The Piggott School
 | |
| Motto | Sursum Corda (Lift your hearts up) |
|---|---|
| Established | 1940 |
| Type | Academy Aided School |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Head Teacher | Derren Gray |
| Founder | Robert Piggott |
| Location |
Twyford Road Wargrave Reading Berkshire RG10 8DS  England |
| Local authority | Wokingham |
| DfE URN | 110079 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1,516 (284 in Sixth Form) |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Thames - Loddon - St Patrick's - Kennet |
| Colours | Royal Blue |
| Website | www.piggott.wokingham.sch.uk |
The Piggott School is a Church of England academy secondary school in Wargrave in Berkshire, England. The school has approximately 1,516 pupils and around 185 teaching staff. The school specialises in Modern Languages and Humanities. It has been awarded International school status by the British Council. The most recent inspection from ofsted achieved a rating of 'Good' in all categories except pupil behaviour which was given 'Outstanding'.
The Piggott School has a long established exchange programme with the Ville Gymnasium School der Erftstadt, North Rhine, Westphalia, Germany and a more recent link with Wyndhams School in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a partner school of the EU organised Comenius project. The Piggott School is also the only church of England secondary school in the Reading, Twyford area. Many of its students come from Robert Piggott Junior in Wargrave and Colleton Primary School in Twyford. The Piggott School is one of the best performing secondary schools in the Wokingham District.
History
The Piggott School was founded by Robert Piggott, a philanthropist, to cater for 20 poor boys and 20 poor girls in separate schools. The foundation stone was laid on 12 October 1939 it was officially opened on 17 September 1940.[1] The school was originally built for 320 children. It was too small as soon as it was opened in 1940, because war had broken out and a massive evacuation programme was underway (2 million children moved out of London in 3 days). This meant a doubling of the local population of children and far more children had to be accommodated. Morning school was therefore organised for ‘home’ children’. Afternoon school was for the ‘visitors’.
Recent and future changes
Since becoming an academy, there have been several changes to the new site. In 2011, a brand new sixth form block was opened to replace the old sixth form block (now used as a drama studio and extra classroom). A purpose built gym run by Nuffield Health was constructed on the site of the old Maths and Business Studies terrapins, which is open to the public on evenings and weekends.
Houses
The school operates a house system. There are four houses, which each have a Head of House, Pastoral Mentor, and a team of tutors. House prefects are appointed by the Head of House. The purpose of the House system is to encourage pupils to take on an active role within the school and to take pride in their House. Through the House system they hope to build a sense of community as well as encouraging pupils to work for their House in a competitive manner.
The house system involves house points, in the form of merits and each individual pupil is encouraged to collect these to support their house. Merits are awarded for effort and achievement, community service and extra curricular involvement within the school.
Being a member of a house is about being part of a team, so each an every member of this school, pupils and staff are part of a team. Every member of a team is important. Each person brings unique skills, knowledge, and experience. People also bring energy, drive, passion, and determination. Since everyone brings different amounts of all of these things, team members need each other.
At present the school holds inter-house competitions every year along with the annual Spelling Bee, Photography and ‘It’s a Knockout’ competition. The four houses are.
St Patricks Thames Kennet Loddon
Loddon house is named after the River Loddon in Berkshire and Hampshire, this is currently the leading house. The emblem is a Lion. Thames house is named after the River Thames which runs through several cities and towns, the emblem is a dragon. Kennet house is named after the River Kennet which runs through Reading, the emblem is a green dragon. St Patrick's house is named after St Patrick's Stream, a backwater of the Thames that flows into the Loddon, the emblem is a harp. The new school sweatshirt will come with the school house by July 2011, the logo can either be red for Thames, blue for St Patricks, green for Kennet, and gold for Loddon. The old school sweatshirt consists of only a gold writing and no house badge underneath. There are many competitions between these four houses, including, rugby, football, netball, hockey, sports day, the governors cup and many more.
Church Status
The Piggott School is a school with a Church Foundation. This reflects the School's history and the involvement of The Church of England in the education of young people in their communities; it does not mean the pupils or their families have to have a Christian faith, or any religious faith. Everyone is expected to respect the teachings of the Christian faith and model the values of courage, honesty, dedication, equality, respect and love.
Ofsted
The school is very high achieving in the terms of results, OfSTED and SIAMS inspections.
Facilities
The Piggott School has a soldering works area, clay area, modelling areas such as making D.I.Y, a Arts Studio and a very large sports field which runs alongside the railway tracks towards Wargrave railway station. There is also a proposed new humanities block with updated facilities, in 2011 there was a brand new sixth form block opened. Students are shown how to use a range of tools and equipment safely across a range of projects that are designed to enhance and build upon the skills they learn. They are encouraged to work in a methodical and organised way, assessing their work as it progresses. Projects are designed to provide experience of processes and skills from graphics and layout; to cutting and assembling wood to build freestanding structures; the selection and preparation of ingredients in food technology and the use of components in simple electronic circuits, this is supported by Wokingham Secondary Federation. A brand new block, similar to that if the sixth form building, was constructed in mid 2013. This contains a mixture of Maths and science facilities but also a gym that is operated by Nufield Health. This block was built on the south of the site.
