The Castle School Taunton

Infobox UK school
name = The Castle School


size =
latitude = 51.0169
longitude = -3.1179
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established =
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closed =
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type = comprehensive school
religion =
president =
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specialist = Sports College
specialist_pl =
street = Wellington Road
city = Taunton
county = Somerset
country = England
postcode = TA1 5AU
LEA =
ofsted =
staff =
enrollment = 1194
gender =
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 16
houses =
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website = http://www.castleschool.com/
website_name = The Castle School

The Castle School is a co-educational comprehensive school in Taunton, Somerset, United Kingdom. It has some 1,194 pupils aged 11-16, and has had specialist Sports College status since 2003. [ [http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/index.cfm?fuseaction=summary&id=123886 Ofsted Inspection Report, January 2006] ] It has recently been granted a second specialism in Vocational Education.

Facilities

The school has many facilities which are used extensively by students and the local community on a regular basis. There are many sporting facilities for example such as the new Athletics Track and G3 synthetic turf pitch which is one of the only all weather pitches in the UK. In addition there is a fully equipped gym with state of the art equipment as well as a sports hall. All of these facilities are used by students participating in P.E. and extra curricular activities and the local community also participate in activities and clubs run by the sports centre.

In addition to the many sporting facilities at the school there are also a lot of IT facilities available exclusively to students. At present there are 5 stand alone IT rooms as well as computers being situated in the Craft Design and Technology department, Art department and in other assorted classrooms. The library has recently undergone major refurbishment, and is now an integrated learning centre, boasting over forty computers, two smart boards and a seminar room, along with well stocked bookshelves. These facilities offer students advanced help in their work, especially in History which is very IT involved, with most lessons using IT to bring learning to life. On a much smaller scale the school also offers a Video Editing Suite, used by Drama students to edit and refine their work. It is also used by students to help the school in many other ways such as producing video work for the schools leavers prom, and in the creation of promotional videos.

There are also the specially built music rooms complimenting and supporting the musical talent of Castle students. These music rooms help students studying music from year 7 to year 11 and also support musical bands set up by groups of students. The main hall also facilitates musical concerts, enabling students who participate in extra curricular music to express and show their talent.The main hall has played host to a large number of student bands, including Stoneflow, Crimson Love, The Shindigs (now disbanded), The Swelling, Blue Roots and many other one-off performances for the annual Christmas Variety Show, such as Some People who closed the 2006 show with a rendition of The Who's anthem Pinball Wizard. A memorable performance from the 2006 Variety Show is the Drum Kit duet/battle that came second overall. Another notable performance came from a four piece group who played in several shows and won the Variety Show Trophy in 2004 with 'Bathwater'. The school hosts many student related concerts, mainly for charity.

The school continues to improve and expand the facilities it offers to students, making the school more modern and up to date.

Site

The Castle School site is very large in order to accommodate the ever increasing population of students. The original parts of the building include the tower block, and the ground floor building connected to it (which covers the canteen, main hall and science blocks). The newer buildings include the Sealy Building, Sports hall and Sports centre and the Jubilee building which opened in 2003. This has enabled departments to grow and offer more to its students by way of facilities and improved teaching rooms.

Drama and dance

The school is very well supported in both these areas, both by students and teachers. The Drama department for example is supported by an outstanding Technical Crew (made up solely of 6 students, and Mr Griffin), who show incredible commitment through setting-up and operating all the sound and lighting for shows, as well as lend technical support in many other areas. There are numerous productions which take place throughout the year including the House Drama and House Dance as well as the Variety Show which continues to gain popularity every year. Mr Steve Mitchell is head of drama.

Main school production

It has been traditional for the school over the years to put on a main production which is either a musical or a play. Recent productions have included "The Wizard of Oz" (2007), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (2006), "Bugsy Malone" (2005) and "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" (2004). The productions have also combined dancing supported by the dance department. Once again the main productions gain a lot of support from teachers, students and parents as well as the local community and continue to grow and improve each year. The latest production to be staged was "West Side Story". [cite web |url=http://www.castleschool.com/?news=68 |title=West Side Story |accessdate=2008-04-08 |format= |work=Castle School ]

References

External links

* [http://www.castleschool.com The Castle School]