Coventry Blue Coat Church of England School

Blue Coat Church of England School

Motto	Nurturing Excellence
Established	1714
Type	Academy
Religion	Church of England
Headteacher	N/A
Location	Terry Road Coventry West Midlands CV1 2BA England Coordinates: 52°24′01″N 1°29′33″W / 52.4003°N 1.4925°W / 52.4003; -1.4925
Local authority	Coventry City Council
DfE number	331/4800
DfE URN	137272 Tables
Ofsted	Reports Pre-academy reports
Students	1,460
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	11–18
Website	www.bluecoatschool.com

The Blue Coat Church of England School is a secondary school and sixth form located in Coventry, England. It is a Cross Of Nails school, with links to a school in Bethlehem. The school motto reads "Nurturing Excellence".

Context

Part of the old site of Bluecoat School

Blue Coat Church of England School is a specialist Music, Maths and Science college that is committed to providing a supportive and caring Christian environment where excellent educational provision, outstanding pastoral care and a wide and varied programme of extra-curricular opportunities blend together to create an environment where every individual is valued. This is a warm and friendly place to be where individual thought and commitment to study are encouraged . The original Blue Coat school was founded in 1714 as a school for girls and was located close to Holy Trinity church in the city centre. A new school was opened on the present site in 1964 under headmaster William J Grimes, who ran the school until his retirement. Stephen Timbrell was the headteacher from 1999, when he took over from Dr. R Lewin, until 12 May 2008. Dr Roberts was the last head teacher; she took up her role in September 2009 but is currently on special leave.^[1]

Current enrolment is around 1460 pupils, and the school gained its outstanding OFSTED grading in February 2010. It is one of very few specialist Music Colleges in the country. The school has ties with Coventry Cathedral, and holds several services there every year.

Year and school councils

At the start of the school year, each form elects several representatives to serve on the year council. Two or three of these year council representatives are elected to serve on the school council. The year councils discuss issues regarding school life and pass their findings to the school council, who consider them. The school council has a budget to facilitate resolution of these issues as long as they support the Christian ethos of the school.

Choir

The school has an 8-part choir, typically performing choral works ranging from the early works of Thomas Tallis through Joseph Haydn's Insanae et Vanae Curae to the recent works of composers such as John Tavener. The choir visits cathedrals around the country annually, where it sings services for the week whilst the resident choir is away. These have included Chester, York, Blackburn, Salisbury, and Liverpool. The choir has sung mass in St Mark's Basilica, Venice. In the summer of 2007 the choir visited Wells Cathedral, and has been invited back this coming July.

Other choir activities have included: 2010: During the summer the choir sang services in Wells Cathedral. Whilst they were there a CD was recorded, which is still available to purchase from the school's Music Department. 2011: The choir sang services at York Minster during the summer. 2011: The boys section were selected to appear in the recently released film, 'Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger". Part of the storyline involved having David Tennant as conductor! Venues for the filming were Warwick Castle and the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. 2012: As part of Coventry Cathedral's Golden Jubilee celebrations, a group of senior members performed in front of a congregation of 2000, which included the Princess Royal and the Archbishop of Canterbury. 2012: The choir sang services at Salisbury Cathedral during the summer. In the summer of 2013 and in 2014 the choir will be taking up the invitation to sing again in Wells Cathedral. Future engagements will also include opportunities to sing live on BBC Radio 4.

The choir receives additional support from members of the public who bolster the ranks when support is required, providing a more balanced bass and tenor sound.

The choir has been entering the BBC Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year competition for the last three years, and has come close to winning several times, with the Choir winning the competition in the 2008 finals. The choir is a regular on the BBC Radio 4 programme The Daily Service.

Dramatic productions

The School has an annual dramatic production, which is open to all students. The school's latest head of drama, Matthew Connor-Hemming, has directed five productions, Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle and four musicals, Oliver!, Calamity Jane, Les Misérables, and most recently, The Wizard of Oz. Head of Music Norman Owen directed the music for both of these productions. Dr Patrick Kincaid, an English teacher, has also directed two Shakespeare plays, As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing. An all-female cast of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, directed by Andrew Kyle, was shown on 20 and 22 October 2011. Other productions have included: Wizard of Oz - February 2011 Alice in Wonderland - July 2011 Merlin's Child - February 2012 Midsummer Night's Dream - July 2012 Romeo and Juliet - October 2012 Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat - November 2012 City of Slovenly - February 2013 The Importance of Being Earnest - October 2013

Development

The school has a floodlit astroturf pitch and a theatre has been constructed at the school. One of the first productions, 'The Snow Queen' was meant to be performed at the end of the 2008-2009 academic year but was delayed until the start of the 2009-2010 academic year due to flooding in the theatre. There have been many productions since then, including 6th form and lower school (years 7–11) productions. They have all been very successful, and raised a lot of money. Productions that have been performed also include the February 2012 production 'Merlins Child' and 'A Midsummers Night Dream', that was performed on the 5, 6 and 7 July.

Uniform

The current Bluecoat School uniform consists of-

For Boys: white shirt (all year), black/grey trousers (all year), Bluecoat tie (4+ stripes), black socks, black shoes (not trainers).

For Girls: white blouse with Bluecoat tie (4+ stripes)(Winter), check white/blue blouse (Summer), blue trousers (all year), black shoes (no heel).

Financial crisis 2015

It was announced in a letter home to parents on 5 March 2015 the whole governing body of the school was to step down to make way for an interim governing body as the school was facing "serious financial issues".^[2] The school has put a small number of support posts at risk.^[3]

On BBC CWR's radio Breakfast show on 5 March there were calls from a parent for Head Dr Julie Roberts to stand down.

The BBC later reported that there was a £1.4 million shortfall in funding.^[4]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Old Bluecoat School, Coventry.

• Blue Coat Website