Leadership Team
Mr Derren Gray, Head Teacher Mr Tim Griffith, Deputy Head Teacher (Mathematics) Mrs Rebecca Alexander, Deputy Head Teacher (Music) Mr David Thatcher, Assistant Head Teacher (PE) Mrs Viki Hunt, Assistant Head Teacher (English) Mrs Karen Thornton, Assistant Head Teacher (Art) Mrs Michelle Bird, Assistant Head Teacher (History) Mr Alex Macleod, Assistant Head Teacher (Geography)
| Subject | GCSE | A level |
|---|---|---|
| Art and Design | Yes | Yes |
| Biology | Yes | Yes |
| Business Studies | Yes | Yes |
| Chemistry | Yes | Yes |
| Child Development | - | - |
| Computer Science | Yes | Yes |
| Design and Technology | Yes | Yes |
| Drama | Yes | Yes |
| Economics | - | Yes |
| English Language | Yes | Yes |
| English Literature | - Yes | - Yes |
| French | Yes | Yes |
| Further Mathematics | - | Yes |
| Geography | Yes | Yes |
| German | Yes | Yes |
| Government & Politics | ||
| History | Yes | Yes |
| ICT | Yes | Yes |
| Mathematics | Yes | Yes |
| Media Studies | Yes | Yes |
| Music | Yes | Yes |
| Psychology | ||
| Physical Education | Yes | Yes |
| Physics | Yes | Yes |
| Religious Education | Yes | Yes |
| Science (double award) | Yes | - |
| Statistics | - | - |
Curriculum
In Years 7, 8 and 9 (Key Stage 3) students study the core subjects of English, Mathematics and Science (Year 9 start GCSE Science) plus the following foundation subjects: French, Design and Technology, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), History, Geography, Religious Education, Art, Music and Physical Education. In addition lessons are offered in Personal, Social and Health Education, Citizenship and Drama. Pupils are taught in sets for English, Maths, Science and French. German is offered as a first language (if you choose it) language from Year 7 onwards to those in the top French sets. Mandarin Chinese is now available.. The Piggott School's is one of a small number of state schools which still offer the three separate sciences at GCSE. The following Design and Technology options are offered at GCSE: Food and Nutrition; Graphic Products; Resistant Materials; Systems and Control; Textiles.
AS Art, Craft and Design is also available as a fast track course for students in year 10 and 11. In Years 9, 10 and 11 students are able to specialise in Catering, Graphic Products, Textiles, Resistant Materials, Electronic Products or Food. Sixth formers can study the following courses in AS & A2 are food technology, AQA theatre studies, music, AQA geography, OCR history, AQA maths and languages (French, Spanish or German). Students can also study at AS and A level which are ICT, product design (graphic products or textile technology), economics, science (students are able to take one or more of the three separate sciences, these are biology, physics, chemistry), business studies, art and photography.
In addition, a number of vocational courses are available including the new Key Skills Qualifications in Application of Number, Communication, and Information Technology, and the National Diploma in Business (Level 2). The Piggott School's participates in the Cisco Networking Academy Programme and is one of the relatively few schools in the UK to offer this globally accepted professional course in networking. Pupils on this course have networked the computers in the school's IT suite and also those of the neighbouring primary school Robert Piggott Junior in Wargrave, Berkshire. The Piggott School's has pioneered an innovative science buddy scheme, which was featured on Teachernet, the website for teachers and educators. The scheme involved around 30 pupils from the top three sets in Year 11 helping the younger children in Year 7 to conduct experiments and investigations in a lunchtime club.
Sports
Pupils at the school participate in the following sports: cross-country, badminton, basketball, cricket, football, health-related fitness, hockey, netball, rounders, rugby, athletics, table tennis and tennis. There are school teams which play regular fixtures with other local schools in rugby, football, hockey, netball and basketball. Pupils also participate in the Reading Cross Country League. A number of pupils play at county level.
Extracurricular activities
Music and Drama:
Tuition is provided by Berkshire Maestros, pupils can learn to play all sorts of instruments such as woodwind. Pupils can even perform at concerts.There is also a School Jazz Band and String Group. All pupils who learn instruments in school are expected to participate in at least one of these groups.
Drama productions are a feature of The Piggott School and have ranged from well known musicals to exam performances presented by students studying GCSE and A levels.
Trips are organised to France for Year 7 students and to a number of other countries for students in Years 8–12. Sixth formers are involved in outdoor education visits and subject based field work.
Admission
In common with all other schools in Wokingham Borough, school places are allocated by the LEA based on designated catchment areas and feeder primary schools. Around 200 places are available at Piggott every year. The feeder primary schools for Piggott are:
- Colleton Primary School
- Crazies Hill CofE Primary School
- Polehampton CofE Junior School
- Robert Piggott CofE Junior School
- Sonning CofE Primary School
- Knowl Hill CofE Primary School
- Charvil Piggott Primary School
Note: St. Johns's C of E Aided Primary School is no longer a feeder school for the Piggott School.
Academy
On Friday 1 July 2011, The Piggott School became an academy after being approved by the Department of Education. The letter sent out to parents saying the school would become and academy on 1 July was sent out on Monday, 4 July.
Primary School
In 2013 it was announced that the Piggott school will be opening a primary school in Charvil. This primary school has now been opened and named "Charvil Piggott Primary".
References
Further reading
- Pam Haseltine, The Piggott School: Wargrave: a profile, (Twyford & Ruscombe Local History Society, c1986) ISBN 0-948245-02-6
External links
Coordinates: 51°29′24″N 0°52′19″W / 51.490°N 0.872°W