Gosforth High School

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Gosforth High School
Motto	High Achievers
Established	1921 (1921) 1973 (as Gosforth High School)
Type	Comprehensive Sixth form
Religious affiliation	Non-denominational
Principal	Hugh Robinson
Vice Principal/ Deputy Headteacher's	Kathryn Thomas (Vice-Principal) Simon Richards (Director of Curriculum) Don Harrison (Director of Main School)
Specialism	Language College
Location	Great North Road Newcastle Upon Tyne Tyne & Wear NE3 2JH England
LEA	Newcastle upon Tyne (391)
Ofsted number	108523
Students	1704 (650 in 6th form)[1]
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	13 to 18[1]
Junior School	Gosforth Junior High School
Post-16 College	Gosforth High Sixth Form College
Community College	Gosforth Community Education College
Website	GHS Official website
Coordinates: 55°00′47″N 1°37′25″W / 55.0131, -1.6237

Gosforth High School is an English secondary school in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne and is a specialist Language College. Many of its mainstream students come from 3 large feeder middle schools (Gosforth Central, East and Junior High (West) Middle Schools). It is federated with Gosforth Junior High.

It also houses a large sixth form college, where the majority of the lower school students continue their studies. There is a Special education centre within the school to aid students who need it. The school houses 'Gosforth Community Education'^[2], which provides courses for adults within the local community. The school is also a regional centre for young people with visual impairment^[3][4].

[edit] History

The school was originally founded in 1973 through the merger of two local comprehensive schools with Gosforth Grammar School.

[edit] 1921–1944

In 1921 Gosforth Secondary School opened^[5]. The first permanent buildings were built in the late 1920s. The site was on the opposite side of the Great North Road, to the current site.

[edit] 1944–1973

Due to the Education Act 1944 the school became Gosforth Grammar School in 1944. In the early 1960s the current site of the School began to be used.

[edit] 1973–2000

In 1973 the local council adopted the three-tier education system. Following this, the Grammar school was combined with Gosforth County Secondary School and Gosforth East County Secondary School, and Gosforth High School was born. The high school moved permanently to the 1960s site.

The site on which Gosforth Grammar stood is now used by Gosforth Central Middle School^[6]. The Grammar School building was used by Central Middle, until it was replaced in 2004.

[edit] 2000–present

Between 2000 and 2002 the school buildings were renovated, and the new facilities were opened by the Prime Minister Tony Blair on 29 November 2002.^[7][8] This visit took place at the time of strike action by firefighters, who jeered Blair outside the school, gaining media attention. This new building cost a total of £9 million, of which £6.3 million came from a government grant, "New Deal for Schools", £1.85 million from "Newcastle Great Park" and £800,000 from Newcastle City Council. After the completion of the new buildings, which bear a striking resemblance to airport architecture, the old 'West Wing' was demolished in 2004.

The current head teacher, Hugh Robinson, started at the school in 2003. Keith Nancekievill left the school to take up the head teachers post at Hinchingbrooke School, Cambridgeshire, in February 2003 after being head at Gosforth for 15 years.

Footballer and former pupil Alan Shearer donated £10,000 to the school in 2006 from the proceeds of several testimonial events held to honour his ten years playing for Newcastle United.^[9]

In September 2006, a new discipline system was introduced, known as the 'PRAISE Scheme'^[10]. There is much controversy around it with many supporters and critics alike. Its aim is to reward students, with stamps for example.

[edit] Junior School

Main article: Gosforth Junior High School

In September 2006, Gosforth High took over the administration duties of Gosforth West Middle School, in a Federation style agreement^[11]. The Federation came into action on January 1, 2007 and Gosforth West was later renamed Gosforth Junior High School after the 2007 Easter break.

[edit] Emblem

The school's emblem is comprised of 3 main parts: the tree of growth and knowledge, the badge of Newcastle city and the Northumberland coat of arms.

[edit] Uniform

Mainstream students have a coloured ring around the logo on their uniforms. This helps identify individuals into which year group they are. The colour of the ring is either pale blue, gold yellow or dark green. Students have the same colour ring from years 9 to 11, when they leave after year 11 the colour is passed down to the new year 9 students. As of Summer/September 2008; Year 9 have a gold ring, Year 10 have a blue ring, and Year 11 have a green ring.

Sixth Form students currently have no formal school uniform, however they must wear a school I.D. badge at all times when on school property. Visitors are required to report to the office where they receive an official label, for security reasons.

Mainstream students (Year 9, Year 10 & Year 11) must wear the school's uniform. The uniform for students attending consists of (first three with school logo on):-

• A navy blue sweatshirt
• A navy blue polo shirt
• A black, school fleece
• Black, navy, or dark grey trousers
• Black shoes

Specialist equipment is required for some subjects, such as:-

• A Craft apron
• A Home economics apron

[edit] PE

There is also uniform that must be worn when doing P.E. lessons, comprising of:-

[edit] For boys Royal blue polo shirt White shorts White ankle socks Training shoes Outdoor jersey, plain navy with gold band Plain navy shorts Navy football socks Football boots Navy blue or black tracksuit bottoms (optional)

[edit] For girls Royal blue polo shirt School sweatshirt, royal blue Navy blue shorts Navy blue or black tracksuit bottoms (optional) White ankle socks Training shoes

[edit] Achievements

The school is a designated ambassador school for the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth^[12], in addition to becoming a beacon school in 2001. Gosforth High is currently the only school with DFES "Training School" status in Newcastle and has been a specialist Language College since 1996. In 1999, the school gained Investors in People accreditation. GHS has also been awarded many other awards in the past.

