Preston Manor High School

Preston Manor High School is one of the largestfact|date=June 2008 high schools within the London Borough of Brent. It has 1354 students in High School and roughly 260 students in Sixth Form. Founded in 1938, its current headteacher is Mr M. Lantos, who recently took over from Mrs. Andrea Berkeley. Most of the students are of Asian origin (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi) and others are of Afro-Caribbean and African descent.fact|date=June 2008

Preston Manor as a Science college

Preston Manor was amongst the first cohort of schools nationally to become a Specialist Science College in 2002 with Mathematics as an additional specialism.

Science and Maths achievement have increased dramatically and continue to improve since becoming a specialist college. Results for both subjects are significantly above the National Average across all key stages.

It has 4 local primary partner schools in the borough that it works with throughout the year as part of its specialist science community work. Pupils at Oakington Manor, Byron Court, Preston Park and Wembley Manor pay regular visits to its laboratories or receive outreach lessons from its trained science teachers. It also works closely with its secondary community partners, JFS and the KS3 Pupil Referral Unit pupil to provide an enriched and motivating curriculum for their students. It is continuing to develop its community work, offering workshops to parents and members of the local community on Science and Health related issues.

Ofsted Reports

In November 2005, Ofsted judged the school to be outstanding overall, recognising Preston Manor as a forward-thinking school, whose commitment and level of care to students is outstanding. In recognition of its consistently high standards, it gained High Performing Specialist School status and was asked to take on a second specialism, which will add to its already extensive collaborative work with local primary and secondary schools.

In summer 2006 it achieved its highest ever examination successes at GCSE and Post 16, putting Preston Manor in the top 25% of schools nationally. As a result of the innovative practice within the school, it hosted over ten visits for educationalists from the Department for Education and Skills (including the Secretary of State) and other schools to showcase good practice in raising achievement with African, African-Caribbean boys, whole school literacy and most importantly the personalisation of education.

Academic results

Over the past five years, achievement of students at Key Stage 3 have been consistently above the national average in all three core subjects.At Key Stage 4 the percentage of students achieving 5 or more A* to C grades at GCSE has risen steadily over the past 3 years (from 70% in 2004 to 74% in 2006). The percentage of students achieving 5 or more A* to G grades has remained steady over the same period (at 98% or 99%).

Expansion

As of September 2008 Preston Manor began admitting 40 more students into its cohort. Therefore in order to do this the school needed to expand. Work began in January 2008 on a £4.5 million project which will see a new teaching block and a 4 court sports hall built, amongst other new facilities.

Notable Alumni

Kapil Trivedi - Drummer for the British Indie Group Mystery Jets

External links

* [http://www.pmanor.brent.sch.uk/ Preston Manor High School Site]
* [http://www.pmanor.brent.sch.uk/ofsted.pdf Ofsted Inspection Report 2005]
* Youtube Video - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwIECmozMa0 The Prime Minister visits Preston Manor High School]