Saint Cecilia's Church of England School

Saint Cecilia's Church of England School (commonly referred to as 'Saint Cecilia's') is a Church of England secondary school in Southfields, south-west London. It opened in 2003 as Saint Cecilia's, Wandsworth Church of England School, and was renamed on 1 March 2015.

Admissions

It is situated in Southfields. junction (near Putney Heath) of the A3 with the A219. It is just north of the Southfields tube station.

History

It opened as a voluntary aided school in September 2003 with one year group of 150 pupils. It has been growing incrementally year by year until it reached 750 pupils across Years 7 to 11 in the 2007/2008 academic year. It opened its sixth form in 2008 and has now reached a total expansion of up to 950 children.

In March 2015 the school converted to academy status.

School life

Academic life

Saint Cecilia's Church of England school caters for pupils of both sexes aged 11 to 18. The school operates a strong classic academic focus with most traditional GCSEs covered in addition an extended core including Latin, Statistics, Personal finance and extra specialism Music and Maths lessons in addition to core subjects and a wide range of option subjects. The most popular option subject taken at GCSE is Triple Science.

House System

In July 2009 it was announced the school would begin a house system. In September 2009 five houses were introduced. They were (with house colours later voted for by the pupils of each house):

• Schubert (Yellow)
• Archimedes (Purple)
• Ives (Red)
• Newton (Royal Blue)
• Turing (Green)

The separate houses accumulate points, with the highest-scoring house being awarded the House Cup at the end of each academic year. There are also various inter-house competitions held throughout the year, including both sporting and non-sporting events.

Accompanying the House System, there is also a Mentor system where pupils meet in an assigned room with their mentor at the end of the day for 15 minutes from 2:15 to 2:30pm. Mentors are essentially teachers from the school leading this group of 15 pupils looking out for them. In each year group, there are 10 mentor groups, 2 mentor groups for each house in the year group, for example 9A2 meaning year 9, Archimedes house and the second mentor group.

Recent achievements

In the spring term of 2010 Saint Cecilia's hosted the BBC junior Question Time part of the BBC school's question time challenge. The school was judged in various categories including citizenship skills, creativity and project management. The school invited guests Justine Greening, MP for Putney and James O'Brien, the radio host of London talk station LBC 97.3. The proceedings included pupils playing a live version of the Question time theme to introduce the discussion. Saint Cecilia's was announced on the BBC website as one of the 4 national champions. In April 2010 a Saint Cecilia's, Wandsworth pupil was also the regional champion in the Jack Petchey speak out challenge beating competitors from every school in Wandsworth. Also in December 2009 another pupil was also named 'Wandsworth Young Performer of the year 2009' title with a performance of the Nina Simone classic, ‘Feeling Good’.

Sixth Form

In September 2008 the school expansion led to the opening of the school's sixth form. Sixth Form pupils have access to a sixth form only common room, Kitchen, relaxation area and a sixth form only computer lab. Saint Cecilia's Sixth students can also borrow laptops for their studies. The most popular subject choices at A-Level include Maths, English, Psychology and Chemistry. Biology has consistently been the most popular subject choice at AS-Level.

The Sixth Form caters for around 200 pupils across both the Lower and Upper Sixth. Entry to the Sixth Form is dependent on gaining good grades at GCSE and a good reference from the pupil's teachers or a good reference from the pupil's school for an external applicant. Entry to the Upper Sixth is conditional on good AS grades.

Academic performance

Saint Cecilia's gets GCSE results well above average, among the best in Wandsworth LEA. The school also had success in getting a number of students accepted into the Oxbridge Universities. A large number of its sixth form cohort accepted places to Russell group Universities, with the University of Manchester being the most popular destination.

For the 2010 GCSE exams Saint Cecilia's achieved its best ever exam performance in both GCSE and A-Levels. Over 76% of pupils achieved five A*-C grades for their GCSEs and over 70% achieving 5 A*-C grades with English and Maths included. In the measurement of the new English Baccalaureate the school scored more than Twice the Wandsworth and national average. This was preceded by an excellent A-Level performance which included almost 25% of all A-Level grades achieved being A* or A. Over 96% of pupils achieved 3 A-Levels with 100% achieving 2 A-Levels. Every single sixth form pupil who tried for a University place was successful.

For the 2011 GCSE exams, Saint Cecilia's results were in line with the national average, with 68% of all pupils achieving 5 A*-C grades with English and Maths included. A-level results were also relative to that of local comprehensive schools, with 98% A*-E.

