =
established = 1985
approx =
closed =
c_approx =
type = foundation grammar
religion =
president =
head_label = Head Teacher
head = Miss Helen J. Gaunt
r_head_label =
r_head =
chair_label = Chair of Governors
chair = Dr S. Thornber
founder =
founder_pl =
specialist = Languages
specialist_pl =
street = Savile Park
city = Halifax
county = West Yorkshire
country = England flagicon|England
postcode = HX3 0HG
LEA = Calderdale Borough Council
ofsted = 107575
staff =
enrollment = 1015
gender = Mixed
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses = Porter, Savile, Kings and Queens
colours =
publication =
free_label_1 =
free_1 =
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
website = http://www.crossleyheath.calderdale.sch.uk/
website_name = www.crossleyheath.calderdale.sch.uk

The Crossley Heath Grammar School is a grammar school located in Savile Park, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England.

History

The Crossley Heath School was founded in 1985 as an amalgamation of the Crossley and Porter School and Heath Grammar School.

Heath Grammar School

Heath Grammar School, Free School Lane, Halifax, West Yorkshire was founded in 1585 by Dr John Favour. Its full title was The Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth. Henry Farror and his brother gave two acres of land in Skircoat Green and personally obtained the school charter from Elizabeth I of England at his own expense. Dr Favour became the Vicar of Halifax in 1593.

Crossley and Porter School

In 1857, Frank (later Sir Francis Crossley, 1st Baronet) and John Crossley, of Dean Clough Mills, founded an orphanage through capital of 56,000 UKP and a further endowment of 50,000 UKP. In 1887, after a gift of 50,000 UKP from Thomas Porter, a Manchester yarn merchant, the orphanage was extended to include schooling. Over time, the need for an orphanage decreased and the school became a grammar school. The building was designed by John Hogg, a local architect.

At the time of the 1881 census [Census returns for Skircoat, 1841-1891. UK Public Records Office RG11/408/102 pg 1. (Online transcription [http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1881BR_4571353] )] , head master William Cambridge Barber, assisted by a matron, head mistress, and 8 assistant head masters and mistresses, presided over a population of 216 "scholar orphans." They included 84 girls and 132 boys, ranging in age from 7 to 16. They were mostly English born, but included a few Irish as well as children from as far away as Australia.

A Royal Charter of January 31, 1887, named the institution The Crossley and Porter Orphan Home and School. In 1919 the school was given royal permission to admit day pupils.

Crossley Heath School

The amalgamation required a re-organisation of the two sets of staff, the net outcome being the former Head of Crossley and Porter, Paul Barker, became the head of the new school with John Bunch, former acting Head of Heath becoming Deputy Headmaster. The first intake of true Crossley Heathens arrived on Tuesday 27th August 1985. The initial intake was circa 90 pupils; a reduction from the previous intakes of Crossley and Porter and Heath intakes by around 50 pupils.

The school was initially located on two sites, the former Crossley and Porter School building and the Heath School building (initially referred to as the Crossley Heath Annex but later changed to the Crossley Heath 6th Form Centre). The former Heath building initially housed the combined sixth forms of the two schools, plus the combined fourth form, with all other years being housed in the Savile Park site. As the number of pupils reduced over the coming years, the 6th form and 4th form were relocated to the Savile Park site and the Free School Lane site was passed over the local authority to become a training centre. Throughout period, the staff head count was also reduced to reflect the smaller numbers of pupils.

It is now also a specialist language college in Halifax with permission to use Savile Park moor for teaching and lunchtime use.

Present day

In the last year the school has had a new technology block built, along with a new language wing to go with the status of Language College. The school now teaches after school classes for members of the public of any age and pupils to learn languages from French, Spanish and German to Mandarin Chinese.

The school has also been spending money on trips abroad such as a recent music tour to Barcelona, an excursion to the Rhineland region of Germany for year 8 pupils and two exchange trips to Beijing, creating what hopes to be a lasting link in the Autumn of 2005 and July 2006. There is also an annual residential trip to Castleton in Year 8. Also in year 10, there is a Geography trip to Iceland and a History trip to the Battlefields of World War I.

The school has a flourishing house system with all students belonging to one of the four houses; Porter, Savile (derived from the Crossley and Porter School - the houses of Crossley and Standeven were dropped in the merger), Kings and Queens (derived from Heath Grammar School). There are competitions between the houses each year, including the school Sports Day, Swimming Gala, House Music Competition and House Drama Competitions. There is also fierce competition between forms in each year, both in academic targets and in charity work. The school is extremely supportive of many charities and forms will often compete to raise the most money for charity events; Comic Relief, Jeans for Genes and Children in Need are just some of the charities supported on a regular basis.

