Katharine Lady Berkeley's School
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Katharine Lady Berkeley's School is a state comprehensive school near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire for ages eleven to 18. It was founded in 1384 and is therefore one of the oldest surviving schools in England.
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The old school buildings in School Lane, Wotton-under-Edge, were erected in 1726 to which there were various additions later. Shortly after the School had become co-educational, Church Mill was bought in 1908. After the World War of 1939-1945, Carlton House was rented from the Post Office.
In 1961, the erection of a new building for 350 pupils in the Kingswood Road, was started, and in January 1963 the School vacated the premises in Wotton and moved into it. The erection of the first phase of extensions to the Kingswood Road buildings began in March 1972, and the extensions were completed for the start of the Autumn Term 1973, when Katharine Lady Berkeley's re-opened as a comprehensive school for 830 pupils. Wotton Secondary School closed at the end of August 1973.
In July 1974, the second phase of extensions of the building began to be built and were completed by September 1975. In 1989 HRH the Duke of Gloucester opened the Renishaw Centre, an IT room costing £60,000 and since then the School has three more computer rooms. Renishaw kindly renewed the equipment in the Renishaw Centre at considerable cost more recently with the former hardware being transferred to the Special Needs Department.
In 1992 GM status was attained, with the object of providing for the structural improvement of the buildings and a wish to be able to make independent decisions to suit the school's future. In 1996, the school achieved designation as a Language College which attracts additional funding from central government This has enabled the school to offer a particularly rich languages curriculum covering 7 modern languages and Latin. The school is also involved in a range of projects with its international partners.
In 1994 further accommodation was added to allow for the increase in numbers, from 1010 in 1984 to 1170 in 1994 and then to 1340 in 1998. Further new buildings were completed in September 1997 to provide six more classrooms and the Language Centre costing £220,000 was opened in September 1996. In autumn 1999, work began on further new buildings to provide a new two storey teaching block which includes 11 classrooms, three ICT suites and a new library. In addition to this a three laboratory extension was added to the Science Centre.
In 2003 a major new extension was added to the Music block and a small network of computers installed. One of the rooms in the Humanities block was converted into a cross-curricular computer suite. The Business Studies ICT suite was upgraded into a full computer suite. In 2004 a new single-story block was added between the existing Science and Music blocks. This accommodates a new ICT suite, 4 new classrooms and 2 small meeting/seminar rooms.
In 2005 the reception area was refurbished with new office accommodation added.
