The Weald School, Billingshurst
 | |
| Established | 1956 |
|---|---|
| Headteacher | Peter Woodman |
| Location |
Station Road Billingshurst West Sussex RH14 9RY England Coordinates: 51°01′00″N 0°27′15″W / 51.01674°N 0.45427°W |
| Local authority | West Sussex |
| DfE URN | 126068 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1,498 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Website |
www |
The Weald School is a maintained comprehensive secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18. It caters for around 1,500 pupils in years 7 to 13, including over 200 in its sixth form. It is now a specialist Technology school and a sports college. The school opened in 1956, and celebrated its 50th anniversary in the academic year 2006-7. In December 2008 Mr P May, headteacher since 1998, retired and Mr P Woodman became the new Head having left Arrow Vale High School to take up the post.
The school is located in the village of Billingshurst, West Sussex, England. Its campus adjoins the main road through the village, and is shared with the local leisure facilities at Weald Recreation Centre. On 20 September 2008, the Weald Recreation Centre became the Billingshurst Leisure Centre. The facilities have greatly improved with a new pool opening and a larger Gym with new, state of the art equipment.[1] The Centre is run by D C Leisure on behalf of Horsham District Council.[2]
Extracurricular activities
Greenpower Car Project
The school has been very successful in the Greenpower Car Competition with three cars. The Sussex Trug (named due to it looking like a local style of Garden Basket: Sussex trug) was the original car, followed by the Super Trug and Slippery Trug. The cars have all ended the 6 hour races on the podium with only a few exceptions. In October 2006 the Slippery Trug won the Final making the school UK Champions. Due to the parent running the project ending his work with the school after many years the project did not run in the 2007-8 school year but starting in September 2008 a student-led group has begun slowly getting the project running again. The project has now been running successfully now for two years and the school now has a new car called The Black Bullet named because it looks like a bullet the team has been very successful over the two years come second in the final in 2010 and coming second again at the final in 2011.
Radio Weald
Radio Weald is a Student Radio Station and has been running since 2001 and broadcasts over 87.7FM and across the school computer network once a year for a week at the end of the summer term. In July 2008 the station broadcast for the first time over the internet as well as on FM and in school. Since September 2007 there have also been regular Friday Lunchtime broadcasts played in the School Canteen. From September 2008 Radio Weald began sending out Friday Broadcasts over the internet through the Radio Weald website. Radio Weald now also has a forum for listeners and crew to have their say on the broadcasts and suggest ideas for upcoming shows. In the week commencing 13 July 2009, Radio Weald hosted their annual Week Broadcast, but with a difference. This time there was no broadcast over FM radio on 87.7FM like in previous years. Instead, it was heavily focused on the internet and inschool audience. With their new self op system they are now gaining real world professional skills. The idea came from a visit by two students to the BBC, enjoying a whole day of media.
The Africa Project (Classrooms for Kenya)
Since a visit to Kenya by a number of staff and now ex-students in the summer of 2006 the school has had close links with a number of schools in Kenya. When the project started after this visit all of these schools had mud buildings which regularly got washed away and needed re-building. In the Schools 50th Year (2006-7 Academic Year) the school decided to try and raise £50,000 to build new Brick Classrooms at these schools.[3] The Students rose to the challenge; in the summer of 2007 another set of staff and students went out to Kenya again to help build the new classrooms the school had paid for. Another trip was planned for the summer of 2008, but due to the political unrest in the country it was cancelled, and a teacher is going out instead to deliver a large amount of clothing, stationery and computer equipment to the rebuilt schools. There are number of videos and pictures of the earlier trips on the website. After the failed trip of 2008 another big push is planned for the 2008-9 academic year. The plan is to raise another £30,000 to finish completely re-building Lumuli Primary School. This was and is in the worst state of all the schools the project has been working with and it is hoped that by the end of 2009 that it will be completely re-built to brick classrooms.
Notable alumni
- Hinda Hicks, singer
- Jon Edgar, sculptor (1979-1986)
- Billy Twelvetrees, rugby union footballer
References
- ↑ "New Billingshurst Leisure Centre Opens Saturday 20 September." Published 15/9/08 Retrieved 24/9/08
- ↑ D C Leisure's Billingshurst Leisure Centre Website
- ↑ "UK schools' life changing project raises £50,000" Published ?? Retrieved 24/09/08