Oldbury Wells School

Last updated

Oldbury Wells School
Address
Oldbury Wells School
Oldbury Wells

Bridgnorth
,
Shropshire
,
WV16 5JD

England
Coordinates 52°31′50″N2°25′36″W / 52.53063°N 2.42659°W / 52.53063; -2.42659
Information
Type Academy
MottoAspire, Enjoy, Achieve.
Local authority Shropshire
Department for Education URN 142153 Tables
Ofsted Reports
HeadteacherLee Chris Tristham
Gender Coeducational
Age11to 18
HousesCastle (Red), Friary (Green), Northgate (Blue), Westgate (Yellow)
Website www.oldburywells.com

Oldbury Wells School is a coeducational secondary school located in Bridgnorth, England. having 800 pupils, 122 of whom are in the sixth form. The school's motto is "Aspire, Enjoy, Achieve." .

Contents

History

The buildings in which Oldbury Wells School is today based were originally two separate schools. What is now known as the East Side was opened as Bridgnorth Boys’ Modern School in 1958; the West Side opened as Bridgnorth Girls’ Modern School in 1959. The two schools merged to form Oldbury Wells during 1973/4. This gives the school its somewhat strange characteristic of being split over two sites separated by a quiet cul-de-sac. The gymnasium facilities for the separate sexes still remain on their original designated sites; east for the boys and west for the girls.

The school's intake covers a wide and mostly rural geographic area around the Severn Valley, and has the notable statistic that more than three-quarters of the pupils are bussed in from surrounding villages.

East Building

Oldbury Wells School was granted Grade II listed building status in 1983. It was put onto the register of listed buildings due to its design and the construction methods used.

The architects were the London practice Lyons, Israel and Ellis. They were a company who produced buildings which were consistent and recognisable. They built schools but also completed projects of national significance such as the Wolfson Institute and the then Polytechnic of Central London.

The building design has its origins in the “Modern Movement” and this was combined with Dutch and Scandinavian modernism to produce what is now Oldbury Wells. The outlines of their buildings were often developed quickly – the divided blocks were linked by linear corridors but development could be quite protracted with weeks being devoted to details such as a gate or window style.

The East Side (Bridgnorth Boy’s Secondary Modern School) was built in 1958. The assistant working on the project was P. Yarker; the structural consultants were Ove Arup and the main contractor was A.H. Guest.

The assembly hall formed the heart of the building – it was enclosed by offices, cloakrooms and toilets on the ground floor, with teaching rooms above. This unit was linked to a science block and a handicraft block with the gymnasium added later. The building has an exposed reinforced concrete frame. Suspended floors have prestressed concrete beams with foam slag infill panels. Roofs were timber units with cork and three layers of felt. The windows had varnished Columbian pine frames with metal projector opening lights. Brickwork was used inside and outside of the building and left unfaced. The outer walls were also, in places, faced with precast concrete slabs with white marble aggregate.

West Building

The West Side (Bridgnorth Girl’s Secondary Modern School) was built in 1960. The assistants working on the project were P. Yarker and A. Colquhoun; the structural consultants were Ove Arup and the main contractor was A.H. Guest.

The building was designed for later extension by the addition of the gymnasium and further classrooms. The plan of the building was a long rectangle containing all but the craft rooms (a separate single storey block) and the kitchen. The southern part of the building consisted of the assembly and group instruction areas, with classrooms to the north. The entrance hall contains the main staircase – the glass wall here was set back to form a deep double height porch. The associated boiler flue and tank room were positioned to give the shortest possible service runs and to give emphasis to the entrance. The structural concrete was left exposed both inside and outside the building. Internal partitions were plastered and painted white but small areas of primary colour were placed at significant points throughout the building. The outer walls and window frames were designed with a complexity to act as a foil to the overall grid structure and to allow the spaces behind to flow across the building.

Awards and accolades

The school's buildings were listed [1] [2] during the 1990s. They were deemed to be of historical interest because of the way the concrete displays the grain of the wood shuttering into which it was poured. It was one of the first modern buildings to be built solely out of concrete.

It became a Science College in 2003, which sees it gain extra funding in return for developing science facilities and teaching for the benefit of its pupils and the wider community. The school won redesignation as a Science College again in 2007. The school was ranked 12th in 2008 in the most improved schools league tables.

6th Form

Oldbury is part of the Bridgnorth Sixth Form Partnership which allows students from Bridgnorth Endowed School to take subjects based at Oldbury. Endowed stopped providing sixth-form courses in 2019. [3]

In 2023, the school launched a consultation on the possible closure of the Sixth Form, which would mean the end of further education in the town. [4] [3]

Notable alumni

Related Research Articles

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

Bridgnorth is a town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bristol Grammar School</span> Private day school in Bristol, England

Bristol Grammar School (BGS) is a 4–18 mixed, private day school in Bristol, England. It was founded in 1532 by Royal Charter for the teaching of 'good manners and literature', endowed by wealthy Bristol merchants Robert and Nicholas Thorne. The school flourished in the early 20th century under headmaster Sir Cyril Norwood (1906–1916), embodying "the ideals and experiences of a leading public school". Norwood went on to serve as the master at Marlborough College and Harrow, and as president of St John's College, Oxford.

