Sidney Stringer School
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| Sidney Stringer School | |
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| Type | Comprehensive |
| Religious affiliation | Non-denominational |
| Headteacher | Brian Worrall |
| Specialism | Mathematics and Computing College |
| Location | Cox Street Coventry West Midlands CV1 5NL England |
| LEA | Coventry City Council |
| Ofsted number | 103739 |
| Students | 1,141 (approx.) |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11 to 18 |
| Website | www.sidneystringer.coventry.sch.uk |
Sidney Stringer School & Community Technical College is a coeducational (mixed) community college for pupils aged 11 – 18 in Hillfields, Coventry, England.[1] The school's headteacher is Brian Worrall. Along with Barr's Hill School and Community College and the President Kennedy School and Community College it forms the North West Federation of Schools, which are allowed to provide the International General Certificate of Secondary Education English course to pupils at the school.[2]
In 2001, Sidney Stringer School had 955 pupils, nearly 75% of which were from ethnic minority backgrounds, mainly Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi, for nearly all of whom English was their second language. The main first languages are Urdu, Gujarati, Bengali, and Punjabi. Thirty four pupils were refugees. It has a below-average attendance rate, in part due to the religious holidays celebrated by the ethnic minority communities that fall during term time, an issue for the school on which it does not have the full cooperation of parents. Its best subjects at GCSE level are Mathematics, ICT (the school's strongest subject), art and design, and drama. Standards of pupil achievement at year 9 are well below the national average in English, the sciences, and mathematics.
However, Sidney Stringer has one of the highest CVA - Contextual Value Added scores in the city. This is a new, complex Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 contextual value added (CVA) score designed to show the progress children have made. This is done by comparing their achievements with those of other pupils nationally who had the same or similar prior attainment in their test results at KS2 and KS3. It has one of the highest improvement rates in the country making their grade from year 7 to year 9 a whole two levels higher. In summer 2007, Sidney Stringer students produced their improved SATS, GCSE and A Level results. The SATs results in 2007 were the best ever for the school; GCSE results were up 11% on 2006 and 97% of A level students passed, with 48.4% of these passing with A or B grade – placing the school third in Coventry.
The school liaises with its feeder primary schools, with year 5 and 6 pupils from those schools attending Sidney Stringer to experience "taster" lessons. Other primary pupils make use of the school's ICT facilities, and teachers from Sidney Stringer run physical education clubs at the primary schools during lunchtimes.[1]
The school is also the location for various evening courses run by the Coventry Adult Education Service.[3]
The school holds displays to raise awareness of World Refugee Day[4] and in 2006 participated in the Motiv8 project.[5]
In 2006, controversial plans to merge Sidney Stringer School with Barr's Hill School to form a city academy were dropped.[6] A proposal of a single academy as replacement for Sidney Stringer is in feasibility stage and consultations are currently being conducted.[7]
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[edit] Incidents
A fire started in the school gym at about 15.30 p.m. on 25 September 2007 and spread to destroy over 40% of the school buildings.[8][9] The school was evacuated and there were no injuries.[8] Over 100 fire-fighters arrived to combat the fire,[8] and about 30 were still at the school the following morning.[9] Initial findings suggest that the fire might have been started deliberately.[10]
As of April 2008, temporary accommodation has been built on site, and some may argue that the facilities in this 'temporary' accommodation are even better than those in the building destroyed by the fire.
 The fire at Sidney Stringer School |
 Fire engines outside the Vine Street entrance |
 Vine Street entrance and fire engines |
 Burning ruins |
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[edit] References
- ^ a b Tom Comer (2001-02-15). Sidney Stringer School (PDF). Ofsted.
- ^ The Coventry City Council and the North West Federation of Schools (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) Order 2005. Office of Public Sector Information (2005).
- ^ Black History Courses starting January 2005. Local History Magazine. Local History Press Ltd.
- ^ Overview of Activities: International Refugee Day 2006. UNITED for Intercultural Action.
- ^ Motiv8. Groundwork (June 2006).
- ^ Lucy Lynch. "City drops plan to merge two schools", icCoventry, Midland Newspapers Limited, 2006-02-28.
- ^ Academy in Swanswell.
- ^ a b c Fire at city school is suspicious. BBC News (2007-09-25). Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
- ^ a b Firefighters still at school fire. BBC News (2007-09-26). Retrieved on 2007-09-26.
- ^ Fire school closed for two weeks. BBC News (2007-09-27). Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
[edit] Further reading
- Estelle Morris. "Gifted and talented: A day for smug satisfaction", The Guardian, 2006-03-28. — Morris, who used to teach at Sidney Stringer School, reports her experience of attending a school prize-giving ceremony, describing the school as "Like many inner-city schools, it's got the challenging part of the market: 44% on free school meals; more than 40 languages spoken. But, also like many inner-city schools, it has vision and ambition, and its kids have talent and character screaming to be recognised."
