Sidney Stringer Academy
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| Motto | Believe - Achieve - Succeed |
|---|---|
| Established | 1970 |
| Type | Academy |
| Religion | Non-denominational |
| Principal | Wendy Tomes |
| Location | Primrose Hill Street Coventry West Midlands CV1 5NL England Coordinates: 52°24′43″N 1°30′11″W / 52.4119°N 1.5031°W |
| Local authority | Coventry City Council |
| DfE URN | 103739 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Staff | mrs Tomes |
| Students | 1,141 (approx.) |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Jaguar, Swanswell, Lanchester, Da Vinci and Phoenix |
| Website | www.sidneystringer.coventry.sch.uk |
Sidney Stringer Academy (formerly Sidney Stringer School) is a coeducational (mixed) academy school for pupils aged 11 – 18 in Hillfields, Coventry, England.[1]
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History [edit]
Sidney Stringer first opened as a School in 1973 as the first urban community school in England.[citation needed]
The school was formed in from the merger of two secondary modern schools - Frederick Bird on Swan Lane (became a primary school) and Broad Heath on Broad Street. It was one of the first Community Colleges in the 1980s and one of the first Technology Colleges in the 1990s.
The school was named after Alderman Sidney Stringer, a former mayor of Coventry who dedicated himself to the rebuilding of the city after the devastation of the second world war.
Today the school serves a bustling area, close to the city centre with the most diverse population of any in the city. Numbers of students on roll, which fell to an all-time low of around 670 in the 1990s, have risen rapidly in recent years and the school is oversubscribed in some year groups.[citation needed]
About the School [edit]
Sidney Stringer Academy is a well-established city centre school. The school has grown rapidly in recent years and is now oversubscribed in two year groups and near capacity in others: the roll currently stands at 1180 with 250 in the sixth form.
The school has been a Specialist School for Mathematics and Computing since 2004. Contextual value added scores show the school as having one of the highest value added scores at Key Stage 3 and 4 of any secondary maintained school in Coventry and Warwickshire. In Mathematics, the school has been in the top 0% or 1% over the last three years. Investment in ICT has been high over recent years. Over 300 new computers have been installed in the new buildings. There are now ten ICT suites which are shared between ICT and Business with a substantial number of computers, as well as six laptop trolleys in key curriculum areas.
Ofsted [edit]
The 2006 Ofsted inspection gave the school an overall grade of good, and noted a high capacity for further improvement. Standards in the sixth form, progress in mathematics and racial harmony were described as outstanding.[2]
North West Federation [edit]
The school's headteacher is Wendy Tomes. Along with Barr's Hill School and Community College and the President Kennedy School and Community College it forms the North West Federation of Schools, which are allowed to provide the International General Certificate of Secondary Education English course to pupils at the school.[3]
Academic Performance [edit]
The school's best subjects at GCSE level are Mathematics, ICT (the school's strongest subject), art and design, and drama. Standards of pupil achievement at year 9 are well below the national average in English, the sciences, and mathematics.[citation needed]
2007 Examination Performance
Key Stage 3
English saw their best ever results showing a good improvement.
Performance in mathematics continues to be strong: the results are good when looking at the level of entry. This cohort of students had the lowest KS2 L5+ at 49% compared to any other cohort of students currently at the school. Therefore considering this lower starting point the subject still exceeded FFT B and D estimate.
Science continues to improve year on year. This year the conversion of 2 levels has improved greatly and although the results are below 60% they are still inline with FFT D estimates.
Key Stage 4
The progress is again good with all FFT B and D exceeded (5+ A – G, 5+ A – C, 5+ A – C including maths and English). The overall 5+ A* - C was just short of 40%
Key Stage 5
This year the points score improved despite a reduction in the %A-B grades from 52.9 to 36.1 and a drop in the number of entries from 104 in 2006 to 72 in 2007.