The school also has many successful sports teams, many of whom win competitions on a local and national scale. These include the athletics team, the cross country team, hockey teams, football teams and rugby teams.

The school also tends to have a very close knit community that is friendly towards each other as well as the staff, who are very approachable and treat students as young adults rather than children, and many students report that there is a very positive feel about the school.

The Crossley Heath School is a mixed, foundation grammar school with 984 pupils andstudents on roll aged from 11 to 18. There are 214 students in the sixth form. The schooldoes not yet have a complete set of figures indicating the number of pupils from minorityethnic groups and for those who speak English as an additional language for the current year,as a small number of forms containing this information have not been returned by parents.

There are usually around six percent in each group, with no pupils at early stages of language acquisition. The proportion of pupilswith special educational needs, and the proportion with statements, is well below the nationalaverage. Those with the most severe need have physical disabilities. The proportion of pupilsknown to be entitled to free school meals is well below the national average. The areasurrounding the school is relatively prosperous, but the school draws from a very widegeographical area and some pupils travel long distances to school. Pupils are selected foradmission based on their performance in tests administered by the school, and the attainmentof pupils on entry to the school in Year 7 is very high. The attainment of students on entry tothe sixth form is well above average.

In 2006 the school started using the FrogTeacher Virtual Learning Environment to help enrich students learning. In late 2006 they started getting Students involved in its development and in June 2008, Jonathan Lees (IT Manager) and Josh Mitchell (student), who pioneered the changes, visited London with another student for the "National Learning Platforms and Portals Conference," ["FrogTeacher" - "School leaders leap into action at the essential learning platforms conference." - See External Links] where they presented their school's VLE to IT Managers and teachers alike at the Cumberland Hotel.

Alumni

Although various famous people were pupils at either Crossley and Porter or Heath, there have been few Crossley Heathen celebrities since the schools' amalgamation in 1985. This is not to say there have been no notable former pupils. Famous former pupils include:

James Naylor (1985-1992) - Newcastle Falcons and England B Rugby Union player.

Lewis Sharpe (1998-2005) - Pro NBA player for the Toronto Raptors 2007-Present day

Famous Former Pupils of the Crossley and Porter and Heath Grammar Schools include:

Barrie Ingham (born 1934) - English actor in stage, TV and film.

Brian Moore {1973-1980} - British Lions and England Rugby Union International.

Oliver Smithies (1925-Present Day) - Co-Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Brian Turner {1958-60} - Celebrity Chef and Restaurateur

Well known businessman, author and photographer Steve Fryer was a pupil at Crossley and Porter from 1965 until 1971

Leslie WoodheadOne of Britain's most distinguished documentary film makers, he almost certainly attended Heath school from 1948. Although born in Glasgow in 1937 his family moved to Halifax after the war where they owned and ran a record shop in the Halifax Borough Market. Writing in his autobiography 'My Life As A Spy' he describes how, 'in the Autumn of 1948, plucked out via the chancy selection of the eleven plus examination, I was translated to a boy's grammar school with a Latin motto over the gate.' The Woodhead family record shop later traded under the 'Bradleys Records' name and today the premises are in use as a photograpy retailer.

The Crossley Heath School book

A book ["Crossley Heath School", Rose Taylor; Andrew Kafel; Russell Smith. Tempus Publishing Limited, 2006. ISBN 0-7524-3866-2.] was written by Rose Taylor, Andrew Kafel and Russell Smith that covers a history of Heath School and Crossley and Porter Schools which amalgamated to form the present Crossley Heath School. Images dating from Victorian times right up to the present aim to fully cover the interesting histories of both schools with captions giving further information. Many of the images, particularly those from the days of the Crossley and Porter Orphan Home and School are from the Crossley Heath Archives and have never been published before.

External links

* [http://www.crossleyheath.calderdale.sch.uk/ Welcome to the Crossley Heath School]
* [http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/index.cfm?fuseaction=summary&id=107575 Ofsted Report - The Crossley Heath School]
* [http://frogtrade.com/index.phtml?d=250220 FrogTrade Article on the "Nation Learning Platforms and Portals Conferance"]
* [http://www.crossleyheath.calderdale.sch.uk/user/59/32294.pdf School VLE Newsletter, including Conferance Article]

References