Billericay School

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The Billericay School
Motto: 'Caring about success'
Established 1938
Type Secondary school
Students c.1600
Location Billericay, England
Colours Black and Yellow
Website Billericay School's website

Billericay School more formally known as The Billericay School, led by headmistress Sue Hammond[1], is a mixed intake secondary school and sixth form college for children aged between 11 and 18 (school years 7 to 13) . As of September 2004, the Student Body stood at 1673[2]. The school has recent Artsmark and Sports Mark designations and has Investors in People Status.

The school is located in the town of Billericay, Essex in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The school was opened on the 4th May 1938 by admiral Sir Vernon Haggard using a ceremonial silver key handed to him by the first head teacher Mr P.G. White. Mr White later gained the nickname 'Tiggy White' amongst pupils[3]. As the population of Billericay grew, Great Barstard School now known as Quilters Primary School became too small to accommodate all students. For this reason The Billericay School was built.

The school originally only had one main building that today would be recognised as 'A Block'. Over time the school has been developed and new school buildings have been built upon existing school ground.

Contents

[edit] List of Billericay School head teachers

1938 - P.G. White

1949 - Ronald Eden

1955 - John Goldwin

1968 - Arthur Lingard

1991 - Robert Goodier

1997 - Sue Hammond

[edit] Famous Alumni and visitors

It is famous as the secondary school, which the comedian Lee Evans attended. The sixth form was visited in May 2006 by the MP Tony Benn[1] who gave a speech on politics to sixth-form students. Other talkers who have visited school include the anti-fascist campaigner Leon Greenman who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp.

[edit] History

[edit] Maths and Computing status

The School achieved Maths and Computing college status in 2003 allowing some use of selection based on aptitude in these subjects. It was thought that this status would generate an additional £1 million worth of funding, but a government policy on foundation schools had reduced this sum significantly.

[edit] Disused land sale

It is currently in the process of trying to sell the land adjacent to the school in order to raise funds for improvements throughout the site. This land was used for rural sciences when this formed part of the curriculum. There has been opposition to this as the land forms part of the green belt. A decision has yet to be reached on the issue as residents near the school fear that it may encourage further development from government officials in order to meet housing quotas in the South East.

[edit] Day structure changes

Between 2005 and 2006 the school made changes to its day structure. This involved cutting the lunchtime by 15 minutes reducing it to 45 minutes. In 2006 the school announced it was to split into houses groups. The houses were to be named after famous scientists. In addition to this the regular pattern of 'same year' registration groups were to be switched to a more influential system to stop bullying and encourage younger year groups to become more active within school life, by placing a selection of pupils from each year group into registration classes of around 30 individuals; e.g. six 'year 7' students, six 'year 8' students etc. The only exception is the Sixth form where students in year 12 and 13 are put together within an exclusive part of the school for studying.

[edit] List of Blocks

[edit] Block History

As of 2006 Billericay School has A,C,D,E,F and V blocks.

[edit] 'B' block

The book Images of England: The Billericay School by Sylvia Kent shows that a B block did at one time exist - it was situated where F block and the carpark are currently located[4].

[edit] 'V' Block

In 2004, this trend was reversed when a 'V' block was created. It is thought that this refers to the concept of the block being a 'village' community. The V block was built partly in response to a fire that burnt down some of the buildings of 'D' block. However 2 of the 5 buildings still remain which were not touched by the fire.

[edit] Current Blocks

[edit] A Block

This block contains mostly Maths classes but some science, French , German and humanities classes also exist within the building.

[edit] C Block

The biggest block at the school. It contains mainly Science classrooms. The main wing of the block is a 3 stories high with toughly 1 and a half of these rooms as Science labs. This block also contains the RBLC (resource based learning centre) more commonly known as the library.

[edit] D Block

Due to a fire only four D block rooms remain.

[edit] E Block

This block contains the Art classrooms and the Food Technology and Textiles rooms.

[edit] F Block

This is where the IT and DT lessons take place.

[edit] V Block

This block contains the English classrooms.

[edit] Sixth-form

Sixth-form students (years 12 and 13) are located in an exclusive area of the school and have their own study areas and common room, although the unit does not have its own classrooms and so shares these with the rest of the school. However, many sixth form classes take place in converted rooms that are much smaller than ordinary classrooms (such as A9, A24 and C13) and therefore can be classified as 'for' the sixth form exclusively.[5]. The sixth form elects a sixth form committee which aims to raise money for the end of year prom held annually.

[edit] Houses

[edit] Current Houses and head of houses (as of 2006)

House Logo House Name Head of House House Captains (As of 2006)
Curie Mr P Fifield Robert Garrett & Amber Claughton
Edison Mrs K. Farrant
Keller Ms S Cook
Newton Mrs L Cripps
Scott Mr J Stokes


[edit] Former House names (1969)

The school used a house system for a brief period in the 1960s. These house names were suggested for the new house system to be introduced in 2006 but were rejected in a school vote.

  • Audley
  • Fitzwalte
  • de Vere
  • Christopher Martin[6]

[edit] FOBS

FOBS or Friends of Billericay School is charity which raises money for the school. Most of their income comes from various evening events, usually with singers or comedians, and the '200 Club', a monthly prize draw. The latest funding drive was used to fund the school receiving 'maths and computing college' status, and the organisation has recently raised enough funds to purchase a new school minibus.[7]

[edit] Backchat and Student Voice

The schools council is called Backchat. Each year also have two represenatives which form a group known as Student Voice. The names of these groups were decided in a school vote.

[edit] Rivalry

There is reasonably well documented rivalry known by students of both Mayflower High School and Billericay School. Mayflower High School is located 3 miles away from its counterpart in the north of Billericay. Both schools continue to do considerably well in both academia and extra-curricular activities.

[edit] References

A book about the school has been published called Images of England: The Billericay School by Sylvia Kent, Tempus Publications ISBN 0-7524-3083-1. The book was presdiented to the President of Pakistan President Musharraf on a trip which students book to the country [8].

  1. ^ http://www.billericay.essex.sch.uk/school/introHT.htm
  2. ^ http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/115/115384.pdf
  3. ^ Images of England: The Billericay School by Sylvia Kent, Tempus Publications ISBN 0-7524-3083-1
  4. ^ Images of England: The Billericay School by Sylvia Kent, Tempus Publications ISBN 0-7524-3083-1
  5. ^ http://www.billericay.essex.sch.uk/prospectus/sixpros.htm
  6. ^ Images of England: The Billericay School by Sylvia Kent, Tempus Publications ISBN 0-7524-3083-1
  7. ^ http://www.billericay.essex.sch.uk/fob/fob.htm
  8. ^ http://sylviakent.blogspot.com/2006/10/president-musharrafs-gift-from.html

[edit] External links



Secondary schools in the Basildon district
Barstable School |Beauchamps School|Billericay School|Bromford School|Chalvedon School|De La Salle School|James Hornsby High School|Mayflower High School|Woodlands School
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