Gateacre School

Gateacre School
Motto Each to their own ability (The Best You Can be)
Established 1957
Type Community
Headteacher G. L. Lonergan
Chairman Mr D Brown
Location Hedgefield Road
Liverpool
Merseyside
L25 2RW
 United Kingdom
Coordinates: 53°23′12″N 2°52′08″W / 53.386792°N 2.868773°W / 53.386792; -2.868773
Local authority Liverpool City Council
DfE URN 104700 Tables
Ofsted Reports
Students 1527[1]
Gender Coeducational
Ages 11–18
Publication Aspire Magazine
Website Gateacre School

Gateacre School is a secondary school and sixth form located in Belle Vale, Liverpool, England. The school is Coeducational with both male and female pupils from years 7 to 11 and throughout the sixth form.[2]

History

The school was built in two phases, a lower building in 1957 (by architects Weightman and Bullen of Liverpool) and was followed by a much larger 'Main Building' which was completed in 1961 (by architect George Whitfield). The buildings on the school remained relatively unchanged for 40 years until a Music Building and a Sixth Form and Food Technology building were added to the previous 'lower yard' and bike shed area in 2002.

During the construction of the school, the playing field area needed to be levelled out. This proved difficult due to the nature of the ground, and it was decided by Liverpool Education committee that the most cost-effective method of leveling out the playing field area was controlled tipping (a similar method was used for the now defunct field of Childwall College, found in Childwall Woods). This led to a large difference in ground height of the field compared to the school buildings, with pupils required to walk up a set of steps equivalent to 2 storeys. This decision also meant that the land could not be built on in the future. This eventually led to the school's need to move locations under the Building Schools for the future government scheme as the only available ground on the Grange Lane site was the ground the current school footprint was held on, and a new school was required before the old one could be demolished.

Gateacre Community Comprehensive School was the first comprehensive school to open in Liverpool. It was also the first of a number of Liverpool schools to house George Whitfield's design for main building (Anfield Comprehensive and New hays following). It is also the last remaining example of Whitfield's 'Main building'.

Demolition is due to commence in January 2011 and £300,000 has been set aside for this task. In an attempt to prevent the building from being damaged by vandals in the meantime, the building is being occupied by 'Guardians' from the company Adhoc, who pay a basic amount of money to live in basic conditions. The scheme has been running for 3 months (as of 20 November) and has thus far proved extremely successful.

The 20 acre Grange Lane school consisted of 3 gyms, 2 kitchens (previously 3, but reduced to two upon completion of 'Main Building'), 3 assembly halls, 5 yards (reduced to 4 when one became a car park, and 3 when the Music Building was built), a swimming pool, and 11 tennis courts

In 2005 Gateacre received joint in Arts & Humanities. The Specialist school status as an Arts College allowed the school extra funding for arts related utilities and projects .[3] The three main areas of arts being performing, visual and media.[4] The other specialism was as a Humanities College the lead subjects being English and Religious Studies.[5]

At the beginning of the 2015/2016 school year on September 3 and 4 2015 Gateacre School introduced a new form system based upon the "Vertical Tutoring" System. The school based its houses on an acronym for the word aspire by sorting their students into 6 main houses which are, Angelou,[6] Socrates,[7] Pankhurst,[8] Ibsen,[9] Rathbone[10] and Einstein.[11] The school beieved that this change would be positive for students however the vertical turoring system is usually disliked by students[12][13] due to the segregation between year groups and groups of friends. The school also claims on its website that "There is evidence that mixed age tutor groups prevent bullying because there is a sense of belonging across ages",[14][15] despite the fact that there is no independently peer reviewed research to support the claims that vertical tutoring reduces bullying and improves school cohesion.

During the school year ending August 2014 Gateacre School achieved 29% 5 A-C GCSEs including English and maths putting it in the lowest 20% of schools in the country with similar characteristics(OFSTED Dashbord for Gateacre School).In August 2015 Gateacre School achieved 32%5 GCSEs A-C including English and maths.

New building

In 2011 the school relocated from Gateacre to the neighbouring area of Belle Vale. The new building would cost over £35 million and plans have been made to include high tech features such as solar panels, wind turbines and a cyber cafe.[16] The new building can now be easily identified opposite Belle Vale Shopping Centre. The official school website has listed what the building will include:

Notable former pupils

See also

List of secondary schools in Liverpool

References

  1. ↑ http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_providers/full/(urn)/104700/(type)/8192/(typename)/Secondary%20schools
  2. ↑ http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_providers/full/(urn)/104700/(type)/8192/(typename)/Secondary%20schools
  3. ↑ http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/specialistschools/what_are/arts/
  4. ↑ http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/specialistschools/what_are/arts/
  5. ↑ http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/specialistschools/what_are/humanities/?version=1
  6. ↑ "Gateacre School". www.gateacre.liverpool.sch.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  7. ↑ "Gateacre School". www.gateacre.liverpool.sch.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  8. ↑ "Gateacre School". www.gateacre.liverpool.sch.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  9. ↑ "Gateacre School". www.gateacre.liverpool.sch.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  10. ↑ "Gateacre School". www.gateacre.liverpool.sch.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  11. ↑ "Gateacre School". www.gateacre.liverpool.sch.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  12. ↑ "BAN VERTICAL TUTORING". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  13. ↑ "Vertical tutoring? (non horsey)". www.horseandhound.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  14. ↑ "What are the advantages and disadvantages of VT?" (PDF). Gateacre School. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  15. ↑ "Vertical Tutoring FAQ - Gateacre School" (PDF). Gateacre School. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  16. ↑ http://www.gateacre.liverpool.sch.uk/bsf.html
  17. ↑ http://www.gateacre.liverpool.sch.uk/bsf.html
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