Colbayns
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Colbayns is a high school serving the western part of Clacton-on-Sea. The school has a population of 1700 pupils and students.
The original school dates from 1926 but moved to its present site in 1931 when it was known as the Clacton-on-Sea Senior School. This school gained the unofficial title 'Pathfields School' because access was off Pathfields Road. In January, 1953, a new building on the west side of Pathfields Road was opened as the Clacton County Secondary School for Girls with Miss Lawrence as Headmistress. The original building on the east site became the Clacton County Secondary School for Boys with Mr K. Portman as Headmaster. In September 1973 the two schools were amalgamated to form Colbayns High School under the headship of Mr. D. King. He was succeeded by Mr. J. Midgley in 1984.
In 1988 Mr. J. Holt, who joined the staff in 1964, become Headmaster. With the Governing Body he saw the school through into successful incorporation as a Grant Maintained School within the terms of the 1988 Education Act on the 1st September 1993. Under his leadership the school's accommodation and environment was dramatically improved, indeed, in 1996 over £1 million was spent on new facilities.
The present Headmaster, Mr. N. Pavitt, took up his post at Easter 1997. During his first year the School was able to put in hand £420,000 of building work through grants from the Funding Agency to build new Science Laboratories, Language Laboratories and improved Sixth Form Study Provision. A grant of a further £ 170,000 has allowed the building of a new Mathematics Suite, completed in the Spring of 1999.
The School has grown in recent years, particularly at Sixth Form level. In 2003, Colbayns became the first British school to join the US-run Edison Schools Project.Now in its 3rd year the project seems to be running very smoothly.
However the school continues to have serious difficulties its GCSE-LEVEL performance for 2006 from 308 eligible pupils, 23.7% of whom had special educational needs, at the end of Key Stage 4 the school achieved 18% compared to the national average of 45.8%.
