Greenhead College

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**Greenhead College**

Established	~1980
School type	Sixth form college
Principal	Martin Rostron
Faculty	204
Students	1600
Location	Greenhead Road, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, HD1 4ES
Information	01484 422032
Website	http://www.greenhead.ac.uk/

Greenhead College is a former grammar school and current sixth form college located in Huddersfield, in the English county of West Yorkshire. The current principal is Martin Rostron.

With around 1600 pupils, it is a relatively large college, attracting pupils from as far afield as Wakefield, Barnsley, Bradford, Leeds, Halifax, Saddleworth, and Oldham.

Considered by many as the best free sixth-form college in the United Kingdom, and with a regular annual flow of students into both Oxford and Cambridge universities, it is often difficult to get a place if you are from outside the college's catchment area.

1 Enrichment
2 Resources
3 Social
4 Awards
5 External links

[edit] Enrichment

One of Greenhead's strengths is its mandatory enrichment programme, which encourages pupils to partake in extra-curricular activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Greenhead's Amnesty Group or a variety of sports activities and teams.

As part of the enrichment program, pupils must undertake one week of PaWS (Projects and Work Shadowing) in the lower-sixth. Work shadowing placements include medical, political, scientific and language-based jobs, usually at a senior level within the respective companies. If a pupil does not wish to do work shadowing, many projects, from circus skills to mathematical art, are available.

[edit] Resources

Greenhead College has a very well equipped library in which pupils can borrow useful books, videos and tapes to enrich their studies. Pupils can also work quietly and read magazines or newspapers in the library. The library provides a large range of magazines from biology to archeology, from physics to music etc to suit everyone's need.

For pupils who want to work but accompanied by friends, and needing to discuss topics, there is the 'Reading Room' which was newly opened in 2004. The environment in the 'Reading Room' is certainly more relaxed than the library and this would probably suit some students.

The science department has a "Science Resource Centre", in which pupils can find materials they need. One great feature of this centre is that teachers spend much of their free time in this centre so any pupil with any queries about their studies can go and ask the relevant teacher (or any other teacher), and the teachers will give them advice and support. Most students find this quite useful.

The college also has an extensive computer network. Students are able to log into and access their own personal files from any computer in college, and also have access to a vast number of intranet resources. In addition, each student and tutor has their own email account - this allows communication with tutors outside of lessons and with other students in the college. Students can log into their email account and also access the intranet resources from any internet-capable computer - however, they can't access their own personal files from outside college.

[edit] Social

Students can make use of the main hall in-between lessons to socialise. A canteen service with a vegetarian option is provided. The college has also opened the reading room up to students wishing to study in a slightly less formal atmosphere than in the library. Thanks to the increasing amount of students attending the college, the campus becomes very crowded especially at breaks and lunchtimes, as well as in winter when students are reluctant to utilise outdoor seating areas.

[edit] Awards

The Queen's Award in 1996.
The Educational Institution of the Year Award in 1999.
The Beacon College Award in May 1999, and again in September 2004.
The Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Excellence in 2000 (for the second time).
Officially announced as "outstanding" in the May 2004 OFSTED report (see below for the link to this report).