High Storrs School
Motto | Designed for success |
---|---|
Established | 1933 |
Type | Community school |
Headteacher | Claire Tasker |
Location |
High Storrs Road Sheffield South Yorkshire S11 7LH England 53°21′27″N 1°31′21″W / 53.3576°N 1.5224°WCoordinates: 53°21′27″N 1°31′21″W / 53.3576°N 1.5224°W |
Local authority | City of Sheffield |
DfE number | 373/4257 |
DfE URN | 107139 Tables |
Ofsted | Reports |
Students | 1575 |
Gender | Coeducational |
Ages | 11–18 |
Houses | Crucible, Lyceum, Merlin, Montgomery |
Colours | Red, Yellow, Blue, Green |
Former name | High Storrs Grammar School |
Website | High Storrs |
High Storrs is a Coeducational secondary school and sixth form located on the south-western outskirts of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England.
Admissions
High Storrs has a Sixth Form and is a specialist Arts College in the Performing Arts, with a second specialism in Maths and Computing. Headteacher Ian Gage took up post in January 2010.
It is situated in Ecclesall, accessed via the A625.
History
Central Technical School
The school opened on 10 March 1880 as the Central Higher Grade School in the centre of Sheffield, and re-located to its present site at High Storrs in 1933. The association for former pupils retained this historical connection in its name, the Old Centralians.[1] However, in 2015, due to diminishing membership, high postal costs and other reasons The Old Centralians Association was dis-associated and its funds handed to the school to form and maintain the High Storrs Alumni Register, whose members would be hereafter called "HighStorrians" and who have a dedicated Facebook Group. Further information can be obtained from the school's public relations staff.
Grammar school
The building housed two separate grammar schools from the 1940s to 1968: High Storrs Grammar School for Boys, and High Storrs Grammar School for Girls. It was administered by the Sheffield Education Committee. The buildings were improved in the early 1960s.
Comprehensive
These were merged into a single comprehensive school, starting in September 1969 with around 1,600 boys and girls.
On 11 July 1978, an aerobatics pilot (Philip Meeson, who now owns Jet2, a British aerobatics champion) gave a display above the school; he had chosen the wrong school, as it was Newfield Secondary School he had been asked to perform for.
In 1993, rivalry with the Notre Dame High School led to battles in Endcliffe Park with knives and iron bars. It led to the death of a High Storrs pupil, 17-year-old Grant Jackson (18 November 1975 – 30 April 1993), who was killed with a 2-foot-long bayonet by a 14-year-old, who initially claimed manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, received a life sentence at Sheffield Crown Court on 24 November 1994..[2]
Houses
In 2008, the traditional "Key Stage" system was radically changed to the Vertical System, where instead of year groups, there are houses with ten forms to each house. The forms of thirty have six pupils of every year (not including sixth form) in each. This system is meant to reduce bullying and encourage friendships with pupils of different ages. The four houses are named after the main four theatres in Sheffield: Crucible, Lyceum, Merlin and Montgomery. Sixth form students are also attached to a vertical form for organisational and mentoring purposes; typically three sixth formers are attached to one form.
House | House Colour | |
---|---|---|
Crucible | Red | |
Lyceum | Yellow | |
Merlin | Blue | |
Montgomery | Green | |
Exam pass rate
In 2008 63% of pupils who took GCSE exams achieved the standard of 5 A*–C grades, including Maths and English.[3] This is above both the Local Authority average of 40.8% and the national average of 47.6%.[3]
The average points score for AS and A2 Level students was 675.8, below the national average of 739.8.[4]
It gets above-average GCSE results and A-levels at the England average.
Sixth form
From September 2009, the school was going to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma however the new head teacher Ian Gage scrapped the ideas and the school no longer offers the IB,[5] becoming the first comprehensive in Sheffield to do so.
School renovation
Almost £27 million was allocated for a complete refurbishment and remodelling of the school under the Government's Building Schools for the Future programme, with £2 million being spent on ICT equipment. Preparatory work on the field ready for the new temporary teaching rooms began in July 2008. Demolition of the 1960s extensions to the north of the school was completed in November 2008, and the project was completed in 2011.
Due to the school's Grade II listed status, only the interior of the main school building can be refurbished, with the exterior remaining almost unchanged. A new extension was built at the north end of the building to replace the old dining rooms, school hall and performing arts block, whilst a second extension will be built at a later date to replace the 1960s additions at the south end of the school.
Former teachers
- Veronica Hardstaff, Labour MEP 1994–1999 for Lincolnshire and Humberside South and Sheffield City Councillor 1970-1978 and 2002-2007, taught French and German at the girls' school 1963–1966.
Notable former pupils
- Nick Matthew, squash player
- Jessica-Jane Clement, television presenter
- Tom Ellis, actor
- Jayne Irving, GMTV presenter
- Anna Lauren, actress
- Jack Lester, footballer
- Chloe Newsome, actress
- Kyle Walker, Tottenham Hotspur & England footballer
- Steve Heighway, Ex Liverpool footballer
High Storrs Grammar School for Girls
- Judith Bingham, composer
- Janet Brown, Chief Executive since 2007 of the Scottish Qualifications Authority, and Managing Director from 2000–7 of Scottish Enterprise
- Stella Greenall, involved in the introduction of student grants in 1962
- Tessa Bramley, Michelin-starred chef[6]
High Storrs Grammar School for Boys
- Joseph Ashton OBE, Labour MP from 1968–2001 for Bassetlaw
- Peter Glossop, opera singer
- Steve Heighway, footballer
- Paul Heiney, BBC reporter[7]
- Very Rev Alfred Jowett, Dean of Manchester from 1964–83[8]
- Jeff Rawle, actor
References
- ↑ Old Centralians website, History page
- ↑ School violence
- 1 2 BBC News GCSE League Tables 2008
- ↑ BBC News A Level League Tables 2008
- ↑ Provider 16–19 Course Details, accessed 13 May 2009
- ↑ Ms Tessa Bramley Authorised Biography | Debrett's People of Today
- ↑ Times Educational Supplement, accessed 25 March 2009
- ↑ The Very Reverend Alfred Jowett - Telegraph