Old Swinford Hospital

Old Swinford Hospital
Mottoes Ut prosim, vince malum bono
Established 1667
Type Voluntary aided comprehensive
Day and boarding school
Headmaster Mr Paul Kilbride
Chaplain Reverend Martin Soar
Founder Thomas Foley
Location Heath Lane
Stourbridge
West Midlands
DY8 1QX
England England
Coordinates: 52°27′03″N 2°08′39″W / 52.4507°N 2.1442°W / 52.4507; -2.1442
Local authority Dudley
DfE number 332/5400
DfE URN 103870 Tables
Ofsted Reports
Students 603
Gender Boys; Coeducational Sixth Form
Ages 11–18
Houses 7 Senior Boarding Houses, 1 Junior Boarding House, 1 Day Student House
Colours               
Publication The Foleyan
Former Pupils Old Foleyans
Website www.oshsch.com

Old Swinford Hospital is a secondary boarding school in Oldswinford, Stourbridge, West Midlands, England[1] that has been in continuous operation since the 17th century. It is one of 36 state boarding schools in England, meaning school fees are funded by the LEA and pupils only pay boarding fees. Girls are admitted into the sixth form as day pupils.

History

Old Swinford Hospital opened in the late summer of 1667. Originally called Stourbridge Hospital,[2] it was founded by Thomas Foley, an ironmaster and prominent local landowner, whose main estate was at Great Witley, west of Stourport in Worcestershire, but with strong Stourbridge connections. It was to educate 60 boys from “poor but honest” families nominated by specified parishes in Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire. The school was sometimes named as Foley's blue coat school or hospital, or Oldswinford Hospital Endowed School.[3] The school had increased to 70 boys by 1868.[4]

Houses

The school consists of seven senior boarding houses:

House Colour Built Namesake Housemaster
Baxter Grey 1990 Richard Baxter, a 17th Century Puritan Minister Mr J Petfield
Dudley Purple 1984 the Earls of Dudley, the family who bought the Foley's estate of Witley Court Mr J Adey
Foley Green 1982 Thomas Foley, the founder of the School Mr N Linehan
Foster (Currently under renovation) Red A prominent local family (see James Foster) Mr A Coalter
Maybury Royal Blue William Maybury, headmaster from 1883–1928 Mr A Green
Potter Sky Blue 2009 Chris Potter, headmaster from 1978 until 2001 Mr A Hannah
Witley Yellow 1983 Witley Court, the Foley family mansion Mr P Paternotte

There is one junior boarding house: Prospect House named after its location on Prospect Hill in Stourbridge. Its Housemaster is Mrs J Cooke.

There is also one senior boarding house: Foster House. This is dedicated to all Year 13 sixth formers. It will reopen next year after renovation is complete.

Before the houses were associated with buildings, there was also a Lyttelton house, named after the Lyttelton family who built nearby Hagley Hall. Katherine Lady Lyttelton and her son Sir Henry Lyttelton, sold the manor of Old Swinford to Thomas Foley in 1661.[5] In the mid-20th century, when day boys outnumbered boarders, there were also day houses called Stone and Chance. Stone and Lyttleton are now the names of teaching blocks at the school.

Admissions

There is no catchment area and admission is non-selective except for Out Boarders in Year 7 and Sixth Form day students. Boarding fees and day student facilities are charged but not tuition.[6]

Sixth Form

The school also offers a Sixth Form to which girls are admitted. Applications externally were subject to an entrance exam, which was dropped for students entering September 2015, and GCSE grades equivalent to 7 'A' grades. Boarding places are guaranteed for previous boarders, there is a minimum standard of 7 'C' grades at GCSE expected, this requirement can be wavered if the pupil is a clear benefit to the school through other contributions such as sport or music.

Scholarships and Bursaries

Scholarships are available and ensure a 10% discount on school fees, these scholarships are available in music, sport and academia. They remain highly sought after due to benefits such as a presentation of a cheque at every prize giving and a scholars medal.

In order to stay within the schools original purpose as a hospital (charity), one pupil per year group is awarded a grant, paid for by the schools governors, of up to 100% of the total fees, however, this place in highly competitive and this funding may be removed for poor or disruptive behaviour.

Academics

The school subject choices remain largely traditional, with many courses being offered as minor specifics to senior students. Mathematics is offered as Mechanics, Statistics, Pure, Core and Further. All 3 Sciences are offered, and for English you can take Language, Literature or both. History is split between standard History and Classical Civilisation. Latin is also an option which can be taken from Year 7.

Old Swinford Hospital is a specialist Business and Enterprise School, a Specialist Science School and has recently been awarded with an Artsmark and Sportsmark.