Other Improvements
The school has grown to its largest population (1200) for many years.[citation needed]
CVA Sidney Stringer has one of the highest CVA - Contextual Value Added scores in the city. This is a new, complex Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 contextual value added (CVA) score designed to show the progress children have made. This is done by comparing their achievements with those of other pupils nationally who had the same or similar prior attainment in their test results at KS2 and KS3. It has one of the highest improvement rates in the country making their grade from year 7 to year 9 a whole two levels higher. In summer 2007, Sidney Stringer students produced their improved SATS, GCSE and A Level results. The SATs results in 2007 were the best ever for the school; GCSE results were up 11% on 2006 and 97% of A level students passed, with 48.4% of these passing with A or B grade – placing the school third in Coventry.[citation needed]
Local involvement [edit]
The school liaises with its feeder primary schools, with year 5 and 6 pupils from those schools attending Sidney Stringer to experience "taster" lessons. Other primary pupils make use of the school's ICT facilities, and teachers from Sidney Stringer run physical education clubs at the primary schools during lunchtimes.[1]
The school is also the location for various evening courses run by the Coventry Adult Education Service.[4]
Charity work [edit]
The school holds displays to raise awareness of World Refugee Day[5] and in 2006 participated in the Motiv8 project.[6] 16+ also holds an annual charity week in which they raise as much money as possible for an international charity and a charity more closer to home.
Sidney Stringer Academy [edit]
In 2006, controversial plans to merge Sidney Stringer School with Barr's Hill School to form a city academy were dropped.[7]
Coventry Local Authority has decided that Sidney Stringer should become an Academy, opening in existing buildings in September 2010 and in new buildings the following year. The City Council is itself a major sponsor, together with the City (FE) College. The other two sponsors are Coventry University and Jaguar Cars. This unusual arrangement pays tribute to the school’s excellent record in providing for the education of local children, and is part of city plans for the regeneration of the city area of Hillfields – the Swanswell Regeneration Initiative. The formal consultation exercise undertaken in February 2008 revealed remarkable support for the school from the local community, with over 80% of respondents demanding that the name of the school remain the same: the sponsors agreed! The specialisms of the new school will be Mathematics, Design and Technology.[8] The new Sidney Stinger Academy will create many changes in the school. The academy will have five houses and also the uniform will be changed from green sweatshirts to black blazers and a tie, making the school look much smarter and creating the sign of a new start. The principal of the new academy will be Mrs Wendy Tomes.
The new building and the EIC block provide a learning environment for the children.
Being an academy, the concept of Student Leadership and Head boy and girl was introduced in 2010. The first head boy and girl of Sidney Stringer academy were Amy Sutton and Talha Hakim, both of which were year 13/14 students. This year Nile O'Meally and Khadija Ali become Head boy and girl. The Student leadership team aims to promote student voice and consists of 6th form students who make up Deputy head boys and girls and Assistant head boys and girls. The academy also has an academy council for years 7-11 and prefects who are year 10, 11 and 16+ students.
Fire [edit]
On 25 September 2007, a fire destroyed 40% of the school building.[9] The school, however, was operating as normal, albeit in temporary classrooms, by February 2008. The school was rebuilt at a cost of £28 million and reopened in 2012 with an official opening ceremony on 4 October 2012 conducted by the Duke of York.[10]
- The scene at Vine Street at dusk, 25 September 2007
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The fire at Sidney Stringer School
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Fire engines outside the Vine Street entrance
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Vine Street entrance and fire engines
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Burning ruins
- Ruins, 27 September 2007
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References [edit]
- ^ a b Tom Comer (2001-02-15). "Sidney Stringer School" (PDF). Ofsted.
- ^ Ofsted report
- ^ "The Coventry City Council and the North West Federation of Schools (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) Order 2005". Office of Public Sector Information. 2005.
- ^ "Black History Courses starting January 2005". Local History Magazine. Local History Press Ltd.
- ^ "Overview of Activities: International Refugee Day 2006". UNITED for Intercultural Action.
- ^ "Motiv8". Groundwork. June 2006.
- ^ Lucy Lynch (2006-02-28). "City drops plan to merge two schools". icCoventry (Midland Newspapers Limited).
- ^ "Sidney Stringer Academy".
- ^ "Fire at city school is suspicious". BBC News. 25 September 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
- ^ Bagot, Martin (5 October 2012). "A School Fit for a Prince". Coventry Telegraph. p. 3.
Further reading [edit]
- Estelle Morris (2006-03-28). "Gifted and talented: A day for smug satisfaction". The Guardian (London). — Morris, who used to teach at Sidney Stringer School, reports her experience of attending a school prize-giving ceremony, describing the school as "Like many inner-city schools, it's got the challenging part of the market: 44% on free school meals; more than 40 languages spoken. But, also like many inner-city schools, it has vision and ambition, and its kids have talent and character screaming to be recognised."
