Queen Mary's High School
| Mottoes | Semper Fidelis |
|---|---|
| Established | 1893 |
| Type |
Grammar school; Academy |
| Head Teacher | Dr Alison Bruton |
| Chair of Governors | Mrs V. M. Fairbank |
| Location |
Upper Forster Street Walsall West Midlands WS4 2AE England Coordinates: 52°35′22″N 1°58′34″W / 52.5895°N 1.976°W |
| Local authority | Walsall Borough Council |
| DfE URN | 136777 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 700 |
| Gender | Girls ('mixed' sixth form) |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses |
Austen Brontë Eliot Shelley |
| Colours | Yellow, Blue, Red, Purple |
| Website |
www |
Queen Mary's High School, situated on Upper Forster Street, just outside Walsall town centre, is an all-female selective-education and grammar school and entry in Year 7 is by passing an entrance exam. It is twinned with Queen Mary's Grammar School, and like the Grammar School is part of the Queen Mary's Foundation.
The main body of the school is girls only, but the Sixth Form is open to applicants of both sexes conditional on a minimum grade achievement at GCSE (no fewer than 8 GCSEs above 'B' Grade). This policy is similar to that of Queen Mary's Grammar School. However, there are a very small amount of males who attend the school- no more than ten in a school of 1000.
The school gained an outstanding level in the Ofsted report when it was last inspected in 2007.
The school was a Language College[1] and it is compulsory for girls to take one language to GCSE out of French, German, Spanish and Japanese; all girls are assigned to one language when they start year seven, their first language is either French, German, Spanish or Japanese. In Year 8, students are given an additional language - either French, Spanish or German. Students visit Spain, France or Germany in Year 8 dependent on which languages are being studied (for those studying Japanese, they must visit the country relating to their second language). Girls can also take additional languages, either Latin or Greek, every three years. The school year beginning in 2009 saw a change in rules for compulsory languages. The school also holds exchanges with several schools in Germany and Japan.
Class sizes in the lower school are currently around 24 girls, with Design Technology classes being in groups of 16. However, Year 7 of the 13/14 academic year, and all subsequent years, have class sizes of around 30, as the school has increased the amount of students it can take. Sixth-form classes have a minimum of about 8 students and a maximum of 20.
The school is divided into houses named after famous 19th-century female authors - Austen (after Jane Austen), Bronte (after The Brontë Sisters), Eliot (after George Eliot) and Shelley (after Mary Shelley), the latter being a new house in the 2012/13 academic year. Each house has a member of staff in charge of it, a captain from Year 13 (upper sixth form) and a vice-captain from Year 12 (lower sixth form).
After 11 years of being headteacher at the school, Diana Woods retired at the end of the 2008/09 term. She was replaced by the deputy headteacher at Wolverhampton Girls School, Doctor Alison Bruton, who is also a Physics teacher, and achieved her doctorate near the end of the 12/13 academic year.
QMHS also has an Old Girl's Club which was formed to promote and maintain contact between former pupils and with the school. It has a membership of over 300 with an active committee who endeavour to support and be involved with the interests of the school whilst maintaining contact with its members through an Annual Reunion Luncheon, annual newsletter and social events. The club is anxious to not to lose touch with those girls who are about to embark upon a new life away from what will hopefully have been an enriching and fulfilling career at the school.
Famous alumni of the school include Meera Syal.
References
- ↑ "Specialist Schools Home". DfES. July 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-02.
External links
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||