King Alfred's Community and Sports College

Infobox UK school
name = King Alfred's


size =
latitude = 51.5866
longitude = -1.4294
dms = dms
motto =
motto_pl =
established = 19th century
approx =
closed =
c_approx =
type = Foundation school
religion =
president =
head_label = Principal
head = Nicholas Young
r_head_label =
r_head =
chair_label =
chair = Clem Davies
founder =
founder_pl =
specialist = Sports
street = Portway
city = Wantage
county = Oxfordshire
country = England
postcode = OX12 9BY
LEA = Oxfordshire
ofsted = 123263
staff =
enrollment = 1755
gender = Coeducational
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses = Ridgeway, Vale, White Horse
colours = Sky blue, navy blue and black
publication =
free_label_1 =
free_1 =
free_label_2 =
free_2 =
free_label_3 =
free_3 =
website = http://www.kingalfreds.oxon.sch.uk/
website_name =

King Alfred's is a secondary school in Wantage, Oxfordshire. It is named after King Alfred (Alfred The Great) who was born in Wantage sometime between 847 and 849BC.The school has approximately 140 teachers and 2000 students spread across three sites.

History

The general history of King Alfred's is vague and often debated over by local historians. The school amalgamated with Icknield (now East Site) and Segsbury (now West Site) in 1972.

It is unknown whether the West Site college building was built before or after the accompanying bike sheds. Many have argued the latter of the two and thus, this has become the generally accepted theory.

The second oldest known structure on any of the school grounds (first being the Bike Sheds) is undoubtedly the keep of what once was Segsbury Castle, it was recently converted into a Gymnasium with fitted changing areas. The portcullis is still intact and is often used to deter local vandals from damaging the contents of the Gymnasium.

One of the colleges was built on the remains of a Roman burial ground and numerous ghosts are said to haunt the buildings. One, often described as a fully armoured gladiator, is said to stroll around the gymnasium of the west site building, knocking over gym equipment and pulling down ceiling fittings.

The former Icknield site, currently known as East site, or more commonly known by local students as "East the least" has the similar appearance to a run down inner-city school, this is primarily due to the decaying, abandoned terrapin buildings and disused concrete picnic areas. A famous tour of the East site grounds includes; the infamous sites of "Smokers Corner" which is seldom used as an athletics area, the less pleasing canteen still exists on the East site grounds and its main purpose is to commit acts of fraud on local consumers while still retaining its bankruptcy status.

ites

The East Site is the first visited by King Alfred's students. They have two years education here, before being moved on to West Site.

West Site is the second site visited by the students. Again, they do a further two years here before moving on to Centre Site. This site recently had a sports dome constructed over its tennis court.

Centre Site is the last compulsory site visited by the students, but the sixth form is optional.

Achievements

The school is nationally praised as a choice of secondary education in the local area and has been promoted to a foundation college due to the successes of its staff and pupils alike.

In a recent OFSTED inspection, her majesty's inspector credited King Alfred's as a 'good school with outstanding features'.