Queens Park Community School

Queens Park Community School
Address
Aylestone Avenue Brent , London , NW6 7BQ England
Coordinates	51°32′25″N0°13′06″W / 51.5404°N 0.2184°W / 51.5404; -0.2184
Information
Type	Academy
Motto	Quality, Progress, Creativity and Success
Established	1989
Department for Education URN	138609 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Headteacher	Judith Enright
Gender	Coeducational
Age	11to 19
Enrolment	1286
Website	http://www.qpcs.brent.sch.uk

Queens Park Community School (commonly abbreviated to QPCS) is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in Queen's Park, north west London, in the borough of Brent, England. ^[1]

Admissions

There are, as of December 2020, 1286 pupils aged between 11 and 19 on roll who come from a range of backgrounds. QPCS is situated south of the A4003, in Brondesbury Park, about a mile west of Kilburn. The closest bus stations are Okehampton Road and Hanover Road, whilst the closest train station is Kensal Rise (which serves for the Overground).

History

Merger

Opened in 1989, Queens Park Community School is the result of an amalgamation of three schools during the 1980s. The three schools that were merged were South Kilburn High School (formally Percy Road School), Aylestone Community School and Brondesbury and Kilburn High (commonly abbreviated to B&K).^{[ citation needed ]} The latter was formed from the merger in 1973 of Kilburn Senior High School for Boys (KSH), and Brondesbury and Kilburn High School for Girls (BKHS). Both were successors to state grammar schools which were abolished by the local authority in 1967, the boys' grammar school being Kilburn Grammar School. The new school's logo, an image of three trees, represents this union of the three local secondary schools. The headteacher chosen to head the new school was Mary Norton. Norton headed the school from its formation through to her retirement from education in 2002.

Present-day QPCS

Front view of QPCS

The school had a new block funded through the millennium National Lottery fund at an estimated cost of £34.3 million. The building of this block involved demolishing one of the existing buildings. The new building was opened by Ken Livingstone with a plaque commemorating his visit. The school has been granted specialist school status in Business and Enterprise.

QPCS secured additional funding through the government's Excellence in Cities programme, which provided resources for schools, to provide extended activities and work for gifted and talented pupils.^{[ citation needed ]}

In March 2012, QPCS applied for Artsmark status – it received the Gold award.^{[ citation needed ]}

Queens Park Community School converted to academy status in September 2012.

QPCS City Learning Centre

The QPCS City Learning Centre (CLC) was one of 105 CLCs built by the DfES throughout the country. It was completed in 2003.

In 2015, funding for CLCs ceased and the CLC building has become part of the school’s teaching accommodation.

Teachers' awards

QPCS teaching staff that have received recognition in the National Teaching Awards:^{[ citation needed ]}

• Sue Wales won the Lifetime Achievement Teaching Award for London and the Southeast of England in 2001.
• Luna Rupchand won Teacher Support of the Year, at the ACE Project Diamond Ball Awards in November 2012.

Side view of school

Classroom Chaos

QPCS was one of the six schools featured on the 2005 Channel 5 programme Classroom Chaos in which a retired teacher under the pseudonym 'Sylvia Thomas' returned undercover as a supply teacher after 30 years.^{[ citation needed ]} Her stated objective was to show the 'chaos' which teachers must deal with in the modern classroom. With the use of hidden cameras, she filmed chairs being thrown, pupils fighting in class and swearing at teachers and other such behaviour.

Notable former pupils

• Tafari Moore ^[2]
• Osman Kakay ^[3]
• Maria Lawson, R&B singer and X-Factor, 2004 finalist
• Seal (musician) ^{[ citation needed ]}
• Paul Merson ^{[ citation needed ]}
• Dominic Thompson (footballer) ^[4]
• Caleb Watts ^[5]
• Lava La Rue ^[6]

Brondesbury and Kilburn High School

• Julie Covington, singer, notably of Don't Cry for Me Argentina
• Margery Hurst OBE, founder and Managing Director of Brook Street Bureau from 1947–76 ^[7]
• Doreen Miller, Baroness Miller of Hendon
• Twiggy, model, actress, and singer

South Kilburn High School

• Ngozi Fulani, charity executive

References

1. "Queens Park Community School". Brent Schools. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
2. Kosky, Ben (19 June 2014). "Kilburn's European Championship winner targets further success with Arsenal and England". Kilburn Times . Retrieved 14 January 2019.
3. "Ozzy Kakay returns to his roots". QPR. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
4. @QPCS (2 July 2018). "#OneOfOurOwn" (Tweet). Retrieved 24 August 2019– via Twitter.
5. "Arsenal and Watford stars return to Brent for district schools' FA awards". Kilburn Times. 3 July 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
6. "Way out west with London's coolest creative collective, NiNE8". Red Bull. 19 September 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
7. Wilson, Derek (2004). "Hurst [née Berney; other married name Baines], Margery (1913–1989)" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). OUP. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40116. ISBN   978-0-19-861412-8 . Retrieved 28 November 2017.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

External links

• Official QPCS Site
• Official CLC Site