Arnold Hill Comprehensive School

Infobox School2
name = Arnold Hill Comprehensive School
established = 1959/1974
type = State school
head_name = Headteacher
head = Robin Fugill
city = Nottingham
state = Nottinghamshire
country = United Kingdom
campus = Nottingham
students =
colours = Green
website = http://www.arnoldhillschool.co.uk/website/

Arnold Hill Comprehensive School is a mixed state school in the county of Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands. It teaches children from 11 to 18 - Years 7-13. It is located in Arnold but it serves children from various nearby areas including Killisick, Daybrook, Woodthorpe, Mapperley and Sherwood. It is split into two sites ("Main School" and "Lower School") and has 1700 pupils and 300 teachers - one of the largest comprehensive schools in Nottinghamshire.

History

Grammar school to Comprehensive

The original designation was the Arnold County High School, which opened in 1959 as a grammar school, with the first influx of second and third year pupils from Bramcote Hills Grammar School and Eastwood Park Technical School. Pupils came from about a ten mile (16 km) radius and at that time, the county was in an extensive school building programme, to cope with the post-war baby boom. The lack of university places also limited the number of pupils able to progress to a university education so GCE pass marks were set very high, ensuring that only the academically gifted gained university places. An understandable but rather unfair application of examination pass criteria. Initially, on the 45 acre site, there was a lower school for first and second year pupils, the first batch of 120 third year pupils moved straight into the middle school, which consisted of 6 classrooms, six large house rooms, used for dining and house activities, and between them, three kitchens. School dinners were surprisingly good and the three kitchen concept worked well.

A large "Dutch barn" meant a covered 'all weather playground' and served as a viable sports area for netball when the weather was bad. The initial installation of a system of gymnasium equipment consisting of scaffold like vertical poles that screwed into the floor, then had horizontal poles and sundry other equipment clipped to it was an unmitigated disaster, as screwing several poles into plates in the solid floor, and plates on runners in the ceiling, merely lifted the roof and so the poles attached immediately prior, fell out! Plasterboard interior walls didn't fare any better, with holes appearing almost from day one from accidents involving elbows or medicine balls.

Early PE teachers as they were known, soon established the school as one with strong sporting credentials, yet allowed those of a lesser physical stature, not suited to rugby for example, to develop an interest in badminton.

The first headmaster was Dr J H Higginson, a career educator, rather than just another head teacher, who wrote a fascinating book on the establishment of the school, entitled "A School Is Born", (ISBN 0 86332 199 2 - published 1987) which covered many aspect of what was quite an advanced school for its day. The first deputy head was W T N Thompson. Several of the younger initial teaching staff remained for many years.

The school operated a very strong house system where the 'names' were then living international identities - clockwise around the three sided middle school, these were:

Gladys Aylward, Ryder-Cheshire (Leonard Cheshire and Sue Ryder), Pandit - initially of ex Eastwood pupils; Anton Makarenko, Eleanor Roosevelt and Albert Schweitzer, ex Bramcote pupils. This divide was not applied to some teaching groups, such as art and games, but was retained for core subjects such mathematics, the sciences, English and French.

The school was officially opened by Vijaya Laksmi Pandit, High Commissioner for India, December 18 1959, and there was a constant stream of visitors to the school, who unusually for the day, had to lunch with the pupils. There was no separate staff dining facility so teachers who dined in, also had to eat with the pupils, which in those more formal days, often made for stilted conversation at the lunch table!

Pupils were encouraged to forge links with the countries represented by those houses and several made long term friendships that survive to this day. For many however, the world was a vast place in the late 1950s, with overseas travel only for the rich, and they did not foresee the rapid growth in low cost air travel, internet communications etc. that is now taken for granted. A totally new school was built in the mid 1960s on the same site. In 1974, the separate schools occupying these premises were amalgamated to form Arnold Hill Comprehensive School.

2004 fire

In September 2004 the school was forced to close for several months when a large fire destroyed 16 of the recently refurbished classrooms in the Lower School building.Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/england/nottinghamshire/3636624.stm|title=Fire closes comprehensive school|accessyear=2007|accessmonthday=November 8|publisher=BBC|year=2004|author=BBC] The school quickly allowed sixth form students and GCSE pupils (Years 10 & 11) to return, but the reduced number of classrooms - smoke and structural damage meant that the entire Lower School building was uninhabitable, except the reception and hall area - prevented pupils from years 7, 8 & 9 from returning for several weeks. Their return was delayed and rescheduled several times because of delays in the construction of the Portakabins, but eventually they were returned to school. The large array of Portakabin buildings were known officially as "The Village".

The Village

"The Village" (known informally as "the Portakabins") was home to the English and Humanities Departments and also Lower School Resources (Library, IT Suite) during the rebuild of lower school following the fire and provided comfortable accommodation with air conditioning, and IT ports in every room. The "Village" was last used by pupils on Tuesday 4 April 2006, after which date the Humanities, and English departments began the move to the newly re-built Lower School ready to begin classes after the Easter Break on 24 April 2006. To accommodate this move pupils in years 7, 8 & 10 began their Easter Holiday early, with the Tuesday being their last day in school, the holiday was also extended the other side of Easter with pupils in these years returning on Wednesday 26 April 2006. Years 9 and 11 remained in school for the normal period due to the proximity of SATs and GCSE exams.

Controversy

On November 6, 2007, a stripper performed at the school for a student's birthday.Cite web|url=http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133942&command=displayContent&sourceNode=229136&home=yes&more_nodeId1=133951&contentPK=18897712|title=Birthday Stripper Shock at School|accessyear=2007|accessmonthday=November 8|publisher=Nottingham Post Group Ltd|year=2007|author=The Nottingham Evening Post] Cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/08/nstripper108.xml|title=Mother sent stripper to school as treat|accessyear=2007|accessmonthday=November 8|publisher=The Daily Telegraph Media Group|year=2007|author=Emma Henry] According to "The Daily Telegraph", the student's mother hired the stripper as a birthday gift for her 16 year old son as a mistake, intending to order a man in a gorilla suit.Cite web|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2827738.ece|title=Gorilla surprise turns out to be a stripper in school|accessyear=2007|accessmonthday=November 8|publisher=Times Newspapers Ltd., "The Times" Online|year=2007|author=Fiona Hamilton] The stripper undressed to her undergarments before being asked to stop by a faculty member. A spokeswoman has said "There was an incident, we are aware of it, and it is being dealt with."

References

External links

* [http://www.arnoldhillschool.co.uk/website/documents/SchoolDetails.pdf Official school brochure]