Hartismere School
 | |
| Motto | Discamus ut serviamus (We learn that we might serve) |
|---|---|
| Established | c.1400s |
| Type | Academy |
| Headmaster | Mr J McAtear MA MPhil MEd MSc |
| Chair of Governors | Mrs M Ravenhill |
| Location |
Castleton Way Eye Suffolk IP23 7BL England Coordinates: 52°19′24″N 1°08′11″E / 52.32339°N 1.13648°E |
| DfE number | 935/4036 |
| DfE URN | 136271 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 928[1] |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Colours | blue, black and gold |
| Website | www.hartismere.com |
Hartismere is a state funded co-educational day school for scholars aged 11–18 in Eye, a town in High Suffolk. The headmaster is James McAtear who joined the School in 2006.
In 2009 the school changed its status to become a Foundation School, the first in Suffolk. In September 2010 the school became Suffolk's first Academy.[2] During its most recent inspection it was awarded an Outstanding school grade by Ofsted. It became a Sponsor School in 2012 and is now approved by the DfE to sponsor new and converted schools. In 2013 it was awarded Leading Edge status. Although it has specialisms in Mathematics, Science and Sport it is primarily known as a Music College.
The History of the School
The school sits on a site of major historical and archaeological interest. The installation of a museum is planned for the Summer of 2014 which will be accessible to the public during Open Days.
Archaeology
The site of the current School was excavated in 2008 revealing continuous habitation dating back to Neolithic times. Enclosures included a full stone age burial, significant quantities of Roman coinage and a Saxon smithing area.[3] The school has been gathering materials to set up a museum of local history. Planned exhibits will include Stone Age, Bronze Age, Celtic, Romano-British, Anglo-Saxon, Medieval and early modern materials. It also aims to tell the story of Eye airfield and the role of the school during World War II.
History
The school was founded in the 15th century. Its original form predates the grammar school which was founded in 1451. A variety of sites have been occupied by the School which has existed as a National School, a County School and was joined by a Secondary Modern in 1935. The Grammar School was closed in the late 1960s. The school became a Comprehensive and became known as Hartismere shortly thereafter. The school remained open during World War II when it hosted East Ham Grammar School. Due to its location in West Ham all children attending East Ham school were billeted in Eye in Suffolk. Their teachers moved with them and Hartismere was shared between the two student populations and teaching staffs. Hartismere scholars were educated until lunchtime each day. Their guests were educated in the afternoons and on Saturday mornings. Many of those evacuated from London had never heard a bomb falling on London and were therefore surprised when during their first week RAF Eye was bombed by the Luftwaffe this event taking place only a few hundred yards from Hartismere.
The Hartismere Pyramid
In common with other schools in England, the school sits within a pyramid of schools. These comprise Hartismere itself and its partner primary schools. These are: Gislingham Primary, Palgrave Primary, Hoxne and Mendham Primaries (The Waveney Partnership), St Peter and St Paul's Primary in Eye, Mellis Primary, Occold Primary, Thorndon Primary and Stoke Ash Primary and St Botolphs in Rickinghall.
Academic Performance
The school has been notable for the consistency of its performance in league tables over an extended period of time. In particular it achieved the highest value added score in the East of England region in relation to GCSE examinations in 2010. Ofsted described levels of achievement as outstanding.
School Facilities
The school's entranceway contains a statue of its emblem, the red deer. This life size work in wood and metal sits in a circular pond indicative of the school badge and the metal fretwork signifies the waves of its crest which in turn suggest the mere element in the school's name. This gardened entrance is shaped in the form of a G clef and recalls the school's musical tradition. The Latin inscriptions were installed in recognition of the ancient foundation of the school.
The Lines Hall
After passing through reception visitors approach the Lines Hall. It is here that scholars meet in Assembly each morning and also here that Drama is taught. The Hall is also used for the school's Autumn series of Music Evenings and occasionally for smaller productions. It is named after Mr Roger Lines, Headmaster between 1982 and 1986, whose career was cut short by leukaemia.
The College
The modern Sixth Form college was added in 1997 after a campaign led by the Headmaster, Mr Richard Hewitt, and Chair of Governors, Mrs Moira Buxton. It is one a few rural Sixth Forms now in existence in East Anglia and regularly supplies entrants to Oxbridge and to the fields of medicine, law, dentistry, classics.[citation needed]
The Dining Hall
The Dining Hall hosts the school's main Art Gallery. The scholars' entrance contains the Young Masters drawing exhibition and the school is sprinkled with recent works. These include statuary, ceramics and photography with scholars accessing the school kilns and the Darkroom. A selection of these are regularly displayed in the Gallery section of the Hartismere website.
