The Hillcrest School
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Hillcrest School and Community College is a secondary school located in Netherton, near Dudley, England.
The school was opened in about 1960 as one of two new secondary schools built in the expanding town. The other was Saltwells Secondary School. Both of these schools replaced a smaller pre-fabricated school in Halesowen Road which was known locally as "The Iron School". Saltwells in turn closed in 1986 to merge with an expanded Hillcrest, though it still does not have enough places to accommodate the town's entire secondary school age population. As a result, a significant number of pupils aged 11 to 16 living in Netherton have had to attend schools further afield including Heathfield Foundation Technology College in Cradley Heath and Castle High School in Dudley.
The school's current head teacher is Dame Maureen Brennan, who became a Dame of the British Empire in December 2005 in recognition of her services to local education. She had been appointed as head teacher of the school five years earlier, shortly after a damning OFSTED report which criticised the school for a catalogue of shortcomings, combined with a disappointing 17% of GCSE students attained 5 or more A-C grades. Standards have improved dramatically since Mrs Brennan's arrival.