St. Edwards Church of England School

Infobox UK school
name = St Edward's CofE Comprehensive School, Language College and Sixth Form Centre


size =
latitude = 51.57254
longitude = 0.15437
dms = dms
motto =
motto_pl =
established = 1710
approx =
closed =
c_approx =
type =
religion = Church of England
president =
head_label = Headteacher
head = Mr Perry
r_head_label =
r_head =
chair_label =
chair = Rev. S. Waine
founder =
founder_pl =
specialist = Language College
specialist_pl =
street = London Road
city = Romford
county = Essex
country = England
postcode = RM7 9NX
LEA = Havering
ofsted = 102349
staff = 100
enrollment = 1009
gender = Coeducational
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses =
colours =
publication = Reachout
free_label_1 =
free_1 =
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
website = http://www.steds.havering.sch.uk
website_name =

St. Edward's Church of England Comprehensive School is a coeducational school for eleven to eighteen year olds in Romford, Greater London, England. It is a specialised Language College and contains a sixth form for sixteen to eighteen year olds. It was founded in 1710, making it the oldest school in the area.

Following recent expansion from a six form to eight form entry and a larger sixth form, there are currently approximately 1290 students in the school, aged between 11 and 18. The school is located on London Road. The current Headmaster is Rev. Alan Perry.

History

The original St. Edward's school was founded as a charity school in 1710. The vestry book for St. Edwards Church in Romford records an entry on the September 5 1710"whereas a charity school is erecting or setting up with all possible speed to be set up and opened in this town of Romford... for the educating of poor children and teaching them to Read and Write and instructing them in the knowledge and practice of the Christian religion as profesed and taught in the Church of England..."

For the first eighteen years the school was accommodated in two houses, but in 1728 it moved to a new building in the Market Place in Romford, where it remained until the mid 1960s when the primary and secondary classes separated and moved to their present sites.

St. Edward's Comprehensive School and St. Edward's Primary School are now run independently, but they still have much in common (they are both schools called 'St Edwards') and work very closely together. Most of the primary school pupils transfer to the comprehensive school at 11, and they account for over one third of the 210 pupils who join every September.

Recent history

Recently approximately £ 2 million has been spent expanding the school by building a new block, which includes, but is not limited to, five science labs, a computer suite, two large drama studios and fifteen regular classrooms.

The school was recently made into a language college. This has given it access to further funding for courses in Spanish, French and German to up to A level, as well as lessons in Mandarin up to GCSE.

The school recently had underwent more building works in the lower block of the school. The building works have created: a new extended and modernized library, a brand new 'Jack Petchy' suite (in honor of the grant money provided by the Jack Petchy foundation) in the former Sixth Form library which is above the main library. However the building works are still being completed.

chool newsletter

A monthly newsletter is published by the school. This is entitled "Reachout" and keeps students up to date on current affairs within the school and can mark out special activities or events, such as sporting events, "rag week", school trips or the end of year prom.

Sporting successes

The school competes in a number of sports. Most notably in volleyball the school's female under 17 team qualified for the World Schools Volleyball Championship in Croatia, where they represented the whole of England. The school also has teams in rugby, basketball, swimming (girls), athletics, cricket and football. Softball was also recently introduced.

School links

The School has links within the local area, and internationally. It works alongside two local churches, St Edward's and St Andrew's, as well as with its partner primary school. Internationally, it runs exchanges with a school in Molay in France and Zaragoza in Spain. It also has links with a school in Beijing and has developed these so that Mandarin is now taught as a GCSE course. They also have links with a school in Cologne and Cuba where 5 year 10 pupils (as of 2008) and a few sixth formers along with teachers travelled to in Easter 2008 to develop further links with the school.

Notable Alumni

Katy Hill, former Blue Peter and childrens tv presener

Christine Ohuruogu, Olympic gold medalist

External links

* [http://www.steds.havering.sch.uk/ School Website]
* [http://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/content/havering/recorder/news/story.aspx?brand=REConline&category=newsRomford&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsromford&itemid=WeED22%20Aug%202008%2012%3A05%3A21%3A467] ]