Foreign Language lessons are also compulsory and are offered as options to sixth form students as Spanish, French and German. Old Swinford Hospital benefits from foreign language assistants, who come as native speakers of the language to teach and help at the school. In return they get to live in one of the boarding houses, and also get the opportunity to better their own English language skills. In the past foreign language assistants have come from as far away as Argentina.

Examination wise, GCSEs are taken in Year 11. Lower Sixth take AS Levels, and Upper Sixth take A-Levels. Most Lower Sixth take 3 courses, and Upper Sixth take those same 3 Courses. For Upper Sixth students General Studies is an optional extra course, with untaught lessons, as well as many open university and finance courses open to the whole of the sixth form.

Old Swinford Hospital is placed in the top 5% of all schools at GCSE and with a strong record at A level. In October 2006, OFSTED rated the school as "outstanding" in each of the 39 inspection judgements.

Upon publication of the 2007/2008 academic year results tables, Old Swinford Hospital were the best school in the Dudley local area for pass and success rates in GCSEs with 89% of pupils gaining 5 or more A*-C grades. A Level students also performed well with 99% of examinations taken passed, and an average point score per pupil of 805.8; significantly higher than the Dudley local average of 733.1[7][8] For 2010, it remained the highest performing school in the Dudley borough with 94% of GCSE students gaining 5 or more GCSEs at grade C or above.[9]

Sport

Old Swinford Hospital has a large history of high level sporting achievement. Some Old Foleyans have gone on to play top level and international games in their sporting fields.

Sport is compulsory, during the Wednesday Afternoon sessions for the Senior Students, in line with the time university sports fixtures are played.

The main school sport is rugby, and it has been highly successful reaching the Semi-Finals in the U15 and U18 Daily Mail Cup, reaching the final in the U18 cup in 2012, and winning many other cups. From Michaelmas term the sport is played, with Sevens being played late in the Lent term. Other top level sports include Hockey and Cross Country. Cross Country had a successful 2007/2008 season, winning trophies in both 1st and 2nd team categories. The school runs 3 senior football teams which are coached by former professional footballer Dale Rudge.

In Summer the main school sport is cricket. This is played on front field cricket pitch, with Founders as the backdrop. The 1st team are usually very successful, in 2008 hardly losing a match. Teams throughout all of the year groups compete. A highlight of the season is the Senior teams match against the Old Foleyans played in the summer. David Banks, the former Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire cricketer is one notable member of the teams coaching staff.

Basketball is fast becoming the schools second most popular sport. In 2011-2012 the team suffered only 2 defeats in the entire season. The juniors are coached by former England basketball guru Barrie Mann.

Other sports include Golf (Old Swinford Hospital owns Stourbridge Golf Club), Squash, Tennis, Rounders, Athletics, Volleyball, hockey and Mountain Biking.

Shooting is a sport also enjoyed at the school, with it more recently being involved in competitions. It is one of the most successful sports in the school with the shooting team coming 3rd in the nationals in 2010.

International links

Old Swinford Hospital has international links with schools and educational establishments abroad. The three most notable are in the table below. Old Swinford has a history of raising money, and assisting in many ways with St. John's Secondary School in Nandere, Uganda through various charitable events and days and through the Uganda Link society. When the school had power issues in 2007, Old Swinford managed to raise the money needed to get power supplies back within one day.

School City
Uganda St. John's Secondary Senior School[10] Nandere
Argentina St. George's College North[10] Buenos Aires
Australia St. Joseph's Nudgee College[10] Brisbane

Famous Old Foleyans

Former students of the school are called Old Foleyans after the founder of the school, Thomas Foley.

Arts

Leslie Blight - Author - published The Stone Pigeon and Love and Idleness

Media

Military

Politics

Sport

Other

Headmasters since 1883

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ "about-the-school". Old Swinford Hospital. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  2. ↑ "Thomas Foley after William Trabute, line engraving, late 18th to early 19th century". Home / Collections / Large Image - NPG D30030; Thomas Foley. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
  3. ↑ The lancet London: a journal of British and foreign medicine, surgery, obstetrics, physiology, chemistry, pharmacology, public health and news, Volume 2. 1852. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  4. ↑ OLD SWINFORD - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868
  5. ↑ British History Online: History of the parish of Old Swinford
  6. ↑ "Admissions and Fees". Old Swinford Hospital.
  7. ↑ http://www.oshsch.com/2009/01/old-swinford-hospital-top-of-league-table/ Old Swinford Hospital Top of League Tables
  8. ↑ http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/cgi-bin/performancetables/group_08.pl?Mode=Z&Type=LA&Begin=b&No=332&Base=g&Phase=1&F=1&L=50&Year=08 DSCF Dudley KS4 result tables
  9. ↑ "Secondary schools in Dudley". BBC News. 2011-01-12. Retrieved 2011-01-14.
  10. 1 2 3 "Housemaster Job Description". Old Swinford Hospital. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
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