St John's Marlborough

St John's Marlborough (formerly St John's School and Community College) is a mixed secondary school with academy status in Marlborough, Wiltshire for students aged 11 to 18, opened in 1975. As of January 2011 the school has 1,635 students.^[1] It is in the south of the town, and since 1996 it has been headed by Patrick Hazlewood.

Global-understanding and education

St John's teaches for the International Baccalaureate (IB). The IB is an internationally recognised qualification. St john's frequently runs exchanges and trips to other countries in order to achieve a number of things; The understanding of other cultures, the appreciation for different national, economic climates and the relation between Nations. Every year, St John's collect second hand, but perfectly pristine, books in order to provide libraries, in non-affluent neighbourhoods in Africa, with learning material for the local children. In 2013, an exchange between St Johns, Marlborough and a school near Washington, D.C. was implemented. The exchange was planned and implemented by an American, English teacher that formerly lived in the area of exchange near Washington, D.C. Cultural exchanges such as the American one above are not uncommon at St John's as other exchanges such as French and German are run each year. St John's work to give students an understanding of our world and make the study of at least one language obligatory. Other extra-curricular activities with regard to languages are run.

History

The school was formed in 1975 as a new comprehensive school, taking over the buildings and many of the staff of the recently closed Marlborough Royal Free Grammar School and the Marlborough Secondary Modern School on Chopping Knife Lane. The grammar school had been founded in 1550. The school's Savernake building was the former secondary modern school.

In 1998 the school was awarded its first specialism in Technology, and in 2005 its second in Languages.

After the rebuilding of the school on a new site at Granham Hill, the buildings of two former schools were demolished in 2010.

The school converted to academy status in September 2012.

Buildings

Since the amalgamation of the grammar and secondary modern schools, the school operated on two separate sites. Building work for a new school started on site in June 2008, estimated cost of which is £26.5M and the new school was officially opened by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in 2010^[2]

The new building was designed by Re-Format - formerly Format Milton Architects. The single site project had been many years in the planning due to problems obtaining planning permission for development of the other site, and complaints from local residents, which cost the school approximately £1M in delays. The new school building also provides services to the local community such as a public library. The new site opened in late 2009, and can be seen live via webcam.^[3]

Due to the housing market crash, the value of the properties that were to be built on the lower school's old site decreased substantially, causing the new building to be reduced in size to accommodate for the change in budget. This caused some issues when travelling from room to room, especially in certain areas where students would be both queuing for lessons and trying to walk to their next lesson.

Notable alumni

• Aaron Hicklin — editor of Out magazine
• Lauren Child — children's author and illustrator^[4]

References

External links

• St Johns School Website
• Marlborough Secondary Modern