Thornden School

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Thornden School is a secondary school in Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, which is a specialist Arts College and Science College. The head teacher is Dr R A Sykes who has held the position for over 10 years. 94% of pupils at the school achieved at least 5 A*-C GCSE grades in the Summer of 2007^{[citation needed]}. The most recent inspection was in July 2007, when Thornden achieved an 'outstanding' grade from OFSTED inspectors.

1 Classes
2 Thornden Hall
3 Languages
4 Productions
5 External links

[edit] Classes

The tutor groups consist of a French and German side. There are ten tutor groups in each year, (AF, AG, FF, FG, KF, KG, MF, MG, FX and GX) after the yearly intake increased and nine was no longer enough. The last year group to have nine tutor groups left in the Summer of 2007. Each year group has their own head of year who stays with them as they progress through the school. They also have a tutor who looks after them and monitors them thorught out their time at Thornden. Their tutor is the head of their tutor group (meaning there is one per tutor)

[edit] Thornden Hall

Thornden Hall is part of a performing arts centre, which was awarded a Commendation in the Civic Trust Awards 2005. Thornden Hall was opened in May 2003 in the presence of percussionist Evelyn Glennie. It is a concert hall designed with acoustics for music performances, with a stage large enough to accommodate a full orchestra and an audience capacity of nearly 270 people. The venue can be adapted for other dance and drama events, presentations and lectures. In addition to the concert hall there are two specialist drama studios, two music rooms and a dance studio, as well as foyer and bar area.

Thornden Hall is the home of the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra, Eastleigh Area Schools Orchestra, Thornden Community Wind Band, TOMS, Stagecoach Theatre Arts, and Tribe Community Arts, who all rehearse or hold classes in the performing arts centre throughout the week. The concert hall is also used for meetings and presentations such as the Hampshire Sports Awards, Blake Lapthorn Linnell Challenge Lecture and Women's Institute "Evening with Kate Adie".

[edit] Languages

In Year 9, pupils will choose their options for GCSE. At Thornden, all pupils are strongly advised to select at least one modern foreign language. These will normally be either French or German, however if pupils are deemed exceptional at their first foreign language (French or German) they will be given the option of taking up Spanish in Year 9. This can also be chosen as a foriegn language for GCSE, but only if the pupil has studied it in Year 9.

[edit] Productions

As it is a performing arts college, many productions take place inside Thornden Hall involving Thornden Pupils and the wider community. The Thornden Operatic and Musical Society have performed dozens of musicals, most notably Les-Miserables, Follies, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and Fiddler on the Roof. Summer of 2007 was when the outstanding success of Smike took place, which for the first time used only the talented young singers, actors and dancers of Thornden School. Aladdin took place just after Christmas 2007 and The Story of Anne Frank took place in early April 2008. Both were a huge sucess. It starred pupils from year groups 9 and 10. Other performances take place throughtout the year for example, Teachers Got Talent and Thornden's Got Talent in aid of charity and the yearly Star for a Night which takes place over 2 nights, featuring a medly of talented singers and performers at Thornden