Westlands School
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| Westlands School and Technology College | |
| Motto | Success and excellence for all in a caring community |
| Established | 1973 |
| Headteacher | Mr Michael Stewart |
| Specialism | Maths and Computing College |
| Location | Westlands Lane Torquay Devon TQ1 3PE England |
| LEA | Torbay |
| Ofsted number | 113526 |
| Students | 1426 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11 to 18 |
| Website | http://www.westlandstc.com/ |
| Coordinates: | |
Westlands School is a secondary school in the Devon town of Torquay. Established in 1973, the school has since become a thriving co-educational bilateral school, for children aged between 11 and 18. The school is located in the Plainmoor district of Torquay, with most students living in the catchment area of Plainmoor, St Marychurch, Babbacombe and Ellacombe areas of the town. However some students do live further away from the school catchment area, yet still attend the school due to a selective grammar stream and special support for deaf children.
The school became a Technology College in 2001, specialising in ICT and technology subjects, and receiving additional government funding.
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[edit] History
Originally when the school was established in 1973 and was named Westhill School. It was split over two separate sites, about half a mile from each other. One site, named Lower School, was used for students ages 11-13 in years 7 and 8, while the other site, named Upper School was for students in year 9 and higher.
During the second world war, the lower school buildings were originally built to be an army hospital with Torquay being a major town in England for war hospitals. Each classroom features 'walls' consisting of multiple double doors where beds would have be brought in and out.
However throughout the years the school started becoming run down, with funding mainly being spent on the upper school to improve the facilities, the lower school was largely left to itself. Both sites also relied heavily on outside cabins to provide extra teaching facilities, which come the late 90's were old and starting to become increasingly damaged due to old age.
[edit] Rebuilding the School
In the late 1990's the decision was finally made to rebuild the school onto one site, namely the Upper School site. In the year 1999 work commenced under a private finance scheme, with Torbay Council owning the land, and Jarvis plc building, and then owning the building itself.
The plan was to rebuild the entire school on the Upper School site, which along with Homelands Primary School was next to it, was a much larger site. In the summer of 1999 Homelands relocated to part of the Lower School of Westlands to allow building work to commence. The old Homelands School buildings were demolished, and beuilding of the new school began. The new school was built in sections, allowing students to start occupying part of the new building, while other areas of the site were demolised and rebuilt while the school remained open.
In Autumn 2001 the building was finally completed, and students from the Lower School joined the rest of the students to form the school onto one site. Homelands school, which up until now still were using part of the Lower Site then had a new school rebuilt at the Lower School Site which was completed in Summer 2002.
Jarvis who built and now own and run the building supply all maintenance, rather than the council itself.
[edit] The New School Architecture
The new school building is unique, in that it is built in a relatively long plot of land surrounded by buildings on all sides, as for this the design had to be long and narrow, with offices and administion at one end, and classes at the other. The school is built with 'pods', shaped like triangles, which each hold a different subject department. The science and art departments both remain in older sections of the school which were not rebuilt, but joined onto the new building.
Since the rebuild however some major design flaws have been discovered. For a modern building the school has an extreme lack of parking facilities for staff, visitors and students. Nearby roads and a private car park for a local swimming pool often get busy and full through every school day.
The school also has a limited sized dining area, which did not have the capacity to hold enough students at lunch times, and so for a period of time, years were split into having different timed lunch breaks in a very confusing system, however in 2004 an extension was built, and since there has been one lunch time again. Also due to the design of the building being long, each 'pod' all link into one main hallway on each floor, which can become very crowded at busy periods.
[edit] Sport
The school has its own gymnasium on site, however due to the school being built in a very urban, built up area of Torquay there is no nearby sports fields. However the school does own a large sports field, named Quinta, about half a mile away for outside sport lessons. The school provides free coach transport every day to and from the sports fields to allow students to easily get to and from the sports fields without being late for other lessons.
[edit] External links
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