Egglescliffe School

Egglescliffe School is a large mixed comprehensive school and sixth form in Eaglescliffe, Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham for students aged 11 to 18.

History

Beginning as a small rural secondary school of 200 pupils in 1962, Egglescliffe became a comprehensive in the 1970s, gradually growing to its current size of over 1400 pupils, including sixth formers. There have been five headteachers since it opened: Mr. Frank Davison, Mr. Alan Basset, Mr. David Oliver, Mrs. Angela Darnell and Mr. Simon White.

A specialist theatre was built to host the many Drama and Theatre productions throughout the school year. It is also home to Egglescliffe Youth Theatre, launched in its present form in September 1986, now one of the longest-running Theatre groups in the country. It holds weekly sessions and yearly summer productions.

Academic achievements

In 1999, Egglescliffe was awarded Specialist Status and designated an Arts College specialising in music and drama, since then refurbishment of the music block has transformed the interior structure of the department. Its Music Department has a longstanding reputation for performance work.

Anthony Gears

From 1999 until his death on 25 June 2010, it was under the direction of Anthony Gears, joined by a team of six, teaching drama and theatre. He was succeeded as Director of Performing Arts by Harmony Gibson, his daughter.^[1]

Keith Hewson and music

Head of the Music Department for 32 years was Keith Hewson, who retired in 2008. Over those years his Orchestras, Brass Bands, Choirs, Jazz Ensembles and Chamber Groups appeared at the Music for Youth National Festival over 80 times winning many outstanding performance awards and appearing at the Royal Albert Hall School proms on 19 occasions. For over ten years Hewson was a member of the government's Music and Dance Scheme Panel and the Specialist Schools Music Expert Panel. In 2002 he was voted Classic FM Music Teacher of the Year.^[2] In April 2008, following the award of High Performing Specialist Status the school was designated a second specialism as a Science College. In 2010, Mrs Darnell was awarded an OBE for "services to education".^[3] In 2012, the Head of Music, Matthew Haworth, was awarded the Secondary Music Teacher of the Year by Classic FM.^[4][5]

Former physics students

Over the last 25 years many Physics students from Egglescliffe have gone on to university to excel academically in their degree courses in physics, astronomy or engineering, following this with interesting and varied careers. Some of these ex-students are profiled on the Physics Homepage - see 'External Links' below.

The South Bank Show

The school featured in an episode of The South Bank Show titled "Howard Goodall — A Musical Nation" that aired on Sunday 19 December 2004 on ITV, in which he explored Britain's musical provision for young people.^[6][7]

50th anniversary concert

The concert, performed at the Sage, Gateshead on 15 July 2012, was a huge success.^[8]

Notable former pupils

Andrew Levan — Professor of Physics at Warwick University, won The Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2011 for Astronomy and Astrophysics, for his research into Gamma-ray bursts, supernovae and high redshift galaxies.^[9] The prizes, each worth £70,000, are awarded to outstanding scholars who have made a substantial contribution to their particular field of study, recognised at an international level and where the expectation is that their greatest achievement is yet to come.

References

External links

Egglescliffe online

• School homepage
• Creative Arts College homepage
• Egglescliffe School's channel on YouTube
• Physics Homepage

Alumni news

• University of Warwick News | Dr Andrew Levan has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Astronomy and Astrophysics