| Motto | Achieving Success |
|---|---|
| Principal | Ms D Pickering |
| Specialism | Business and Enterprise College |
| Location | Highfield Avenue Tamworth Staffordshire B77 3JB England |
| DfE URN | 124421 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Staff | 100 |
| Students | 780 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11–16 |
| Colours | Navy, Red and White |
| Website | www.lfacademytamworth.org.uk |
Landau Forte Academy, Tamworth (Formerly Woodhouse Business and Enterprise College (BEC) and Woodhouse High School) is a high-school situated in Amington, a suburb of Tamworth, Staffordshire. The school has around 100 teaching staff and over 780 pupils.
Woodhouse High School was opened in 1971 (by then Secretary of State for Education Margaret Thatcher) as Tamworth's first purpose-built mixed comprehensive high school.[1]
The school was transferred to the control of the Landau Forte Charitable Trust from Staffordshire LA control on 1st September 2010.
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Former facilities include the school's sports centre, heated swimming pool, floodlit astroturf playing surface (recently refurbished with National Lottery money) and tennis courts all serving the local community as well as students.
At Woodhouse, the 330 seat theatre provided a regular venue for its musicals, concerts and plays, and is much sought after by local organisations. Other highlights include drama and recording studios, a whole-school IT network (the school houses a Cisco Systems Oracle Database academy), design and technology centre, a suite of three art studios, a 32-seat language laboratory (French and German were traditionally taught, Spanish has been added in recent years) and nine science laboratories.[2] Woodhouse was one of the few state schools in Tamworth and Staffordshire to offer Classics at a high level.
The previous Latin motto "virtus ex humilitate"[3] ('virtue through humility') and uniforms consisting of blazer and school-colour ties were replaced by the incoming Headmaster Neil Hemmings in 2003.
The school was renamed in 2007 from 'Woodhouse High School' to 'Woodhouse Business and Enterprise College' where the school specialized in Business Studies classes. The school is therefore a member of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. As part of this change the school houses were re-named. Original houses were:
Houses were renamed to more contemporary names connected with business and enterprise:
The school was one of the first in Staffordshire to gain the prestigious Staffordshire Partnership Award for outstanding school industry links.[2]
After being placed in special measures by OFSTED in 2007, the school has been improving in GCSE results in the past three years,[4] and currently around 80% of pupils achieve the government's target of 5 A*-C grades at GCSE.[5] The changeover to Landau Forte provided the school with even better results. In August 2011 the Tamworth Herald reported that:
"THE former Woodhouse High School is celebrating its first set of GCSE results as the Landau Forte Academy with an 'outstanding improvement' on 2010.
A total 48 per cent of students achieved 5A*-C results including maths and English compared with last year's score of 31 per cent. And 87 per cent achieved five GCSEs at grade A*-C."Tamworth Herald
As a part of Building Schools for the Future programme, Landau Forte took over the management of the school and Woodhouse became an Academy in September 2010. Pupils and staff moved into a custom-built facility in September 2011, opened officially on September 21st by the Duchess of Gloucester.[6] Simultaneously, the Sixth Forms of the other Tamworth schools - QEMS, Rawlett School, Belgrave High School and Wilnecote High School closed in 2011 and re-opened at the new Landau Forte Sixth Form next to Queen Elizabeth's Mercian School and South Staffordshire College in the town centre.[7] Landau Forte then changed the names of its houses from .Landau 1 .Landau 2 .Forte 1 .Forte 2 Landau represents blue and Forte red and each pupils tie is the colour of which house they are in. Year 7 & Year 8 wear spotty ties and Year 9, 10 and 11 have striped ties.