Devizes School | |
---|---|
Address | |
The Green , , SN10 3AG England | |
Coordinates | 51°21′02″N1°59′15″W / 51.3505°N 1.9874°W |
Information | |
Type | Academy |
Established | 1969 |
Department for Education URN | 138630 Tables |
Ofsted | Reports |
Head | David Cooper [1] |
Gender | Coeducational |
Age | 11to 18 |
Enrolment | 1,211 (November 2023 [1] ) |
Houses | Asclepius, Apollo, Artemis, Athena |
Website | www |
Devizes School is a mixed comprehensive school in Devizes, Wiltshire, England, for children and young people aged 11 to 18. The school is near the centre of the town, next to the Leisure Centre, between the A342 and A360. In September 2012, the school became an academy, and it joined The White Horse Federation Multi-academy Trust in 2017. The school is the only secondary school in the town of Devizes and also serves many surrounding villages. Built around the Georgian Southbroom House, the school now comprises additional teaching blocks of a more modern style, set within its own sports fields. Ofsted has graded the school Good in each of the past five visits, the latest in March 2019.
The school has been awarded specialist Sports College and ICT College status. [2]
Devizes School has a house system comprising four houses, which each student in Year 7–13 belongs to: Apollo, Asclepius, Artemis and Athena (Previously Gandhi, King, Mandela and Teresa.)
The names of the houses were changed in 2019. Each house has its own house colour: Artemis is green, Athena is blue, Asclepius is red and Apollo is yellow.
The school was formed in 1969 by the merging of two schools to form a comprehensive school. [3] These were the co-educational Devizes Grammar School, built on Bath Road in 1906, [4] and the Southbroom Secondary School (at first a Wiltshire County Council senior school, later a secondary modern) which was established in 1925 [5] around Southbroom House, a Grade II* listed mansion built in 1773. [6]
The new school used the Southbroom site; the Grammar School's lower school was taken over by St. Peter's School [7] (which left the site in 2012) [8] while the upper school, Braeside, became a residential education centre. [9] The Southbroom buildings were enlarged and by January 1973 there were 1,373 pupils on the school roll. Further new buildings were erected and in 2002 there were 1,065 pupils with a sixth form of around 150. [3]
In 1980, two Chipperfield's Circus lions found their way onto the grounds of Devizes. [10]
On 8 August 1990, the Queen attended the school to open the swimming pool at the adjacent Devizes Leisure Centre.
Shelley Rudman, the Olympic skeleton silver medallist, worked at the school as a classroom manager.
In February 2005, a 52-year-old builder, David Evans, was taunted by some teenage boys at the school. He confronted two of them, pushing two of them. Next day the boys reported him to their headmaster, Malcolm Irons, who reported him to the police. Next day, Evans hanged himself. [11]
In May 2013, the sixth form moved into their new, enlarged Sixth Form Centre. Phil Bevan was appointed head teacher in April 2016 and the school became a member of The White Horse Federation, a multi-academy trust, in February 2017.
Plans were put forward in December 2019 to sell 5.7 acres of the school's playing fields, to be used for housing. [12] Private Eye reported that the school had a large deficit and a repairs backlog when it joined the federation. [13]
Results in 2018:
At A-level, 65.7% of the grades were A*–C and 25.9% were grades A*–B.
At GCSE level, 54.2% of students achieved 9-4 grades in English and Mathematics.
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to the west. The largest settlement is Swindon, and Trowbridge is the county town.
Lacock is a village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) south of the town of Chippenham, and about 3.7 miles (6.0 km) outside the Cotswolds area. The village is owned almost in its entirety by the National Trust and attracts many visitors by virtue of its unspoiled appearance.
Marlborough is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath. The town is on the River Kennet, 24 miles (39 km) north of Salisbury and 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Swindon.
Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century civil war between Stephen of England and Empress Matilda, and again during the English Civil War when the Cavaliers lifted the siege at the Battle of Roundway Down. Devizes remained under Royalist control until 1645, when Oliver Cromwell attacked and forced the Royalists to surrender. The castle was destroyed in 1648 on the orders of Parliament, and today little remains of it.
Pewsey is a large village and civil parish at the centre of the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, about 6 miles (10 km) south of Marlborough and 71 miles (114 km) west of London. It is within reach of the M4 motorway and the A303 and is served by Pewsey railway station on the Reading to Taunton line.
Bishops Cannings is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, England, 3 miles (5 km) north-east of Devizes. The parish includes the village of Coate and the hamlets of Bourton, Horton and Little Horton.
Bromham is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village is 3+1⁄2 miles (6 km) northwest of Devizes and the same distance east of Melksham.
Sheldon School is a large mixed secondary school and sixth form in Chippenham, Wiltshire for students aged 11 to 18 and is the largest school in Wiltshire. Since April 2011, it has been an Academy. It is one of three secondary schools in Chippenham, the others being Abbeyfield and Hardenhuish. The school is headed by Peter Lynch, former Headteacher of Bradley Stoke Community School, who was appointed in September 2023.The school is off the Hardenhuish Lane in the southern region of Hardenhuish Park, which is all that separates it from Hardenhuish School to the north.
Potterne is a village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. The village is 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Devizes and lies on the A360 which links Devizes to Salisbury. The civil parish includes the hamlet of Potterne Wick.
Moonrakers is the colloquial name for people from Wiltshire, a county in the West Country of England.
Urchfont is a rural village and civil parish in the southwest of the Vale of Pewsey and north of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, about 3+1⁄2 miles (6 km) southeast of the market town of Devizes. The hamlet of Cuckoo's Corner is in the northwest of the village; the parish includes the hamlets of Wedhampton and Lydeway. The population of the parish at the 2011 census was 1,075.
Market Lavington is a civil parish and large village with a population of about 2,200 on the northern edge of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, 5 miles (8.0 km) south of the market town of Devizes. The village lies on the B3098 Westbury–Urchfont road which skirts the edge of the Plain. The parish includes the hamlets of Northbrook, Lavington Sands and Fiddington Sands.
Southbroom House is an 18th-century Grade II* listed house in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. The house and its grounds were bought by Wiltshire County Council in 1925 for use as a school, and today the house forms part of Devizes School, the town's secondary school.
Pewsey Vale School is a small, mixed secondary school in Pewsey, Wiltshire, England, for children aged 11 to 16. It became an academy in July 2011.
Lavington School is a secondary school in Market Lavington, Wiltshire, England, which became an academy in January 2011. From September 2018 the school gained a sixth form, in partnership with Devizes School.
The Wiltshire Museum, formerly known as Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Devizes Museum, is a museum, archive and library and art gallery established in 1874 in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. The museum was created and is run by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, a registered charity founded in 1853.
Hardenhuish School is a large mixed secondary school and sixth form in Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, for students aged 11 to 18. Together with Abbeyfield School and Sheldon School, it is one of three secondary schools in the town with academy status. The school's headteacher is Lisa Percy.
Roundway is a hamlet, ward and former civil parish adjacent to Devizes in the English county of Wiltshire. The hamlet lies about 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km) northeast of Devizes town centre.
Devizes White Horse, officially known as the Devizes Millennium White Horse, is a chalk hill figure of a horse located on Bank Field, an escarpment at Roundway Hill, on the outskirts of the town of Devizes above the hamlet of Roundway, Wiltshire, England; it is about ½ mile north of Roundway. It was cut in 1999 to celebrate the forthcoming third millennium, and is based on a design of another white horse hill figure, which was also known as Devizes White Horse, or sometimes The Snobs Horse, which was very close to the present horse as it was also on Roundway Hill beneath the Oliver's Castle hill fort. Traces of the Snobs Horse can still be seen under the right conditions.