Sir Graham Balfour School
| Motto | Learning, Working, Succeeding Together |
|---|---|
| Headteacher | David Wright |
| Location |
North Avenue Stafford Staffordshire ST16 1NR England Coordinates: 52°49′41″N 2°07′30″W / 52.828°N 2.125°W |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Chetwynd, Sandon, Tixall, Weston |
| Colours | White = Weston, Red = Tixall, Green = Chetwynd, Yellow = Sandon |
| Website | Website |
Sir Graham Balfour School is a secondary school in Stafford, England. It is named after Sir Graham Balfour, the Victorian statistician and member Florence Nightingale's inner circle.
The original school was demolished in 2001, with the new school building being constructed and completed in 2002. Sir Graham Balfour School currently has 900 students.
It achieved specialist Maths and Computing School status from September 2006. The current headteacher is David Wright.
Sir Graham Balfour School also offers post-16 education. The sixth form is an integral part of the Stafford Collegiate which involves all Stafford High Schools and Stafford College.
Recent achievements
After 3 years of raising money, in 2004 the school raised enough to build a school in Thmar Bang, Cambodia, and regular fund raising helps to support it.
In 2007 OFSTED judged Sir Graham Balfour to be “a good school with outstanding features”. .[1] In the same year the DfEs performance tables ranked Sir Graham Balfour School as the 9th most improved in England for sustained improvement over a four-year period.
In 2008 Balfour saw 66% of its Y11 students achieve five or more A*-C grades; a record for the School.
During the same year the School was also the host of the BYFA Summer School.
Controversy
Sir Graham Balfour School hit national headlines in May 2005 when then-headteacher David Hill banned charity wristbands due to uniform regulations. This resulted in many students forming a mass protest on the school tennis grounds. Police were called to the school after students began vandalising property and leaving the school grounds. Although Hill claimed that a small number of students protested, the actual number was more than 300, and included almost 60% of the student body. The protest lasted for around 3 hours until students either left the school premises or entered the school hall where a debate ensued about the bands. Hill later retracted the ban on the bands.[2]
Notable alumni
- Freya Copeland (actress, played Angie Reynolds in Emmerdale)
- David Bott (director,founder of Titanic Brewery
- Keith Bott (director founder of Titanic Brewery
- Yvonne Howard (mezzosoprano Opera North)
References
- ↑ "Sir Graham Balfour High School Inspection Report". 1 February 2007. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
- ↑ "School row over charity bracelets". BBC News. 10 May 2005. Retrieved 2009-01-09.