Arup is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment. It employs about 17,000 people in over 90 offices across 35 countries, and has participated in projects in over 160 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smithdon High School</span> Academy in Hunstanton, Norfolk, England

Smithdon High School is a small comprehensive school academy, with 627 students in Hunstanton, Norfolk. Its buildings are Grade II* listed. It changed its status, joining the West Norfolk Academies Trust in 2016. Ofsted rated the school as 'requires improvement' in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ove Arup</span> English engineer (1895–1988)

Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE, FCIOB was an English engineer who founded Arup Group Limited, a multinational corporation that offers engineering, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for building systems. Ove Arup is considered to be among the foremost architectural structural engineers of his time.

Dormston School is a coeducational secondary school in Sedgley, West Midlands, England.

Clevedon School, formerly known as Clevedon Community School, is a coeducational secondary school located in Clevedon, North Somerset, England. It has over 1350 pupils, in years 7 to 11 in the Lower School and 12 to 13 in the Upper School or sixth form. The school recently regained its Language College status. As of 2023, the headteacher is Jim Smith. The school was part of the Clevedon Learning Trust, a Multi-Academy Trust formed on 1 January 2015 by CEO John Wells. As of 1st March 2023, Clevedon Learning Trust merged with Futura Learning Partnership, with schools in Bristol, North Somerset and Somerset.

Lincolnshire is one of the few counties within the UK that still uses the eleven-plus to decide who may attend grammar school, in common with Buckinghamshire and Kent.

The Deepings School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located on Park Road in Deeping St James in Lincolnshire, England. As of April 2022, the school is attended by almost 1,500 pupils aged 11 to 18 taught by 90 teaching staff. It includes pupils from Stamford, Spalding, Langtoft, Baston, Bourne and the Deeping area.

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

Oldbury is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Bridgnorth, in the Shropshire district, in the ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It is situated approximately 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) south of the market town of Bridgnorth. In 1951 the parish had a population of 283. On 1 April 1967 the civil parish of Oldbury was abolished and merged with Bridgnorth. The village remains separated from the town however and has a distinct character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Ashbourne</span> Academy in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England

Queen Elizabeth's School (QEGS) is a non-selective academy school for 11- to 18-year-olds in the town of Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England. In the academic year 2009–10, there were 1,396 pupils on roll.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sponne School</span> Academy in Towcester, Northamptonshire, England

Sponne School in Towcester, Northamptonshire, England, is the oldest secondary school in Northamptonshire, and one of the oldest in the country. Part of the school was originally Towcester Grammar School, until Grammar schools were abolished in Northamptonshire. In 1968, the Grammar school was joined with the next-door Secondary Modern school, and the school was renamed Sponne, after Archdeacon William Sponne, who was Rector at the nearby St. Lawrence Church in the 15th century and the original founder of the school.

Derby Moor Academy, the successor school to Derby Moor Community Sports College Trust, formerly known as Derby Moor Community School, is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form situated on Moorway Lane, Littleover, Derby. It was established in January 2018 when the school converted to Academy status and joined the Spencer Academies Trust. It can also be seen as the successor to Derby School, which closed in 1989, resulting in Derby Moor opening in the same year with a new headteacher and governing body, although the buildings, pupils and most of the teaching staff were the same.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodkirk Academy</span> Academy School in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England

Woodkirk Academy is an academy located in Tingley, West Yorkshire, England. Established in 1948, the school now has over 1,800 pupils on roll, over 300 sixth form students and over 250 members of staff. Following Woodkirk gaining ‘Specialist Science Status', the school was briefly renamed Woodkirk High Specialist Science School from 2003 to 2011.

Ilkeston Grammar School was a selective co-educational secondary school, admission being dependent on passing the 11-plus examination. It stood on King George Avenue, Ilkeston, in the south east of Derbyshire in the East Midlands of England.

Bridgnorth Endowed School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in the market town of Bridgnorth in the rural county of Shropshire, England. Founded in 1503, The Endowed School is a state school and is a specialist Technology College. The age range of the school is 11–18 years. It was previously known as the Bridgnorth Grammar School, and the school celebrated the 500th anniversary of its foundation in 2003. Former pupils include Professor Peter Bullock, the inspirational soil scientist who was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Walton Academy, formerly Walton Girls' High School is a co-ed secondary school, in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. It is situated in the south-west of the town near the A607 junction with the A1. The school accepts approximately 135 girls a year. In September 2019, the school saw its first boys enter in year 7, previously boys were only in the sixth form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Piggott School</span> Academy in Wargrave, Reading, Berkshire, England

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 an overall effectiveness rating of 'Good'.

This article details a number of defunct schools that were once located in Sandwell in the West Midlands of England. For details of currently operating schools in Sandwell, please see: List of schools in Sandwell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liskeard School and Community College</span> Academy in Liskeard, Cornwall, England

Liskeard School and Community College is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with former engineering specialist status, located in Liskeard, Cornwall, England.

References

  1. ↑ Historic England. "Oldbury Wells School (West) (1254447)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  2. ↑ Historic England. "Oldbury Wells School (East) (1367610)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 26 October 2012.
  3. 1 2 https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/education/2023/09/13/bridgnorth-school-planning-to-axe-sixth-form-provision/
  4. ↑ https://www.oldburywells.com/bridgnorth-6th-form-consultation
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.