Woodlands Academy, Coventry

Woodlands Academy
Established 1954
Type Academy
Headteacher Mr Neil Charlton
Location Broad Lane
Coventry
West Midlands
CV5 7FF
England Coordinates: 52°24′46″N 1°35′29″W / 52.41279°N 1.59125°W
Local authority Coventry City Council
DfE URN 137165 Tables
Ofsted Reports
Students 1,011 (approx.)
Gender Boys only
Ages 11–18
Houses 6
Website Official website

Woodlands Academy (formerly The Woodlands School and Sports College) is a boys secondary school with academy status situated in west Coventry in the West Midlands, England. The school was purpose-built in 1954 as one of the first comprehensive schools in the country, by the collaboration of two local educational establishments, Templars School and Coventry Technical College. It opened on the morning of 21 September 1954.[1] Historic links to these two can be seen in The Woodlands School coat of arms. Pupils are aged between 11 to 18. It has remained a boys school; girls go to the nearby Tile Hill Wood School. In 2003, the school was awarded specialist status as a Sports College.[1]

In the main building there is a copy of the Guernica painting, which illustrates a stylised view of the 1937 Bombing of Guernica in Basque Spain by German and Italian bombers in the Spanish Civil War, in which the artist Pablo Picasso clearly expressed his abhorrence to the military suppression of the Spanish people.[2]

In 2003, Woodlands School adopted a new system where all the pupils take their SATs and GCSEs a year early compared to most other secondary schools in England. The percentage of pupils gaining five grade A*-C GCSEs rose from 36% in 2007 to 61.7% in 2008. This has led to them now being ranked the fifth most successful comprehensive in the city.[3]

Houses

The school makes use of the house system and every pupil being registered into one of them. They have assemblies and eat lunch in the house rooms, along with all of the other year groups in the house.[4] Initially a total of eight houses were established with another two following in 1956. They were named after famous citizens of Coventry. The school now has six houses. Out of the original ten houses, five of the houses were closed in the 1980s, and Thompson and West are additions named after two former head teachers of the school.[1]

- start table with width.

Original ten houses

  • Brooke
  • Cresswell
  • Ellis (Formerly Spencer House)
  • Gibson (est 1956)
  • Malins
  • McLachlan
  • Perrens (Formerly Wilson House)
  • Smith-Clarke (est 1956)
  • Sparkes
  • Stringer

Current six houses

  • Cresswell
  • Ellis
  • McLachlan
  • Sparkes
  • Stringer
  • Thompson

School crest.

Sixth form

The schools shares its sixth form facilities with Tile Hill Wood Girls School and The Westwood Academy, forming The West Coventry Sixth Form. The original sixth form building was in the new drama studio but is now in the building where the house, cresswell was.[5]

Former pupils

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "The History of The Woodlands School ~ 1954-2004". The Woodlands School. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  2. ↑ Tóibín, Colm (29 April 2006). "The Art of War". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 October 2007.
  3. ↑ Lynch, Lucy (12 March 2009). "Woodlands' exam improvements 'staggering' say Ofsted inspectors". Coventry Telegraph. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  4. ↑ "Introduction". The Woodlands School. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  5. ↑

External links