Caroline Chisholm School

Caroline Chisholm School

Established	2004
Type	State, all-through Primary and Secondary School, Academy
Headteacher	Tony Downing.[1]
Chair of Governors	Mr D Atkinson[2]
Founder	Northamptonshire County Council
Location	Wooldale Road, Wootton Northampton Northamptonshire NN4 6TP England Coordinates: 52°11′55″N 0°52′26″W / 52.198697°N 0.873928°W / 52.198697; -0.873928
DfE URN	137089 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Students	1634 (2009)[3] 1841 (2012)[4]
Gender	Mixed
Ages	4–19
Website	www.ccs.northants.sch.uk

Caroline Chisholm School is an all-through 4-18 primary and secondary school with academy status, in south Northampton, England. It is named after Caroline Chisholm, a 19th-century social reformer^[5] The principal is Tony Downing.^[1] The school was built in 15 months and cost £25 million.^[1] The school added its final year, year 13, in September 2008.^[6] In 2005 admission arrangements were changed to give brothers and sisters of children at the school greater priority for places.^[7]

Design

The school has 5 blocks, A Block (Music, Drama and PE), B Block (Languages and Humanities), C Block (Maths and English), D Block (Technology and Science) and E Block (ICT, Business and Art). It also has a cafeteria, takeaway area, numerous ICT suites, drama studio, gym, art display area, and public meeting rooms.

Distinctions

• This was the first through 4-18 state school in the UK.^[8]
• The school was mentioned in the House of Lords when it was confirmed that this was one of just six schools in England defined as a middle school that educates year 11 pupils.^[9]
• Education Secretary Ruth Kelly visited the school on 17 March 2005.^[10] Following the visit, Kelly said that the school was a national model for the future with "world-class facilities".^[11][12]

Community involvement

The school is in the Wooldale Centre for Learning, a multi-use community facility.^[1] Caroline Chisholm has been described as "unique and ground breaking" for the way it is linked into the community including offering sports and learning facilities for the whole community. Kajima Community manage the busy community activities during the evenings and weekends - www.ccs.schoolbookings.co.uk. ^[13]

Academic standards

Ofsted's report of 17 May 2006 describes the school as:

Caroline Chisholm is a good school with many outstanding features, a view shared by parents and reflected in the school’s self-evaluation. Outstanding features such as the quality and standards in the Foundation Stage, the progress made by pupils with a statement of autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, the behaviour and attitudes of all pupils, and the personal development and well-being of pupils make Caroline Chisholm a unique school.

It had 'outstanding' outcome from its Ofsted report in July 2009, while they received a 'good' outcome from their Ofsted report in 2012 .^[14]

Catchment area row

Although the area is next to the large housing development of Grange Park, a proposal in January 2010 by Northamptonshire County Council to remove Woodland View Primary School in Grange Park as a feeder school provoked huge protest from Grange Park parents. The alternative schools proposed were Roade School Sports College and Abbeyfield School. (formerly Mereway Secondary School).^[15]

ICT

It has over 450 curriculum machines for student access, every member of teaching staff have their own laptop as well and according to the prospectus every sixth form student is encouraged to have their own laptop. "Moodle" is used for virtual learning

References

External links

• Official site