In 2008 at the first gathering of the High Performing Schools group, Gosforth High School was recognised as being ranked in the top 10% of schools nationally and the highest performing school in Newcastle^[13]. In March 2008, Ofsted inspected the school and rated it 'outstanding'^[1].

[edit] Facilities

Gosforth High School has a wide range of quality of facilities. Some areas are in desperate need of modernisation whist some are up-to-date. Much of the original building of Gosforth High School no longer exists.

Gosforth High School's present building is actually 2 buildings; one building has 2 floors and the other 3 and a half floors (the half being a Mezzanine Level which is currently used as an art gallery). This difference in buildings can be clearly seen when you are crossing between the two via stairs. The room numbers for the bottom floor begin with a zero; the middle floor room numbers begin with a one; and the top floor room numbers begin with two.

Companies that assisted with the construction of the 2002 building included Newcastle City Design Department, Multicare^[14] and Desco. Desco handled the Mechanical and Electrical services for Phase 3, costing £3 million^[15]. The school is also part of the "Building Schools for the Future" Initiative^[16].

[edit] Facility list

The school has:

• 15 Science laboratories
• 12 ICT rooms (some assigned to a particular subject)
• One large library (known as the Learning Resource Centre or LRC)
• A large art department
• A sixth form common room
• A smaller year 11 common room
• A fully equipped Drama studio
• 3 small Music practice rooms
• A dance studio
• One Gym
• One Indoor Sports Court (badminton, basketball & football)
• 2 Outdoor Sports Courts (tennis, hockey, basketball, netball, football)
• One Weight-Training room.
• A Student Support Base, which also contains a police base for the area.

The school also has facilities for young people with visual impairment. There are also plans to build a new library in an open area, currently covered with gravel, within the school building, work began in the last week of March 2008^[16].

The school is able to teach many languages; their mainstream teaching for Modern European languages is concentrated in French, German, Italian and Spanish.

In 2008 the School Kitchen was awarded 4-stars after an inspection under the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006^[16].

[edit] Computer facilities

There are 50 computers in the library and 12 dedicated computer rooms. Most of the classrooms have interactive whiteboards (most of which are Promethean ACTIVboards). A combination of wired and wireless networks allows teachers to use their laptops anywhere.

The register in the school is taken via computer, using a Student information system, called SIMS.net, which uses the main PC system. The school also utilises a Virtual learning environment, provided by Newcastle City Council^[17]. The school's current computer workstations are Dell Optiplex 740s. The school utilises Sentinel Products' Ranger Suite for managing and controlling their Microsoft Windows network.

In the past the school had used a Bromcom handheld student information system for taking register and had computer workstations provided by Elonex Systems.

[edit] Sports department

However, the sports department is the oldest part of the current school and is in need of modernisation. The gym, indoor sports courts and weight training room all have roofs that leak, which in turn sometimes prevents them being used if the weather has been bad. The indoor sports courts have earned the nickname ‘The Shed’ by students and teachers alike in the school.

The school have been planning to replace the existing indoor sports courts with a modern sports facility for many years^[18]. Although currently it has not stated the dates in which this build may be put into action, it is still a current project^[19]. Some of the plans were to have 8 new sports courts within the new building and provision for "all-weather pitches"^[20].

The Newcastle Falcons rugby team and their new Academy have linked up with the School in an apprenticeship scheme; in 2007 eight students joined the academy for two years^[21][22].

[edit] Location

Gosforth High School is located on Knightsbridge, connecting to a section of the Great North Road in the Parklands electoral ward. The school is opposite the Asda Gosforth superstore and near to the Regent Centre business complex.

Many students use the local metro and bus systems to travel to the school, due to the proximity of Regent Centre transport Interchange to the school. The school field also runs parallel to the metro line, including a short platform used for reversing the direction of Metro trains going out of service.

[edit] Management structure

Gosforth Federated schools are currently run by the Principal who is in charge of all of the four schools with in the federation (GHS, GJHS, Gosforth High Sixth Form College and Gosforth High Community Education College). On the SMT there are the Principal, 1 vice Principal, 2 Deputy Head teachers and several Assistant Heads, each member of the SMT hold director positions including director of performance and director of main school. The Junior school is run on a day to day basis by the Director of Junior School, Main School (Year 9,10,11) is run by the Director of Main School and 2 Assistant Directors, the Sixth Form College is run by the Director of Post-16 and one assistant Director and the Community education College is run by the Director of Community Education. All schools within the federation however are run by the head of the federation, the principal, who therefore has overall control and is responsible for all aspects of the day to day running of all schools within the federation.

[edit] Feeder schools

• Gosforth East Middle School
• Gosforth Central Middle School
• Gosforth Junior High School

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Gosforth Grammar School

• Carol Galley, businesswoman, worth over £80 million^[23]
• David Knopfler, Dire Straits guitarist, singer and songwriter and brother of Mark Knopfler
• Mark Knopfler, guitarist and lead singer of Dire Straits^[24]
• Robert Sherlaw Johnson, composer, pianist and music scholar^[25]

[edit] Gosforth High School

• Donna Air, Actress and television presenter^[26]
• Michelle Bass, Reality TV star in Big Brother 5 UK^[27]
• Michael Chopra, Centre forward for Sunderland A.F.C^[28]
• Robbie Elliott, Ex-Newcastle United footballer, currently at Hartlepool United
• Kevin Lees, fiddler with Last Orders
• Ben Price, Actor, known for roles in Casualty and Footballers' Wives.^[29]
• Alan Shearer, former Striker for Newcastle United F.C.^[24]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gosforth High School - Official site
• Gosforth Community Education - Official site
• Newcastle VTLE - Online learning portal
• School information at Newcastle City Council

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