Extra-Curricular activities

Saint Cecilia's prides itself for having among of the greatest number of after school clubs of any school in London. As well as the usual range of sports clubs the school offerd for the spring term of 2012: Circuit Training; Science Club; Choir; Art Club; Private Study support club; Manga Club, Film Club, History Club, etc. That discludes the wide variety of after school music instrument lessons and music clubs that the school offers such as brass, Jazz and Orchestra groups. In addition there are seasonal clubs and termly clubs at other points in the year.

Sport

All of the Saint Cecilia's school sports teams operate with Grammar School Values.

The school's main sports are in Rugby Union, Netball, Athletics, Football, Basketball, Hockey, Gymnastics, Badminton, Rounders, Trampolining, Cricket, and on water Sports trips. The school plays sport competitively against other schools in Rugby, Netball, Cricket, football, Athletics and Hockey. with one of are athletes making it pro in football Dan Thompson

Trips and exchanges

School trips are considered an important part of the learning cycle and a whole week is at the end of June is dedicated for trips for all year groups unless it clashes with external exams. Trips include: exchanges to other European countries, study tours, field trips, choir tours, residential tours, ski trips, sports tours abroad, training camps and team-building exercises. Destinations for expeditions and cultural excursions have included Ardèche in the south of France, Malta, Italy, Barcelona, the south coast, the Alps and Poland. The school also follows The Duke of Edinburgh's Award with multiple trips going on throughout the year.

The Friends of Saint Cecilia's, Wandsworth

The Friends of Saint Cecilia’s is the registered charity formed by parents of pupils at the school to organise fundraising activities for the school. Several fundraising events are held during the year, accumulating in the Saint Cecilia's Summer fair in June/July held on the school grounds on Sutherland Grove.

Former schools

The site has seen schools come and go, and housing estates take their place. The Wandsworth School was a boys' grammar school. It supplied ballboys for the Wimbledon Championships, assisted by the local Mayfield Girls' School on West Hill. Wandsworth School had been founded in 1895, becoming a comprehensive in 1957 when it merged with Wandsworth Technical College Boys School. It went from a grammar school of 550 boys to 1,900 in the comprehensive school. It had the famous Wandsworth School Boys' Choir.

Notable former pupils

Wandsworth Comprehensive School

• Martin Bashir, TV reporter
• Ainsley Harriott, TV cook
• Phil Hope, Labour MP from 1997-2010 for Corby
• Richard Pearson, recipient of the Vierdaagse Cross in gold.
• Prof Robert Williamson, Professor of Medical Genetics from 1995-2005 at the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne and Director of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute
• Gary Wilmot, actor, comedian and singer.

Wandsworth School

• Leonard Badham, former Managing Director of J. Lyons and Co. in the late 1970s
• Allen Carr, anti-smoking guru
• Arthur Charlesworth, Managing Director from 1978-89 of Mowlem
• Eric Crees, trombonist
• Donald Grant CB, Director General from 1982-5 of the Central Office of Information
• Sir John Greenborough CBE, President of the CBI from 1978–80 and of the Institute of Petroleum from 1976-8, and former Managing Director in the early 1970s of Shell-Mex and BP
• Prof Peter Jewell, Mary Marshall and Arthur Walton Professor of Physiology of Reproduction from 1977-92 at the University of Cambridge, and President from 1991-3 of The Mammal Society
• Geoff Mance, rivers scientist
• Leslie O'Brien, Baron O'Brien of Lothbury, Governor of the Bank of England from 1966–73
• William Roots, Chief Executive from 1994-2000 of the City of Westminster
• Jeremy Sanders
• John Edward Wall, Baron Wall OBE, Chairman from 1968-72 of ICL
• Prof Basil Weedon CBE, Vice-Chancellor from 1976-88 of the University of Nottingham
• Prof John Westcott, Professor of Control Systems from 1961-84 at Imperial College London, and President from 1979-80 of the Institute of Measurement and Control

Notes and references

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/8599693.stm
• http://www.southwark.anglican.org/thebridge/1006/1006p1.pdf
• http://www.speakoutchallenge.com/pages/regionalfinals
• http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/legacy/news/pressreleasedetail.asp?id=6806
• http://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/8342427.Students_celebrate_A_level_results/
• http://www.balhampeople.co.uk/schools/Wandsworth-GCSE-results-continue-improve/story-6778990-detail/story.html

External links

• Former school
• Former school choir
• Previous schools