For schools of the same name, see Castle High School.
Castle High School is a secondary school located in Dudley, West Midlands, England. It caters for pupils aged from 11 to 16 years. It is also a specialist Arts College.
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Castle High is one of the most recently formed schools in the Dudley area, although its buildings are some of the oldest. It was formed in September 1989 on a merger between The Dudley School and The Blue Coat School, and gave education for pupils aged from 12 to 18 years. It also took in some of the pupils from the closing Sir Gilbert Claughton School.
The Castle High name was chosen in a poll by the Dudley School pupils, who also chose the design of the new school's logo.
There had been talk of a merger between the Dudley School and at least one of the other smaller secondary schools in Dudley since 1985 (which would have formed a school called The Ednam School), but the merger between Dudley School and Blue Coat was not confirmed until October 1988. The new school's name was confirmed the following spring.
After a year, the school opened to 11 year olds following the local authority's decision to reduce the primary school leaving age; at the same time, the sixth form centre was closed and the leaving age for pupils fell to 16. The former sixth form facilities were used as classrooms to accommodate the new younger pupils.
September 1990 also saw the school take in approximately 50% of pupils from Mons Hill School, which closed due to falling pupil numbers. Several teachers at these schools were also recruited to Castle High.
Unlike the Blue Coat School, however, Castle High never used the Mons Hill buildings as these were taken over by Dudley College.
For the first year of its existence, Castle High also incorporated the Blue Coat School buildings on Kates Hill where the final two academic year groups of that school's pupils remained for a year. Sir Gilbert Claughton School, however, remained a separate school as the final year of that school's pupils completed their education.
A new three-storey classroom block was opened in the 1991 summer term, the first in several phases of expansion which were completed in 1995. The expansion also saw the demolition of the school swimming pool which had been in the grammar school buildings. Mobile classrooms were on the site until the permanent buildings were opened.
The expanded Castle High was officially opened on 20 October 1995 by George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Castle High is situated in St James's Road, near Dudley town centre, mostly within the buildings of the former Dudley Boys Grammar School (which date back to 1897). An extension was completed in 1995 and the adjoining buildings in Priory Road (formerly Dudley Girls High School) were demolished at the beginning of the following year.
The school's current head teacher is Mr Trevor Johnson, who was appointed in September 2002 on the retirement of Mr Geoff Cresswell, who had arrived at the school as head teacher 13 years earlier when it became Castle High.
Plans were unveiled in June 2008 for Castle High to receive Academy status, sponsored by the Oasis Community Learning Trust, possibly in time for the 2009/2010 academic year.[1] However, these plans were thrown into doubt five months later due to doubts over the availability of adequate funding.[2] In March 2009, it was confirmed the academy plans would not go ahead. [3]
28% of the pupils leaving Castle High in summer 2009 gained 5 or more GCSEs at grade C or above, making it the second lowest ranking secondary school in the borough, despite high pass rates (A-C GCSE) in previous years. [4]
The school is set for a new board of governors and a new head teacher with effect from September 2010, along with a £650,000 refurbishment of the older school buildings.[5]
The school suffered a tragedy in February 2001 when 12-year-old pupil Scott Holloway died after being knocked down by a van near his home on the Priory Estate.[6] Staff and pupils at Castle High set up a fund in Scott's memory and a total of almost £1,100 was raised for the fund, some of which was raised by bidding for a signed Aston Villa football.[7] A local van driver later received a fine and a driving ban for careless driving in connection to Scott's death.[8].