Q3 Academy

Q3 Academy

Motto	No child left behind
Established	1964
Type	Independent School,
Religion	Secular
Headteacher	Caroline Badyal
Specialism	Design and Enterprise Specialism
Location	Wilderness Lane Great Barr Birmingham West Midlands B43 7SD England
Local authority	Sandwell
DfE URN	104005
Ofsted	Reports
Students	1046
Gender	Co-educational
Ages	11–18
Houses	Social Design, Communications, Arts, Lifestyle and Discovery
Colours	Blue
Website	Q3 Academy

Coordinates: 52°33′13″N 1°56′42″W / 52.5535°N 1.9449°W / 52.5535; -1.9449

Q3 Academy, previously known as Dartmouth High School, is an Academy type secondary school located on Wilderness Lane in Great Barr, England, near the border with Birmingham in the Great Barr area of the City. It used to be controlled by Sandwell LEA.

History

Dartmouth High School opened in September 1964 as a secondary modern school, becoming comprehensive in September 1969.

It became Q3 Academy in September 2008. In August 2008, the project to rebuild the school began. It took 21 months to build, and was ready for students in April 2010, straight after the Easter Holiday. The old building is now demolished and the final landscaping phase is taking place. The whole project should be completed by September 2010.

Information

The school's current head teacher is Caroline Badyal. She arrived on a secondment from the Dormston School in Sedgley (where she had been a deputy head teacher for four years and a member of staff for 12 years) in September 2002, and received the job on a permanent basis in April 2003.

It will be sponsored by the Grace Charitable Trust. The main sponsor is Christian businessman Eric Payne, who was born in Sandwell, and moved his family conduit business to Wales. As an Academy, it will be independent, with limited power remaining with the local authority.

In September 2008, the school officially became Q3 Academy, moving into a new school building within the original school's ground at the beginning of the summer term in April 2010.

The first GCSE students to leave the academy in July 2009 achieved impressive grades, with 44% gaining five or more GCSEs at U or above. This placed it as third of Sandwell's 17 secondary schools.

On the 11th November 2010, HRH the Earl of Wessex officially opened the Academy.^{[citation needed]}

School Fire

The school's science block was destroyed by fire on 17 November 2003 and had to be completely rebuilt. It needed about 100 firefighters. Around 200 pupils lost their coursework in the blaze. There was also a blaze in June 2006 in room K6.

Alumni

(All of the listed people attended while it was Dartmouth High School)

• John Bainbridge, Author and Countryside Campaigner
• Cat Deeley, Television personality
• Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat MP
• Matthew Marsden, actor
• Rob Young, author
• Gillian Wearing, Turner Prize winner
• Chambers Twins, Professional Footballers
• John Constandinou, athlete
• Ravi Verma, Founder of 'Ravis PCs'

External links

• School performance in 2007
• EduBase
• Ofsted report for Q3 Academy
• Great Barr £30 million Q3 Academy opens its doors to students

News items

• Arson attack in June 2006
• Lessons resume after blaze in November 2003