Oxted School

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Oxted School
Motto Working Together For Excellence
Established 1929
Type Secondary School
Religious affiliation non-denominational
Headteacher Guy Nelson
Location Bluehouse Lane
Oxted
Surrey
RH8 0AB
England
LEA Surrey
Ofsted number 125253
Students over 2100
Gender Male/Female
Ages 11 to 18
Houses Detillens,
Foyles,
Grants,
Stocketts,
Tenchleys
School colours (by house, as above)
Green,
Red,
Yellow,
Purple,
Blue
Publication Prospectus
Website http://www.oxted.surrey.sch.uk
Coordinates: 51°15′36″N 0°00′05″W / 51.2599, -0.0015

Oxted School is a mixed comprehensive secondary school in the English town of Oxted, Surrey. It was opened in 1929 as the first mixed grammar school in Surrey and now has over 2000 pupils aged 11-18 (Years 7-13).

Contents

[edit] Headteacher

The current head teacher is Guy P Nelson, who took up the position on 1st January 2008. Guy was previously the Deputy Head at the school and in June 2007, was accepted as the new head teacher out of eight potential candidates. The previous headteacher, Margaret Hawley, retired on 31st December 2007.[1] She was appointed in 2000 replacing Roger Coles OBE[2]who had held the position since 1981. She was the first female headteacher of the school.

[edit] History

Oxted County School, as named until 1999 when it became known as Oxted School, was built in 1929 at the cost of £35,000. In its first term it had only 22 pupils but this increased to 120 after two years. It was originally designed to grow to 250 pupils. Now, in 2006 it has well in excess of 2000 pupils and is inevitably a part of the local community.

The school was the first mixed grammar school in Surrey when it opened. The sexes were strictly segregated and they had separate staircases, playgrounds and had to sit at separate sides of the classroom in lessons. As a punishment, girls would have to write lines; boys were caned by the headmaster. Today none of these practices are in effect.

[edit] Current Status

The school has a 65%+ 5 GCSE or above pass rate; over 95% of its students receive 5 GCSEs grade G and above.

Most of the 400 Sixth form go on to university and 2-4 earn a place at an Oxbridge university each year.[citation needed]

[edit] ODD Youth Theatre

The school has a very successful performing arts department and its own theatre company called The Odd Youth Theatre. It is run by David Morris, the head of Drama. Having previously been known as The Performing Arts Society, the new name Odd Youth Theatre (Oxted Dance and Drama) was adopted when the company took Dancing In The Dark, adapted from the novel by Joan Barfoot, to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1992. The company returned to Edinburgh in 1999 with two productions, Find Me and Molly. Recent productions include Under Milk Wood and Oliver. The current production for the 2007-2008 school year is the musical Into The Woods.

[edit] Buildings

  1. The original building of 1929
  2. The 1951 extension of the original building
  3. The PE Block (1960s)
  4. The Art Block (1987)
  5. The Drama Studio (1991)
  6. The Science Block (1993)
  7. The Design and Technology Block (1997)
  8. The Meridian Building (1999/2000). This replaced the destroyed 1960s Humanities Block, see below.
  9. A few hut classrooms constructed over the years
  10. Work is well underway on a new building, located at the back of the site. This building is currently on schedule for completion in the summer of 2008. [3]

[edit] The Fire in 1998

On August 16, 1998 former students of the school[citation needed] set fire to the Humanities Block. This contained 22 classrooms, library, canteen, thousands of books and 125 computers. Everything was destroyed, It took 65 firemen 5 hours to subdue the blaze, fortunately nobody was hurt.

The school reopened as usual in the September with temporary hut classrooms. Some of these huts still remain.

The replacement building is called The Meridian Building[1] as The Greenwich Meridian runs directly alongside it. It contains 24 classrooms, library and canteen. It was opened officially in April 2000 by the former headteacher, Roger Coles.

[edit] Notable Former Pupils

Ian Pearce

Nicky Forster

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://networks.oxted.surrey.sch.uk/archive/correspondence/20070508.pdf
  2. ^ New Years Honours 1999. “An OBE is also given to Roger Coles, head of Oxted County School, Surrey, which was among those "named and acclaimed" by the Office for Standards in Education as giving pupils "an excellent start to their education".”
  3. ^ http://networks.oxted.surrey.sch.uk/archive/newbuild