Thomas Bennett Community College

Last updated

Thomas Bennett Community College
Thomas Bennett Community College Logo.png
Current logo used by the school
Address
Thomas Bennett Community College
Ashdown Drive

Crawley
,
West Sussex
,
RH10 5AD

England
Coordinates 51°05′57″N0°11′22″W / 51.0992°N 0.1894°W / 51.0992; -0.1894
Information
Type Academy
MottoAspire
Established1958
Local authority West Sussex County Council
SpecialistSports
Department for Education URN 138620 Tables
Ofsted Reports
Head teacherEmer Lesova
GenderCoeducation
Age11to 19
Enrolment1200
Website http://www.thomasbennett-tkat.org/

Thomas Bennett Community College (TBCC) is a secondary school with academy status for pupils aged 11 to 19. It caters to approximately 1200 pupils in Years 7 to 14, including 160 in its sixth form.

Contents

Thomas Bennett Community College offers GCSEs and BTECs for pupils aged 11 to 16. Students in the sixth form have the option to study from a range of A-levels, further BTECs, CTECs and NVQ Diplomas. [1] [2]

History

The school was planned as part of the development of Crawley as a new town in the late 1940s. Originally it had been intended to open a grammar school and two secondary modern schools on the Tilgate campus, although by the time the school was built, this plan changed to provide a bilateral secondary school for boys and girls for a trial period of two years. This entitled the school to run separate grammar and secondary modern departments as part of one school. [3] [4]

The school was named after Sir Thomas Bennett, the chairman of Crawley Development Corporation. [4] This body had overseen the development of the New Town. Bennett officially opened the school in 1959 (the first pupils having joined the school in 1958). [4] Although originally intended as a bilateral school, the staff of the school organised classes along comprehensive lines, with students working in sets depending on their ability in subjects, rather than broad streams. This idea proved so popular that the school became formally comprehensive by the end of the trial in 1960. [4] By 1965, the school became one of the first in England to succeed in being truly comprehensive, with encouraging exam results, including disadvantaged children helped to fulfil their potential. [5]

In 1974, local schools were reorganised in the area, and Thomas Bennett School became an Upper school for students aged 12 to 18, with former first year students remaining for an additional year in primary middle schools. This situation was then reversed in 2004, when reorganisation again returned the school to a full 11–18 secondary. Thomas Bennett became a community school in 1979. [3] The student roll was 1,323 in 1984. [3] The school converted to academy status in September 2012. [6]

Campus

New buildings of Thomas Bennett Community College Thomasbennettcc.jpg
New buildings of Thomas Bennett Community College

The masterplan for Crawley New Town set aside the campus for the split-site school in the south-west corner of the neighbourhood of Tilgate between the A23 and Tilgate Forest. The campus contained both the Thomas Bennett school and the local primary school – Desmond Anderson School. In 1965, Thomas bennet was the largest comprehensive school in Great Britain. [3]

The original school comprised first two and then three main buildings at opposite ends of the campus. The adjoining Ashdown and Southgate buildings provided facilities, with a further building – known as the Canterbury building – approximately 1/4-mile to the south-east. Uses of the buildings varied. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Canterbury building was used for 'lower school' pupils in the first two years of school, with 'upper school' pupils in fourth and fifth forms moving to the Southgate building, and sixth formers based in the Ashdown building. By the 1990s, pupils in the main part of the school were split equally between Canterbury and Southgate buildings, depending on their house.

Both Thomas Bennett and Desmond Anderson schools were re-built, opening in entirely new buildings in 2005. The campus is now shared with the town's main leisure facilities: K2 Leisure Centre. The current building, designed by Nicholas Hare Architects, houses all pupils from all year groups in a building built under a Private Finance Initiative scheme which replaced several schools in the town in the period 2004–2005. A Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment audit reported that the building was well-designed. [7]

Students

The school is entirely comprehensive, providing education for approximately 1200 pupils aged between 11 and 19 of all abilities. [8] [9] The school was formerly much larger with around 2000 pupils, but has reduced in recent years.

