Thomas Bennett Community College

Infobox UK school
name = Thomas Bennett Community College


size =
latitude = 51.0992
longitude = -0.1894
dms =
motto = Working together for success, happiness and respect for all
motto_pl =
established = 1959
approx =
closed =
c_approx =
type = Comprehensive Secondary
religion =
president =
head_label =
head = Ms Y Maskatiya
r_head_label =
r_head =
chair_label = Chair of Governors
chair = Mr R Bates
founder =
founder_pl =
specialist = Sports College
street = Ashdown Drive
city = Crawley
county = West Sussex
country = Englandflagicon|England
postcode = RH10 5AD
LEA = West Sussex County Council
ofsted = 126075
staff =
enrollment = c.1400
gender = Mixed
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses = Hepburn, Parker, Roberts, Wallis
colours = Yellow & Navy color box|Yellow color box|Navy
publication =
free_label_1 =
free_1 =
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
website = http://www.thomasbennett.org.uk/
website_name = www.thomasbennett.org.uk

Thomas Bennett Community College (TBCC) is a maintained comprehensive secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18. It caters to approximately 1400 pupils in Years 7 to 13, including nearly 200 in its sixth form. It is now a sports college

History

The school was planned as part of the development of Crawley as a new town in the late 1940s. Originally it had been intended to open a grammar school and two secondary modern schools on the Tilgate campus, although by the time the school was built, this plan changed to provide a comprehensive secondary school for boys and girls. [cite book | last = Hudson | first = T.P. (ed.) | title = A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 3: Bramber Rape (North-Eastern Part) including Crawley New Town | origyear = 1987 | url = http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.asp?pubid=68 | accessdate = 2007-01-04 | publisher = Institute of Historical Research by Oxford University Press | location = Oxford | isbn = 0197227686 | pages = pp93-95 | chapter = Crawley New Town: Education | chapterurl = http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=18425]

The school was named after the chairman of the development corporation which had overseen the development of the New Town, Sir Thomas Bennett. Bennett officially opened the school in 1959 (the first pupils having joined the school in 1958). The original school comprised first two and then three main buildings at opposite ends of the campus. The adjoining Ashdown and Southgate buildings provided facilities, with a further building - known as the Canterbury building - approximately 1/4 mile to the south-east. Uses of the buildings varied. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Canterbury building was used for 'lower school' pupils in the first two years of school, with 'upper school' pupils in fourth and fifth forms moving to the Southgate building, and sixth formers based in the Ashdown building. By the 1990s, pupils in the main part of the school were split equally between Canterbury and Southgate buildings, depending on their house.

In 2005, a new school building opened in the centre of the campus, with the old buildings being demolished.

Campus

The masterplan for Crawley New Town set aside the campus for the school in the south-west corner of the neighbourhood of Tilgate between the A23 and Tilgate Forest. The campus contained both the Thomas Bennett school and the local primary school - Desmond Anderson School. Both schools were re-built, opening in entirely new buildings in 2005. The campus is now shared with the town's main leisure facilities: K2

The current building houses all pupils from all year groups in a building built under a Private Finance Initiative scheme which replaced several schools in the town in the period 2004-2005. An Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment audit reported that the building was well-designed. [cite news | first = Jonathan | last = Milne | title = High-class but poor quality | url = http://www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2261871 | work = Times Educational Supplement | publisher = TSL Education Ltd | date = 2006-07-14 | accessdate = 2007-01-04]

tudents

The school is entirely comprehensive, providing education for approximately 1400 pupils aged between 11 and 18 of all abilities. The school was formerly much larger with around 2000 pupils, but has reduced in recent years.

The school is organised into four houses, named after the original house masters/mistresses when the school opened in the 1950s, each of which was allocated a colour:
*Hepburn (Yellow)
*Parker (Green)
*Roberts (Blue)
*Wallis (Red)

Most pupils attending the school live within the catchment area, and transfer from one of the local primary schools:
*Desmond Anderson Primary School
*The Oaks Primary School
*Broadfield East Junior School
*Seymour Primary School
*Southgate Primary School
*Hilltop Primary School

External links

* [http://www.thomasbennett.org.uk/ Thomas Bennett Community College website]

References