Boswells School

The Boswells School^[1] is a large, age 11-18, secondary school and college, The Boswells College,^[2] with academy status situated in the town of Chelmsford, Essex, England, it offers secondary age education with qualifications up to GCSEs and A-Levels. The current headteacher is Mr David Crowe and is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary.

The Boswells School specialises in performing arts (Artsmark Gold).^[3] In March 2008, The Independent newspaper ranked the Boswells College 25th in the country for A Level performance by a comprehensive school.^[4] The Boswells School also prides itself on its sporting achievements especially in volleyball, being national champions in 2 age groups; under 16 boys and under 18 boys.

School Site

The school site is currently made up of 4 main (teaching) buildings along with several sporting facilities. The 4 main buildings are called A, B and C block (with B block being spilt into 2 buildings), these separate buildings are used to separate subjects into types.

A block is a 4 story building used for mostly Languages, Maths, and Science with other subject such as Law having 1 classroom in there. The first part of B block, contains all of the performing arts apart from dance (which is held in either of the 2 dance studies), the general staffroom and also contains The Boswells College's common room, Library and 2 teaching rooms. The second part of B block contains the English department, this also includes subjects like Media. C block is the largest building of the school, it contains all the administrative personal, senior member's of staff's offices, school's canteen and kitchen facilities, front and student office, an indoor sporting area and the school's theater. Along with this it contains large amounts of teaching space, with the technology, IT and Business and all Humanities departments in this building.

The school has large amounts of sport facilities both indoor and outdoor. The indoor facilities include 2 dance studios (1 with state of the art features including separate boys and girls changing rooms and a main dance will sound proofing, springed floors, mirrored walls and balaie bars, a large multipurpose sport facility, separate boys and girls changing room and a swimming pool with its own changing rooms and showers. Further outdoor facilities are 4 tarmacked spaces, (3 with tennis facilities built in), a large field with a grass running track, several football and rugby pitches and a cricket circle. A final unique facility is the school's ABL (Adventure Based Learning) space.

School House Structure

Through year 7 to year 11, each year group has 8 form groups, 2 for each House. In the A-Level stage of the school, The Boswells College, there is slightly more with 12 form groups, 3 for each house. These four houses are:

• Mildmay (Shortened to 'M')
• Mandeville (Shortened to 'L')
• Seymour (Shortened to 'S')
• Goldsmith (Shortened to 'G')

From year 7 to year 10, houses compete in Interhouse competitions throughout the year, including the Year 9 Shakespeare competition and various sporting events, all of which build up to the final house event of the year which is the annual Sports Day. This event is an individual affair with participants competing to win as an individual, but each event will contribute point to each participant's house's total score. The score from this event will be added to the other events and then 1 house will be declared winner for the year. It's a Boswells tradition that 2 athletes from the winning team from year 10 lift the interhouse trophy.

From year 11 and through college, houses are just used to register students due to lack of school time available for house games. This is due to the time is taken up by the student's exams and increase workload.

Notable former pupils

• Keith Flint, lead singer of The Prodigy^[5]
• Nathan French, professional volleyball player
• Greg Halford, professional footballer
• Scott Sherrin, television presenter

School Leadership

• Headteacher:

Mr D J Crowe

• Deputy Head (Curriculum)

Mr S Mansell

• Deputy Head (Pastoral & Extended Services)

Mr K Cheema

• Deputy Head ( Teaching & Learning)

Mr S Taylor

• Assistant Head

Miss L Grover

• Assistant Head

Mr J Parsons

Subjects

Art and Design
English
Maths
Science
Geography
History
Business Studies
ICT
Dance
Music
Drama
Performing Arts (PA)
RE (Including Morals and Ethics)
Languages (Including French, Spanish and German)
Technology
PE
A variety of Social Sciences (Including Law and Sociology)
Government and Politics
Psychology
ABL

External links

• BBC Education - The Boswells School
• The Saatchi Gallery - School portfolio - The Boswells School

References