The school is organised into four houses, named after the original house masters/mistresses when the school opened in the 1950s, each of which was allocated a colour:

Most pupils attending the school live within the catchment area, and transfer from one of the local primary schools:

Head-teachers

Notable former pupils and bands

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crawley</span> Town and borough in West Sussex, England

Crawley is a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is 28 miles (45 km) south of London, 18 miles (29 km) north of Brighton and Hove, and 32 miles (51 km) north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of 17.36 square miles (44.96 km2) and had a population of 118,493 at the time of the 2021 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southgate, West Sussex</span> Human settlement in England

Southgate is one of the 14 residential neighbourhoods in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. Crawley was planned and laid out as a New Town after the Second World War, based on the principle of self-contained neighbourhoods surrounding a town centre of civic and commercial buildings. Southgate was one of the four in the "inner ring" closest to the town centre, and was intended to be the largest of the nine designed in the original master plan. It was built in two stages between the 1950s and the 1970s, but retains some older buildings from before the New Town era and has "significant areas of pre-New Town character".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tilgate</span> Human settlement in England

Tilgate is one of 14 neighbourhoods within the town of Crawley in West Sussex, England. The area contains a mixture of privately developed housing, self-build groups and ex-council housing. It is bordered by the districts of Furnace Green to the north east, Southgate to the north west and Broadfield to the south west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnet and Southgate College</span> Further education school in Chipping Barnet, Greater London, England

Barnet and Southgate College is a further education college in North London, England. The current college was established in 2011. It has three main campuses and two other learning centres in the London Borough of Barnet and the London Borough of Enfield, predominantly serving students from these areas. Over 14,000 students are enrolled as of 2018.

Sir Thomas Penberthy Bennett KBE FRIBA was an English architect, responsible for much of the development of the new towns of Crawley and Stevenage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazelwick School</span> Secondary academy in Crawley, West Sussex, England

Hazelwick School is a co-educational comprehensive school with academy status for pupils aged 11 to 18, located in Crawley, West Sussex, England. Its alumni include former footballer and England manager Gareth Southgate and comedian Romesh Ranganathan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oriel High School</span> Community school in Crawley, West Sussex, England

Oriel High School is a maintained community secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18. It opened in September 2004 as part of a reorganisation of secondary education in Crawley, catering for just 370 pupils in years 7 and 8. It was expected to grow to around 1450 pupils by 2009. It then grew to roughly 1600 students by 2015, and expanded once more to 2100 students in 2021. The school has wheelchair access and an accessible lift to all areas, one of the only schools in the area to be fully accessible. Oriel is rated "Good" by Ofsted as of 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ifield Community College</span> Community school in Crawley, West Sussex, England

Ifield Community College (ICC) is a maintained comprehensive secondary school in Crawley, England, for pupils aged 11 to 18.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Wilfrid's Catholic School</span> Voluntary aided comprehensive school in Crawley, West Sussex

St Wilfrid's Catholic School is a voluntary aided comprehensive Catholic secondary school in Crawley, West Sussex, England for pupils aged 11 to 18. It caters for 936 pupils in years 7 to 13, including 181 in its sixth form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glan Afan Comprehensive School</span> Comprehensive school in Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot, Wales

Glan Afan Comprehensive School was a mixed comprehensive school which served the town of Port Talbot, Wales, and its surrounding areas for 120 years. It was opened in 1896 as Port Talbot Intermediate School under the provisions of the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889. The school closed in July 2016 to facilitate the merger of Glan Afan itself, Cwrt Sart Comprehensive, Sandfields Comprehensive and Traethmelyn Primary School into the ultra-modern £40millon 'super-school', Ysgol Bae Baglan.

St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School is an 11–18 mixed, Roman Catholic, voluntary aided secondary school and sixth form in Chatham, Kent, England. It was established in 1964 and is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Canterbury Academy</span> Academy in Canterbury, Kent, England

The Canterbury Academy is a co-educational 11-19 academy school in Canterbury, Kent, England. It is a specialist Sports College and 15% of its 1081 pupils are selected on musical aptitude. The school was founded as a non-selective secondary modern foundation school before gaining academy status in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadfield House, Crawley</span> Historic site in West Sussex , England

Broadfield House is a 19th-century villa-style house in the Broadfield neighbourhood of Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. Built in 1830 on the extensive land of the Tilgate Estate south of the small market town of Crawley, it was extended later in the 19th century and converted into a country club. After World War II, Crawley was designated a New Town and had to prepare for rapid, strictly planned growth. Broadfield House was chosen as the headquarters of the Crawley Development Corporation, and became the base where all the decisions that shaped Crawley's future were made. The house, which is still set in parkland, was refurbished and converted for use by Discovery School in 2011. It has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for its architectural and historical importance.

