Wellacre Technology & Vocational College

Infobox School
name = Wellacre Technology & Vocational College


motto = "The Opportunity to succeed"
established = 1955
type = Secondary Modern School, Community
head_name = Headmaster
head = Mr R Howell BEd(Hon)
chair_label = Chair
chair = Mr Martin Tanner
specialist = Technology Vocational
Location
street = Irlam Road
city = Flixton
county = Greater Manchester
country = England
postcode = M41 6AP
LEA = Trafford
ofsted = 106366
staff = 98
enrollment = 934
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 16
gender = Boys
website = [http://www.wellacre.org/ Wellacre Technology & Vocational College]
coordinates = coord|53.4475695|-2.3940889|region:GB_type:edu|display=inline

Wellacre Technology & Vocational College is a state run Secondary Modern in Flixton, Trafford, England that has existed since January 1955.

History

In common with other schools, Wellacre has altered considerably since its opening date. In 1966 a Hall block was erected giving among other things, an elevated Assembly Hall with a stage. A rebuilding programme was completed in September 1980 to provide the modern facilities needed for a sound secondary education. Since 1995 a rolling programme of the building of new classrooms and refurbishing older one has continued.

Wellacre High School stands in grounds which contain eleven hectares of playing fields including an all weather cricket pitch. A full sized artificial pitch with floodlighting was completed in Spring 2005. It possesses two modern gymnasia each with a separate suite of showers and changing room. Its multi-gym has a wide range of modern equipment installed.

The school has seven science laboratories, many dedicated computer suites, a food technology room, a design technology workshop, a drama studio, a language laboratory, a textiles room, a large library, a purpose built dark room and many other specialist rooms for subjects including Music and Art. Three new rooms were built for the humanities department in 2004, and they will be complemented by three further new rooms in the summer of 2005 to allow for the continued expansion of the school.

Outstanding Ofsted Report

HMI Susan Waring gave an Ofsted judgement of “An Outstanding and happy school”, which has put Wellacre in an elite group of schools in England with only eight percent of schools nationally gaining the top grade for Ofsted Inspections. The full Ofsted report has been given to all pupils and is available electronically from Ofsted. Recognising the high level of GCSE success, some other notable comments from the report were - “The care for the most vulnerable students is a real strength of the school.” and “The school sets very high expectations of itself and exceeds these ambitious targets.”

Facilities

The college is situated on the edge of the greenbelt in south west Manchester. The college is well served by public transport, being at the focus of several major bus routes and only a 15 minutes walk from Flixton railway station. Whilst serving the local areas of Flixton, Urmston and Davyhulme, its situation allows students from Eccles, Irlam, Partington, Chorlton and Stretford to travel to school with ease.

There has been an investment of over £2.5 million in recent years as part of its on going programme to offer a greatly improved learning environment for the students. The college facilities include:
* 8 refurbished Science laboratories.
* Over 300 PC workstations including 7 discreet ICT rooms
* The latest in CAD/CAM technology including laser cutter, CNC lathe, CNC router and various industry standard software packages.
* Digital and darkroom photography studios including industry standard image editing software.
* Students have access to the latest technology with all faculties having interactive whiteboards.
* A ‘Learning Platform’ which enables all students to have access to ‘anytime -anywhere learning’.
* Fully equipped Drama studio and Expressive Arts suite.
* A digital language laboratory used by the French Department.
* A newly refurbished dining room with a state of the art ‘cashless system’.

Wellacre has relationships with the local primary schools. A spirit of mutual trust, help and friendship has been fostered by teachers to enable the transition of boys from their primary schools to Wellacre to be a smooth and continuous process.

Uniform

The Uniform is to instil a sense of pride in belonging to the college. The wearing of uniform as a positive statement by each student wishing to be part of the college. For this reason, and also to ensure equality of opportunity, the college insists that school uniform must be worn.

The uniform consists of:
* Blue V-necked Wellacre pullover with the College logo
* Black College trousers
* Plain white shirt
* Black College shoes (no trainers or boots or shoes with white strips)
* Wellacre Technology College tie
* No jewellery is allowed

The college seeks co-operation of all parents in this matter so that it keeps its students looking smart. In order to derive the fullest benefit from the facilities for Physical Education, boys are expected to attend indoor PE sessions with trainers, black shorts, white college top and socks and for outdoor PE the college has an official football/rugby shirt. The blue top with college logo and yellow horizontal stripe is reversible. Clothing for college and for PE may be purchased locally at one of two uniform suppliers.

Results

GCSE

What do the pupils do after year 11?

Connexions Personal Advisers attend Wellacre three times a week to provide interviews and advice sessions to students.The breakdown of distribution figures for our Year 11 leavers in 2007 were as follows;
* 72.63% Continuing in Education
* 11.05% Modern Apprenticeships
* 7.37% Not settled
* 3.16% Employment with Local Recognised Training
* 2.63% Work Based Learning - non employed
* 1.58% Employment with no training
* 1.05% Moved away
* 0.53% Employment with NVQ 2 Training
* 0.39% No response

Affiliations

The school is affiliated with Ferrum High School in South Africa via the Afritwin project. As part of the Afritwin Scheme Mr Howell, Ms Sherriff and a number of children visited Ferrum High School in South Africa during the Easter holidays. As part of the scheme both Wellacre and Ferrum have been twinned with Syalungelwa School, a Township School.

Gallery

External links

* [http://www.wellacre.org Wellacre Technology & Vocational College]
* [http://www.trafford.gov.uk/ Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council]