John Willmott School

John Willmott School is an 11–18 community Secondary school located in Sutton Coldfield, England and is part of the Birmingham Local Education Authority. and has been a specialist technology college since September 2001. There are 1,186 students on roll, of whom 230 are in the sixth form. Students from a White British background represent 82% of the school population. Although the school is located in the Falcon Lodge area of Sutton Coldfield, the school also serves pupils from elsewhere in Birmingham such as Erdington and Castle Vale. In 2006 (at the time of the last Ofsted report) the proportions of students receiving free school meals and students who have special educational needs were reported as being above the national average.

History

John Willmott Grammar School was founded in the name of Alderman John Willmott. It was opened in 1958 as a co-educational grammar school in an award-winning building. The school's last year of selective intake, based on the 12+ test, was 1974. It became a comprehensive and changed its name to John Willmott School in 1975.

House system

In September 2007, John Willmott re-introduced a house system. At the end of the 2007 Summer Term, a competition was launched to name the individual houses. The competition was judged by staff and the theme "Planets *and the star constellation Orion" won with:

Curriculum

The school has been at the forefront of vocational education both locally and nationally. Sixth Form vocational courses have been running since 1991 and currently include Art and Design, Business Studies, Childcare, Leisure and Tourism and Sport and Leisure . In September 2006, the school also introduced a range of vocational courses at GCSE level which are in addition to those already available in the sixth form. It is intended that these vocational courses will complement the traditional GCSE courses already available. The school has been awarded Lead Department status for Business Studies for the city of Birmingham.

Statistics

When Ofsted inspected the school in March 2006, it graded achievement and standards as Grade 3 (Satisfactory.). The Sixth Form was graded as Good. Since then, the overall results have improved at a rate faster than the national average, with 2009 results reaching a new high with by far the best results in the school's history. The school received its highest GCSE achievement grades, with 70% of pupils getting 5 or more A*-C GCSE grades. The overall A Level pass rate shot up from 90% to 97% - the best A level results since the school was a Grammar School.

Extra-curricular activities

There is a wide range of activities available for students in after-school clubs and societies. Each year group has an Achievement Group which run additional activities including early morning Basketball and gardening. A number of foreign visits are organised by subject departments during the year; these include language exchange trips to France and Germany, skiing trips, RE trip to China, Geography trips to Sicily and Iceland, History trip to Paris and Sixth Form Art trip to Barcelona.

The school holds an annual drama production. Recent productions have included Grease, The Boyfriend, Anything Goes, Calamity Jane, South Pacific, We Will Rock You, Back to the Eighties, Little Shop of Horrors and, most recently, Bugsy Malone. There are annual fund-raising events organised by students - most notably Evening of Culture. In addition, there is an annual Art Exhibition of Sixth Form and GCSE art work - in 2013 this will be on 27 June.

Sixth Form

The school has an independent Sixth Form which is part of the Sutton Coldfield Consortium, this involves offering subjects unavailable elsewhere and allowing students to study certain subjects at other schools. The Sixth Form, run by Ms. Richards, offers both academic and vocational courses, and provides many opportunities for the students to engage in extra curricular activities and many trips, a group of Sixth Formers are currently fund-raising to go to America and rebuild Ground Zero.

Sport

Football has been the main sport at John Willmott School for the later part of its history, overtaking rugby. Rugby started off as the school's predominant sport when John Willmott was a grammar school, however it has become gradually less popular but Rugby is being re-introduced at the school and an effort is being made to create a new team to represent the school. The school football teams have been successful at league and cup level for many years and some of its former pupils have become international players.

Many other sports are offered such as soft ball, tennis, badminton, trampolining, table tennis, volleyball, athletics, dancing and basketball.

External links

• Official School Website
• Official 50th Anniversary Website
• Ofsted Report 01/03/06
• Ofsted Report 22/05/00