- Collingwood College, Surrey
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Collingwood College 
Motto Believe, Succeed Established 1971 Type Comprehensive academy Principal Jerry Oddie[1] Vice principal Karen Griffths, Eden Tanner Chair Steve Barker[2] Specialism Technology Location Kingston Road
Camberley
Surrey
GU15 4AE
England
DfE URN 125301 Ofsted Reports Staff 260 Students Over 2000 Gender Mixed Ages 11–18 Colours Blue, white and black Former name Frimley and Camberley Grammar School Website Collingwood College Coordinates: 51°21′00″N 0°43′17″W / 51.3499°N 0.7215°W
Collingwood College is a state secondary school located in Camberley, Surrey, England for 11-18 year olds.
Contents
Admissions
It is one of the best secondary schools in Surrey[citation needed], and the third biggest in the UK[citation needed], with over 2000 pupils, including more than 400 in the Sixth Form. It occupies a 30-acre (120,000 m2) campus and is divided in the three main areas 'Kingston' (Years 10 & 11) and 'Barossa' (Years 7-9), and the new, purpose-built, Sixth Form Centre. This was funded by the sale of land, on which the college's previous sixth form centre (named "Ballard") was situated. Collingwood College is a DCSF designated High performing Specialist school in Technology and Vocational Education.[citation needed]
It is situated just north of the A30, near the Jolly Farmer roundabout on the Old Dean Estate, Camberley.
History
Earlier school
The school derives itsef from the Frimley and Camberley County Grammar School, the Bagshot County Secondary School, and the Barossa County Secondary School. In July 1970, Surrey County Council wavered over whether to go ahead with the comprehensive plan.
Comprehensive
The first Headmaster in 1971 was Mr. Leonard Roe, who had previously been Headmaster of the grammar school. He was followed by Peter Halls-Dickerson, who was a major advocate of the idea of direct grant schools. Collingwood was one of the earliest direct grant schools to be created after the passage of the legislation by the then Conservative government.[dubious ] The headmaster from 1974 until the 1990s was Peter Halls-Dickerson.
Grant-maintained school
On 1 September 1991 Collingwood School became Collingwood College – a Grant Maintained school. This change of status was overwhelmingly supported by the parents. In 1999, under the new School’s Framework, the school adopted Foundation status.
In September 1994 Collingwood College became a Self-Governing Technology College. Following the new funding, the school built the Halls-Dickerson Technology centre, also one of the first of its kind. As of 1 April 2008, the College has been granted High Performing Specialist School status. The school also specialises in Vocational Education, which provides education for working life; such as hairdressing, building and other manual labour based jobs.
Collingwood is a founding member of the Surrey Heath Area Partnership for Education, (SHAPE) Surrey's 14-19 network. SHAPE runs Diploma courses in IT, for which Collingwood is the lead school and also Society Health and Development. Future Diplomas will be offered in Business and Finance and Creative Media which will begin in 2009.
Catchment
Its catchment area encompasses much of the Surrey Heath area of Camberley, Bagshot, Lightwater, Windlesham, Bisley, Chobham and West End.
Stabbing Incident
The school appeared in the national press following a November 2005 incident in which a student was repeatedly stabbed with a pair of scissors, including one wound above the eye.[3]
The school was also featured on a special programme called "School of Hard Knocks" on ITV that was aired on the 6 November 2006. It examied the assault in some detail. It featured an interview with Natashia and her parents, as well as stories from other victims of bullying. The programme publicly criticised the Principal for denying that there was a bullying problem at Collingwood. However, an OFSTED report in 2007 showed that there were no serious problems with bullying at Collingwood College.[4]
Collingwood College Productions
Every year Collingwood Productions stage their annual musical under the Direction of Jane Roberts (Head of Speech and Drama). The running of the productions are of the highest standard using a proscenium arche stage with professional lighting, full technical and stage crew and orchestral accompaniment. The production boasts professional input from ex-faculty and students. James Paulding, currently head of Operations at Alton Towers, trained at the Guilford School Of Acting following his education at Collingwood and returns every year to design the lighting for the shows. Graham Wynne, trained at Cambridge University and went on to teach at Collingwood where he met Jane Roberts. After a successful career in interior design he worked on many series of Changing Rooms and he also returns every year to design the set for the productions. BBC actress Jessica Henwick is known to have taken part in several Collingwood Productions while attending the school.
The Productions are auditioned in the first to weeks of December allowing the principals to get to grips with their parts over the holidays. They then return in January to begin the rehearsal process. After the two and a half month period the shows are staged around the last week of March and normally run for four nights, Wednesday-Saturday. Jane Roberts has been the resident Producer and Director of Collingwood Productions now for twenty five years. Her productions have included:
- 1984 Cabaret
- 1985 Sweeney Todd
- 1987 Dracula Spectacular
- 1988 My Fair Lady
- 1989 The Pajama Game
- 1990 Kiss Me Kate
- 1992 Grease
- 1993 South Pacific
- 1994 High Society
- 1995 Guys and Dolls
- 1998 Oliver!
- 2000 Sweet Charity
- 2001 Bugsy Malone
- 2002 Grease
- 2003 My Fair Lady
- 2004 Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
- 2006 The Wizard of Oz
- 2007 Oliver!
- 2008 Bugsy Malone
- 2009 Sweeney Todd
- 2010 Grease
- 2011 Little Shop of Horrors
Teaching
Due to the huge number of students at Collingwood, the school is very organised in its hierarchy of staff. Each year has a Head Of Year and Pastoral Assistant, who move up with the students through their years at the school. Also, each assistant principal is assigned to a year, to take care of other pastoral issues.
All subjects that are taught at the school are assigned a faculty, where the faculty head assists with the running of the subjects, and provides behavioural support to the teachers in their faculty.
Sixth Form Centre
In 2005, the new Sixth Form Centre was officially opened by The Countess of Wessex.[5] This replaced the aging "Ballard" building which was subsequently demolished after the sale of the land it was situated on. The Sixth Form Centre features an extremely modernised architecture, a series of seven small IT classrooms plus one large computer suite on the top floor. The centre provides facilities for sixth form students such as a common room and private study area.
Academic performance
Collingwood performs consistently above both the LEA (Surrey) and national average at both GCSE and A-Level.[citation needed]
Notable alumni
- Steve Backshall, climber and naturalist, most recently seen on BBC's Lost Land of the Jaguar
- Sharon Carr, youngest female killer in Britain.[6]
- Paul Cross, who played George in the 1990s TV series, The Borrowers
- Dan Frazier, professional rugby player for Newcastle Falcons in RFU Premiership.
- Matt Goss, Luke Goss and Craig Logan, who formed the successful 1980s pop band, Bros
- Jessica Henwick, lead actress of the BBC's Spirit Warriors
- Adam Powell and Donna Williams, founders of the online virtual pet site, Neopets
Notes
- ^ video interview
- ^ "Governors". Collingwood College.
- ^ "Stabbed schoolgirl 'attacked before'". The Guardian. 11 November 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2005/nov/11/schools.uk3.
- ^ OFSTED (15 March 2007). "Collingwood College Ofsted Report". http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_reports/display/%28id%29/82130. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
- ^ BBC News (20 January 2007). "Countess back to school on 40th". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/4192161.stm. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
- ^ Kim, Sengupta (26 March 1997). "I was born to be a killer. Every night I see the Devil in my dreams". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/i-was-born-to-be-a-killer-every-night-i-see-the-devil-in-my-dreams-1275032.html. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
External links
Categories:- Comprehensive schools in Surrey
- Technology Colleges in England
- Educational institutions established in 1971
- Surrey Heath
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