This article details a number of defunct schools that were once located in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. For details of currently operating schools in the area, please see: List of schools in Dudley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Academy, Selsey</span> Academy in Selsey, West Sussex, England

The Academy Selsey, formerly the Manhood Community College and the Manhood Secondary Modern School, is an small co-educational non-selective academy for 11 to 16-year-old children, in the town of Selsey, on the Manhood Peninsula, just south of Chichester, West Sussex It is part of The Kemnal Academies Trust; the multi-academy trust that oversees a number of secondary and primary schools in Kent and the south-east of England.

Cromwell Community College is a coeducational all-through school and sixth form located in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kemnal Technology College</span> Academy in London Borough of Bromley, Greater London, England

Kemnal Technology College is a mixed secondary school located in St Paul's Cray, London, England.

Havant Academy is a mixed secondary school located in the Leigh Park area of Havant in the English county of Hampshire. The school is situated at the edge of Staunton Country Park.

The Clarendon Academy is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in Trowbridge in the English county of Wiltshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Duchess's Community High School</span> Community school in Northumberland, England

The Duchess's Community High School is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in Alnwick in the English county of Northumberland. It is a community school administered by Northumberland County Council.

References

  1. ↑ "Courses on Offer - Thomas Bennett Community College". www.thomasbennett-tkat.org. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  2. ↑ "Subjects - Thomas Bennett Community College". www.thomasbennett-tkat.org. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hudson, T.P., ed. (1987). "Crawley New Town: Education". A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 3: Bramber Rape (North-Eastern Part) including Crawley New Town. Oxford: Institute of Historical Research by Oxford University Press. pp.  93–95. ISBN   0-19-722768-6 . Retrieved 4 January 2007.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Report and Recommendations on Reorganisation of Secondary Education. West Sussex County Council. 1966.
  5. ↑ "From the archive: It's 1965 and Beatlemania and comprehensive schooling are making headlines". theguardian.com. 25 March 2018.
  6. 1 2 "Thomas Bennett Community College URN: 126075 Community school - This establishment closed on 31 August 2012". schools.service.gov.uk. 29 November 2019.
  7. ↑ Milne, Jonathan (14 July 2006). "High-class but poor quality". Times Educational Supplement . TSL Education Ltd. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 4 January 2007.
  8. ↑ "TBCC Pupil Premium Strategy Statement" (PDF). Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  9. ↑ "Chelsea Football Academy" (PDF). Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  10. ↑ "Daring and passion of comprehensive pioneer | Tes Magazine". www.tes.com. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  11. ↑ Mittler, Peter (6 December 2013). "Patrick Daunt obituary". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  12. ↑ "2014 School report Thomas Bennett Community College". ofsted.gov.uk. 8 October 2014.
  13. ↑ "2016 School report Thomas Bennett Community College". ofsted.gov.uk. 1 December 2016.
  14. 1 2 "Senior Leadership Team". www.thomasbennett-tkat.org. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  15. ↑ England v Germany Schools' International football programme, 16 May 1970, p10.
  16. ↑ "NASL bio". NASL Jerseys. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  17. ↑ Tom Plimmer (29 May 2016). "Alan Bell obituary". The Guardian.
  18. ↑ "The man who pays his way". independent.co.uk. 4 March 2002.
  19. ↑ "Simon Calder wins Celebrity Mastermind and donates fee to Farm Africa" . Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  20. ↑ Wilce, Hilary (1 December 2009). "An interview with Education Minister Dawn Primarolo". Early Years Magazine. hilarywilce.com. Archived from the original on 9 February 2017.
  21. ↑ Chris Gerrard (2021)The Cure FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Most Heartbreakingly Excellent Rock Band the World Has Ever Known. Backbeat, ISBN 9781493053988, p. 155
  22. ↑ "Brett Marvin and The Thunderbolts (aka Terry Dactyl and The Dinosaurs)". crawleymuseums.org. Retrieved 13 November 2020.

5. https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/06/patrick-daunt

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.