Newstead Wood School for Girls
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| Newstead Wood School for Girls | |
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| Motto | Fortitudine Crescamus ('May We Grow in Strength') |
| Established | 1957 |
| Type | Grammar secondary school |
| Headteacher | Ms Elizabeth Allen |
| Specialism | Engineering |
| Location | Avebury Road Orpington Kent BR6 9SA England |
| LEA | Bromley |
| Ofsted number | 101671 |
| Students | 971[1] |
| Gender | Girls |
| Ages | 11 to 18 |
| Houses | Nightingale , Wren , Swift , Falcon , Griffin |
| Website | www.newsteadwood.bromley.sch.uk |
| Coordinates: | |
Newstead Wood School for Girls is a selective girls' secondary school in Avebury Road, Orpington, England. It is an engineering specialist school.
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[edit] Academics
In 2003 Newstead Wood was described by Ofsted as "an outstandingly successful school". The school has a large catchment area, from which pupils are selected on the basis of tests in verbal and non-verbal reasoning. In 2004 there were eight applicants per place. Amongst leavers in 2005, 25 students gained places at Oxford and Cambridge universities.
The current head teacher is Elizabeth Allen. The school's motto is Fortitudine Crescamus (latin for: 'May We Grow in Strength'). It was founded as Orpington Girls' Grammar School in 1957.
The school has strong links with nearby St Olave's Grammar School.
[edit] Transport
The school is relatively easy to get to, with Orpington Station situated ten minutes' walk away. There are many buses to the two bus stops which are also about 10 - 15 minutes walk away from the school. The school provides coaches for those who prefer not to use public transport. There is parking near to and surrounding the school. Inside the school it is possible to use the Bromley Tennis Centre car park.
[edit] Houses
Initially the school had no house system but when it was introduced there were only three houses, Nightingale, Wren and Swift. The first letters of each house came from the initials of Newstead Wood School, and the name of the house was both a bird, and a notable historical figure (Florence Nightingale, Christopher Wren and Jonathan Swift). Each year group had three classes, one from each house. As the school expanded, each year group grew to 4 classes, and a fourth house, Griffin, was founded. The school continued to expand, growing to 5 classes in each year, and so the Falcon house was founded.
The school now consists of five houses: Nightingale, Wren, Swift, Falcon and Griffin. The house names come from the school's initials (NWSFG). Each house has a captain and a deputy captain drawn from the sixth form; these house representatives are elected by members of the house and lead the house competitions in events like sports and performing arts. In 2007, the house cup was won by Wren, and was presented by Alex Walkinshaw, who plays Sergeant Dale Smith (aka Smithy) in the ITV police-drama Series, The Bill.
Each house has its own representative colour: Nightingale - Red, Wren - Blue, Swift - Yellow, Falcon - Turquoise, Griffin - Purple.
Recently added, students are now required to have T-shirts (often used in physical education) with their house printed on the back of the t-shirt, and the colour of the shirt being the representing colour of their specific houses. These are available from the P.E department.
The 5 houses regularly compete in several competitions. Most of these are inter-house sport competitions, however, others include Harvest box (who can come up with the most creative idea), Newstead the Rivals (each house submits two contestants and external judges decide which is the best), Public Speaking, and of course, the Performing Arts Festival. The Performing Arts Festival, run by the drama department's very own Mr Stokes, is a competition which allows the students to express creativity by directing, starring in, and running their very own theatre productions that must last no longer than 15 minutes. The jobs involved include, lighting, directors, musicians, programme design, actors and actresses, costume mistress and props. The top 6 selected by external modulators perform their production to the parents. Last year's production was a huge success, with many extraordinary entries, with 8W (now 9W) winning the competition, with 9F (now 10F) coming a close second. 7N (now 8N) also made it into the top 6, coming 5th. This shows the hard work put in by them, as they had never had experience of the Performing Arts Festival before.
[edit] Notable Alumnae
- Christine Hancock, General Secretary, Royal College of Nursing, 1989-2001
- Barbara Harriss-White, Professor of Development Studies, University of Oxford
- Emma Johnson, clarinettist, winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year, 1984
- Josie Long, comedian
- Susan Tebby Professor, Fine Art & Sculpture, De Montfort University, Leicester
- Kim Medcalf, actress
