The 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 is a mixed intake secondary school and sixth form college in Billericay. The school is for students aged between 11 and 18 years (school years 7 to 13) and is currently led by headmistress Sue Hammond.^[1] As of September 2004, the number of students attending was 1673.^[2] The school has recent Artsmark and Sportsmark 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 Burstead 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.

[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

Locally it is well known as the secondary school that the comedian Lee Evans attended. The sixth form was visited in May 2006 by the MP Tony Benn 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. Annually John Baron MP the current Shadow Health Secretary visits the School to give students a talk on politics and what he was doing within the constituency.

[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.

The current day structure is as follws:

Time	Activity / Event
8:35	Registration or Year/House assembly
8:50	Lesson 1
9:50	Movement Time
9:55	Lesson 2
10:55	Break
11:10	Lesson 3
12:10	Movement Time
12:15	Lesson 4
1:15	Lunch
2:00	Lesson 5
3:00	End of school day

[edit] South Green gas explosion fears

In January 2007 the school was at scene of a BBC London news report after a gas explosion scare in near-by South Green. The school was used to house those evacuated from the surronding area. Luckily no explosion from the acetylene and oxygen cylinders occurred but one man injured by burns from the fire.^[4]

[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.^[5]

'B' block was a two storey wooden struture housing metal and woodworking classrooms on the ground floor and art, pottery, home economics and technical drawing classrooms, on the first floor. During the early 1980, the school Bank was also housed in the block along with classrooms used primary for Economics, Business Studies and typing. It was demolished in the early 1990's.

[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. This was the original building from when the school was first opened.

[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 roughly 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. It also contains the Drama Studio and the newly built Student Services and the important sick bay. It also contains (on the top floor) R.E, Media and Biology science rooms.

[edit] D Block

Due to a fire only four D block rooms remain. One of these rooms is known as the "D-Munchable", it is used primarily as an area where food/drinks can be purchased during the Break and Lunch times. The interior was designed and painted by the School's own students.

[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.^[6] The sixth form elects a sixth form committee which aims to raise money for the end of year prom held annually, and performs other duties within the 6th form.

[edit] Houses

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

House Name	Head of House	House Captains (As of 2006)	Other Officers
Curie	Mr P Fifield	Robert Garrett & Amber Claughton	Vice Captain: Timothy Reeve & Mandana Harrison Charity Officer: Daniel Friar Rewards Captain: Samantha Noonan Sports Captains: Matt Hall & Amy Sturgeon Entertainment Officer: Alice Johnson Environment Officer: Lauren Brown
Edison	Mr Howells	Matthew Sharman & Hayley Tutton	Vice Captain's: Charlotte Ward (Also Rewards Officer) & Paul Bradley Charity Officer: Mark Dyble Sport's Captains: Katie Churchill and Kurt Brooks Environment Officer: Ashley Brooks Arts Officer: Louise Brown
Keller	Ms S Cook	Lauren Mayor	Vice Captains: Chanel Shaylor & Austin Toone
Newton	Mrs L Cripps	Simon Robertson & Katie Bruce	Sports Captain: Dave Grigson & Rebecca Gent Arts Officer: Elizabeth Viney
Scott	Mr J Stokes	Andrew Tidder & Jodie Peacock	Vice Captain: Greg Marshall Charity Officer: Varun Footring Arts Officers: Greg Marshall and Emma Obank Environmental Officer: Polly Row Sports Captains: Maria Mathers and Joe Parsons

[edit] Former House names (1969)

The school used a house system for a brief period in the 1960s and through to at least the late 1980s. 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^[7]

The Christopher Martin name was chosen as he was a Pilgrim aboard the Mayflower

[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.^[8]

[edit] Backchat and Student Voice

The schools council is called Backchat. Each year also have two representatives which form a group known as Student Voice. The names of these groups were decided in a school vote. These two groups debate with both students and the Head to work towards a better life within the school.

[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] Reputation

In 2005, 59% of students gained 5 A*-C grades at GCSE, higher than then national average. A-level students gained an average points score of 278.7.^[9]^[10] In 2006, the Billericay School Sixth Form ranked higher in terms of A-level performance than the private Brentwood School Sixth Form (see BBC league tables).

[edit] See also

Secondary schools in Essex

[edit] References

Images of England:The Billericay School by Sylvia Kent. A-block can be seen in the background

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 presented to the President of Pakistan President Musharraf on a trip which students book to the country.^[11]

^ http://www.billericay.essex.sch.uk/school/introHT.htm
^ http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/115/115384.pdf
^ Images of England: The Billericay School by Sylvia Kent, Tempus Publications ISBN 0-7524-3083-1
^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/6299355.stm
^ Images of England: The Billericay School by Sylvia Kent, Tempus Publications ISBN 0-7524-3083-1
^ http://www.billericay.essex.sch.uk/prospectus/sixpros.htm
^ Images of England: The Billericay School by Sylvia Kent, Tempus Publications ISBN 0-7524-3083-1
^ http://www.billericay.essex.sch.uk/fob/fob.htm
^ http://www.dfes.gov.uk/cgi-bin/performancetables/dfe1x1_05.pl?School=8815468
^ http://www.dfes.gov.uk/cgi-bin/performancetables/dfe2x1_05.pl?School=8815468
^ http://sylviakent.blogspot.com/2006/10/president-musharrafs-gift-from.html

[edit] External links

Secondary schools in the Basildon district

Coordinates: 51°37′07.42″N, 00°25′07.61″E

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