| Established | 1933 |
|---|---|
| Type | Community school |
| Headteacher | Ian Gage |
| Specialism | Performing Arts Maths & Computing Leading Edge |
| Location | High Storrs Road Sheffield South Yorkshire S11 7LH England |
| Local authority | City of Sheffield |
| DfE number | ???/4257 |
| DfE URN | 107139 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1575 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Crucible, Lyceum, Merlin, Montgomery |
| Former name | High Storrs Grammar School |
| Website | High Storrs |
High Storrs is a secondary comprehensive school on the south-western outskirts of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England.
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High Storrs has a Sixth Form and is a specialist Arts College in the Performing Arts, with a second specialism in Maths and Computing. Headteacher Ian Gage took up post in January 2010.
It is situated in Ecclesall, accessed via the A625.
The school opened on 10 March 1880 as the Central Higher Grade School in the centre of Sheffield, and re-located to its present site at High Storrs in 1933. The association for former pupils retains this historical connection in its name, the Old Centralians.[1]
The building housed two separate grammar schools from the 1940s to 1968: High Storrs Grammar School for Boys, and High Storrs Grammar School for Girls. It was administered by the Sheffield Education Committee. The buildings were improved in the early 1960s.
These were merged into a single comprehensive school, starting in September 1969 with around 1,600 boys and girls.
On 11 July 1978, an aerobatics pilot (Philip Meeson, who now owns Jet2, a British aerobatics champion) gave a display above the school; he had chosen the wrong school, as it was Newfield Secondary School he had been asked to perform for.
In 1993, rivalry with the Notre Dame High School led to battles in Endcliffe Park with knives and iron bars. It led to the death of a High Storrs pupil, 17 year old Grant Jackson (18 November 1975 – 30 April 1993), who was killed with a 2 foot-long bayonet by 14 year old Errol Donaldson. Grant Jackson had not gone to the park knowing a battle had been arranged. He was kicked on the ground and knifed three times with the bayonet. He died of shock and haemorrhaging soon after in the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. The murderer, who initially claimed manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, received a life sentence at Sheffield Crown Court on 24 November 1994. The murderer had boasted about the stabbing the next day, and when the police found the bayonet in his room, had claimed he was keeping it for a friend and denied knowledge of the battle.[2] After release he would be later involved in the death of a 22 year old Sheffield young mother in a hit and run incident on 29 August 2009 in Beauchief.[3]
On 28 June 2008 an event was held to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the school on its present site, with past pupils invited back to the school.
Mr Chapman stepped down suddenly after Easter 2009. The acting headteacher has been Roisin Paul, who is now on maternity leave. Her permanent replacement is Mr Ian Gage who has been in place since January 2010.
Recently, the traditional "Key Stage" system was radically changed to the Vertical System, where instead of year groups, there are houses with ten forms to each house. The forms of thirty have six pupils of every year (not including sixth form) in each. This system is meant to reduce bullying and encourage friendships with pupils of different ages. The four houses are named after the main four theatres in Sheffield: Crucible, Lyceum, Merlin and Montgomery. Sixth form students are also attached to a vertical form for organisational and mentoring purposes; typically three sixth formers are attached to one form.
In 2008 63% of pupils who took GCSE exams achieved the standard of 5 A*–C grades, including Maths and English.[4] This is above both the Local Authority average of 40.8% and the national average of 47.6%.[4]
The average points score for AS and A2 Level students was 675.8, below the national average of 739.8.[5]
It gets above-average GCSE results and A-levels at the England average.
From September 2009, the school was going to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma however the new head teacher Ian Gage scrapped the ideas and the school no longer offers the IB[6], becoming the first comprehensive in Sheffield to do so.
Almost £27 million has been allocated for a complete refurbishment and remodelling of the school under the Government's Building Schools for the Future programme, with £2 million being spent on ICT equipment. Preparatory work on the field ready for the new temporary teaching rooms began in July 2008. Demolition of the 1960s extensions to the north of the school was completed in November 2008, and the project is scheduled for completion in 2011.
Due to the school's Grade II listed status, only the interior of the main school building can be refurbished, with the exterior remaining almost unchanged. A new extension will be built at the north end of the building to replace the old dining rooms, school hall and performing arts block, whilst a second extension will be built at a later date to replace the 1960s additions at the south end of the school.