| Motto | Success and excellence for all in a caring community |
|---|---|
| Established | 1973 |
| Headteacher | Dr Colin Kirkman |
| Vice Chairman | Steve Radford |
| Specialism | Maths and Computing College |
| Location | Westlands Lane Torquay Devon TQ1 3PE England |
| Local authority | Torbay |
| DfE URN | 113526 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1426 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Raleigh, Brunel, Peters and Christie |
| Colours | Red, Blue, Green and Yellow |
| Parent Governors | Mrs P Kay, Mrs B Bird, Mrs K Northway, Mr S Radford (Vice Chairman) |
| Partnership Governors | Martin Stentiford (also Chair of govs), Mr D Leishman, Mr K Davis |
| LA Governors | Miss N Rogers, Mrs J Skaith |
| Staff Governors | Mrs S Peak, Mr J Hartley, Mr R Steer |
| Community Governor | Mrs A F Clark |
| Website | www.westlandstc.com |
Westlands School is a secondary school in the Devon town of Torquay, England. Established in 1973, the school has since become a 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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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 (Torquay being a major town for war hospitals). Each classroom featured 'walls' consisting of multiple double doors where beds would have been brought in and out.
The school started to become 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 1990s were old and starting to become increasingly damaged.
In the late 1990s the decision was made to rebuild the school onto one site, namely the Upper School site. In 1999 work started 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 building 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 demolished and rebuilt while the school remained open.
In Autumn 2001 the building was 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. PPP have taken over ownership of the school from Jarvis.
The new school building is unusual, in that it is built in a long plot of land surrounded by buildings. The offices and administration are at one end, and classes at the other. The school is built with 'pods', shaped like triangles, which each hold a 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 design flaws have been discovered. For a modern building the school has a 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 had 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 differentvtimed lunch breaks in a very confusing system. In 2004 an extension was built, and since then 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.
Upon joining the school, a student is assigned to one of the school's four houses. The houses compete in both academic and sporting events throughout the academic year. The Houses were originally named after local beaches (Redgate, Livermead, Meadfoot and Oddicombe), and are now named after local famous people.
Ralegh house is named after Sir Walter Raleigh. The house colour is red. The head of house is Mrs Meadows. The form tutors in this house are Mr Eastwood, Mrs Farley, Mr Grant, Mr Hamilton, Mr Harris, Mr Horwood, Miss Raby, Mr Tanner, Miss Tobin and Mr Wood.
Brunel house is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The house colour is blue. The head of house is Miss French. The form tutors in this house are Mrs Conway, Miss Roberts, Miss Bodnar, Mr Anderson, Mrs Waterton, Mr Hosking, Mr Mould, Ms Edgar, Miss Adams and Mr Smillie.
Peters house is named after James Peters. The house colour is green. The head of house is miss Tipple. The form tutors in this house are Mr Akehurst, Miss Bacon, Mr Boyes, Miss Cooper, Mrs Deeks, Miss Fellows, Mr Higginson, Mrs Sayell, Mr Taylor-Jevons and Mr Vaas.
Christie house is named after Agatha Christie. The house colour is yellow. The head of house is Mr Heywood. The form tutors in the house are Miss Cox, Mrs Darby, Miss Tulloch, Mr Evans, Mrs Norton, Miss Gardner, Mrs Peak, Mr Veale, Mrs Taylor and Mrs Ware.
The school has a gymnasium on site, however due to the school being built in a built-up area of Torquay there are 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 coach transport every day to and from the sports fields.
It has been proposed that a new stadium development at nearby Plainmoor Football ground could see the facilities being used by pupils at Westlands School. [1]