The Dance Studio
The school has the largest Dance Studio in either Suffolk or Norfolk. Its fully sprung floor and 60 foot mirror supports Dance as a subject within the school's curriculum where it is formally taught at GCSE level. It is also a centre for a number of Dance Schools hosting around 300 dancers over the course of most weeks.
The Art Studios
The Art Studios were refurbished following the school's conversion to Academy Status in 2010. This included the renovation and reopening of the Studio's kilns and the reintroduction of ceramics and sculpture more fully into the Art curriculum. The Photography Darkroom was installed during the previous year whilst the apple-based ICT suite for digital photography was instituted as part of the 2010 revamp. The photography studio is fitted with a combination of iMacs and iMac towers and is situated in the same suite as the general Art Studios. The school exhibits regularly both externally and internally.
The Reading Room
The Reading Room at Hartismere provides a quiet study library for the use of Sixth Form Students. It is stocked with a range of texts built on those originally supplied from the library of Professor John Buxton and his wife, the medievalist and author, Moira Buxton. This is an addition to the Library which it compliments. The Reading Room is a reference library rather than a lending library which stocks texts directly relevant to the subjects and courses at Sixth Form and those which support wider reading around the curriculum. Texts are complimented by a suite of iMac computers allowing access to the world wide web and the school's own e learning platform.
The Committee Room
The committee room currently hosts meetings of the school's Governing Body when it meets in committee and in full session. However, it is also deployed for staff training and team meetings in addition to being used by the local community by appointment.
The Gardens
A reworking of the gardens was led initially by the Parents' Association. This led to further improvements of the school environment further. Work included the planting of over four hundred trees when the school created Hartismere Wood. An orchard was also created which is now known as 'Gemma's Garden' and which is home to 18 different traditional varieties of Suffolk apples.
Teaching Alumni
The list of former Headmasters below is currently under research. Past Headmasters: 2006–present James McAtear, MSc, MA, MEd, MPhil 1986-2006 Richard Hewitt, BEd 1982-1986 Richard Lines, BSc
Longest Serving Members of Staff
1978-2009 Janice Newman, Head of PE and Pastoral 1979-2010 Peter Auckland, Head of PE and Facilities 1981-2013 Helen Peters, Head of Food and Careers
Headmasters
The current Headmaster, James McAtear, holds masters degrees in Science, Classics, History and Education and is a graduate of both the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow. In addition to his role as Headmaster, he has also served as a lead inspector on behalf of Ofsted and played a role in the Eastern region in promoting the converter Academies movement. In an article in The Times he describes local authority control of schools as a kind of 'petty tyranny'[citation needed] and led the school into Academy status as one of ten schools that became the first converter academies on September 1, 2010. He took up his headship on September 1, 2006.
Richard Hewitt served the school as Headmaster for twenty years beginning his tenure in 1986. Following his career at Hartismere he was invited to serve the University of East Anglia (UEA) as Head of its International Programme for Headteacher Training a post he relinquished in 2012. Successes during his period as Headmaster included the instigation of the Sixth Form College in 1997 following a period of rapid growth in the number of scholars in attendance.
Mr Richard Lines joined the school in 1982. He died from Leukaemia in 1986 and the 'Lines' Hall was named in his honour.
School Motto and Legend
The school's legend is a red deer stag positioned on moving water in blue. This recalls the area in High Suffolk in which the school is positioned. Historically an area in which a large population of deer roamed around a mere, this topology gave rise to the school's name such that the school has always been associated with an area much larger than Eye. The 'Hart' element is thought to have referred to both the deer and to the personal name of an incumbent landowner. The motto 'discamus ut serviamus" can be translated as 'let us learn that we may serve'.
Notable former pupils
- Dan Hipkiss a retired Rugby Union player who played at Centre for Bath Rugby and Leicester Tigers. Hipkiss has represented England at U16, U17, U18, U21 and England A. His full England début came versus Wales in a World Cup warm up match at Twickenham on 4 August 2007.[2]* He appeared for England in the Rugby World Cup final in Paris in 2007[4]
- Alex Reddington, violinist with the Doric quartet.[5] In 2008 the string quartet won 1st prize in the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan.
External links
Notes
- ↑ "EduBase - Hartismere High School". EduBase. January 2011. Retrieved 2012-02-25.
- ↑ "Hartismere School :: About Hartismere : Information". Hartismere School. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
- ↑ "Hartismere High School, Eye". Suffolk County Council. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
- ↑ "Dan Hipkiss - Official RFU Profile". RFU. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
- ↑ "Doric String Quartet".