Gordon's School
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| Gordon's School | |
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| Motto | Semper Fidelis ("Always faithful") |
| Established | 1886 |
| Type | Comprehensive; Voluntary aided |
| Religious affiliation | Christian |
| Headteacher | Mr Denis Mulkerrin CBE MA |
| Chair | Pam Clarke |
| Founder | by public subscription, at the express wish of Queen Victoria, as the National Memorial to General Gordon |
| Location | West End Woking Surrey England  |
| LEA | Surrey |
| Ofsted number | 125303 |
| Students | 542 (approx.) (650 if sixth form included - see age range below) |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 11 to 16 (18 if sixth form included (sixth form pupils are on the roll of a
neighbouring secondary school under a franchise agreement.) |
| Houses | Boarding Houses: 4 |
| School colours | Green & Yellow
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| Former Pupils known as | Old Gordonians |
| Affiliation | Gordon Foundation an independent charitable trust established in 1888 |
| Patron | Reigning Monarch of the United Kingdom |
| Website | www.gordons.surrey.sch.uk |
Gordon's School (originally the Gordon Boys' School) was founded in 1886 by public subscription as a memorial to Gordon of Khartoum, who was killed in 1885. The school website claims that the idea came from Queen Victoria, who was its first patron. The reigning monarch has been patron ever since.
Gordon's was initially a home for underprivileged boys, but it quickly became a boys' boarding school. In 1888, the Gordon Foundation was established as an independent charitable trust to administer the school. Gordon's is now a voluntary aided, comprehensive school for boys and girls, and the pupils are a mixture of full and weekly boarders and day pupils. Some two thirds of the pupils are day boys and girls. Most of the boarders are from families in the armed forces (Ofsted Report 2007). Its voluntary aided status means that tuition is free, and fees are only paid for the boarding, which makes them lower than the fees for fully independent boarding schools.
Pupils are divided into nine houses named after places of particular relevance to General Gordon:
- For girls - Augusta (full/weekly/day), China (day), Kensington (day), Windsor (full/weekly/day)
- For boys - Balmoral (full/weekly), Buckingham (day), Gravesend (day), Khartoum (day), Sandringham (full/weekly)
Gordon's School is in West End near Woking, Surrey.
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[edit] League Tables
From 1997 - 2000, Gordon's was in the top twenty most improved schools list published by the government in its yearly school performance tables. Gordon's is the only school in Britain to have achieved this feat four years in a row.
From 1999 - 2006, Gordon's has been in the top twenty non-selective state schools in Britain in the yearly government league tables.
[edit] CBE
In the 2005 New Year's Honours List, the Headmaster Denis Mulkerrin was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for Services to Education. [1]
[edit] Period 6
One of the greatest aspects of Gordons School is sport, credit is owed to alll of the sporting staff who help with organising fixtures, training the players and officiating at the games. Gordon's organises a period 6 activity which is after school between 4pm - 5pm. Every student up to Year 11 has to particpate and can choose between numerous activities ranging from all sports to activities such as ICT and bowling.
[edit] Facilities
Gordon’s has its own heated indoor swimming pool - much appreciated by the boarders and day pupils alike - a gym, a purpose built fitness centre, equipped with two olympic weight lifting bars, one used for bench press, a sport which dominates boys lives from the moment they reach the age permitted to use the weight systems in the gym, and a sport adored by the school's current headmaster, Denis Mulkerrin, a former weightlifting commonwealth coach. The school also benefits from a 25 metre shooting range, as well as facilities for tennis, netball and orienteering. The 'Parade Square', to the front of the school, accommodates netball and of course the Ceremonial Parades that traditionally take place monthly, led by the Head Boy or Head Girl (2008 - Daniel Edwards and Sarah Crew). There are over forty acres of playing fields complete with cricket nets and athletics track. There is a house to the rear of the school, annexed to the Headmaster's House, home to four boys from the school's Sixth Form. The flat has parking space provided, a garage and is located adjacent to the A322. It is also only a short walk away from the school Medical Centre.
[edit] Notable activities
The school holds regular ceremonial parades that take place on Sundays, these stem back to the school's traditional military roots. Pupils practice marching during the week, rarely the head of each house oversees the drill session, typically it is the houses representative of House Captain, that leads the house onto the parade square for practices and ceremonial parades; especially in the lead up to Drill Competition - an annual display of marching whereby houses compete with each other. The prize is the highly prized Longmoor Cup. (Notably, this year the ccompetition was split into two; with a boy's and a girl's cup. The boy's cup went to Sandringham House and the girl's cup went to Kensington. The appearance of pupils is assessed prior to each house's outing in the competition, areas of scrutiny include; i) The Polishing of Parade Shoes, ii) Tidiness of Ceremonial Blues (the school's Parade Uniform), iii) Correct alignment of uniform. There are also frequent interhouse competitions, separate between the boys and girls houses. The Boys compete in football, rugby, cricket, swimming and athletics. The girls compete in rounders, netball, hockey, swimming and athletics. The athetics sports day is the biggest school sporting event of the year, with huge support from athletes, parents and friends, making it a truly enjoyable and well contested event. At the end of the events, there is a Staff vs 6th Form vs Winning Year 11's 100m relay race.
Traditionally, Gordon's has competed annually in a Rugby Match against the Duke of York's School, Dover. This rivalry dates back over half a century; the First XV teams from respective schools would compete against each other, and each school would host the other, every other year. Before the sixth form was established in both schools, the match had always been contested by the Under 16 team of both schools, however the match is now a block fixture. In 2008, Gordon's won the first of many Under 19 fixtures between the two schools, by a score of 26-22.
In September 2007 a new science block was opened and cost an estmate £4 300 000. The block contains 4 science labs 2 other class rooms with state of the art IT Systerm and also 2 self contained flats for staff accommodation and found on the third floor.
[edit] CCF
Students are encouraged to participate in Combined Cadet Forces training. When they reach Year 9 of the school, they have the option of taking up Army training, RAF training, or Royal Navy training. In Year 10, this training is compulsory and pupils must choose a section for the duration of the year. These training activities take place after normal lesson times, (termed as 'period six' - being the period after the fifth and final period of lessons during the day) and are usually held once a week. They begin at around 4pm and usually finish between 5:00-5:30pm, after which students have dinner, followed by prep which commences at 6:30pm and finishes at 8:00pm. Staying for prep is optional for day pupils but recommended due to the supervision of various school tutors who are on hand to assist pupils.
[edit] Notable Alumni
- Daniel Gonzalez, a serial killer who killed four people and injured two others during a three day killing spree across London and Sussex in September 2004.[2]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Gordon's School
- ^ Bird, Steve. "Bright pupil and budding actor who took on role of a serial killer", Times Online, 2006-03-17.
