Salesian School (Chertsey)

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Salesian School Chertsey
Motto More than just a school
Established 1971
Type Secondary School
Gender Mixed
Headmaster Mr. James Kibble
Founder St. John Bosco
Chaplain Miss. Ina Coles
Teaching staff > 100
Students 1.280
Location Guildford Road, Chertsey, Surrey, KT16 9LU,
Chertsey, United Kingdom
Website [1]

Salesian School is a split-site school in Chertsey in Surrey.

The two sites were originally 2 single-sex education Roman Catholic grammar schools maintained by the Salesian Fathers and Sisters. Salesian College at Highfield Road was for boys and, later, Guildford Road was for girls.

In 1971 they merged to form one comprehensive school called Salesian School but maintained the single-sex education on separate sites.

In 1983 it became a coeducational school with pupils located on a site according to their age. The school has children of all abilities from 11-18 years. The lower school (years 7 and 8) and Sixth Form (years 12 and 13) primarily attend classes at the smaller site of Highfield Road, occasionally travelling to the Guildford Road site. Lower School students do so twice a week, during the lunch break, for PE and Technology.

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[edit] Staff

Father Edward O'Shea was Headteacher from 1971 to 1977, followed by Father Gilheney up to 1990. David Cleworth was Headteacher until July 2005, when he retired, and Eric Doherty was Acting Headteacher for a year. In September 2006, James Kibble took on the post of Headteacher. Currently, there are over 100 members of staff, either working as teachers, learning and teaching assistants or associate staff.

[edit] Sixth Form

Ciran Stapleton is Head of Sixth Form with Stephen Bell and Clare Tidy supporting him as Deputy Heads of 6th Form.

Some of the many activities which the Sixth Form take part in are the Rag Parade and Show, the Sleepout (where students sleep outside the common-room to raise awareness of the homeless). The Sixth Form hold many parties throughout the year, and these are organised by the council as are all events. The current President is Ricky Zalman.

[edit] Alumni

John Boorman, British film director

[edit] The Fusion Project

In 2004 the Fusion Project was started to combine the two halves of the school on to one site, Guildford Road. The first stage was to build a new technology block, which was finished in October of the same year. It houses class rooms for Graphics, Food, Resistant Materials, Electronics and Textiles.

They have now also completed the second phase, which is an all weather sports facility. The next stage of the Fusion Project is to commence at the start of the next accedemic year (September 2008) when years 7 & 8 will be permanantly scheduled to attend lessons at Guilford Road, leaving Highfield Road to years 12 & 13. The tempoary classrooms at Highfield road are likely to be transported to the other site to provide extra classrooms until others are built.

[edit] Students

As of September 2007 there are more than 1.200 pupils at Salesian School and it is heavily over-subscribed.

[edit] Talent

The school has put on productions every other year. In early 2007, the drama department and others worked hard to bring 'Sweet charity' together. The show was successful, running for 3 nights. It starred Samantha Ivey and Ricky Zalman as 'Charity Hope Valentine' and 'Oscar Lindquist'. The play was acted out by students, as well as the musical accompaniment coming from students. Everyone involved worked hard, as did the Directors Jason Hall and Tony Clark. This was the most successful show to date. The same is said for the 2005 production of 'Annie'. The school also has an impressive record in national and regional contests, and recently the school has done well in contests as 'Young Enterprise'. As well as this, the school is involved in with Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.

Every year, two musical venues are produced; one in the summer and the other nearing the festive season of Christmas. The Christmas concert includes traditional carols performed by the Junior & Senior Choir, the Junior & Senior Orchestra, the Clarinet Group, the Flute Group and the Jazz Band.

The school also encourages young musicians, to play more often. Another example of young musicians are the college rock band The Provoked, who, in 2004, played at the Summer Concert and later that year released a demo CD are now trying to get a record contract by playing on various radio stations; most notably, XFM's Rock school where they were shortlisted to win.

[edit] External links