Hounsdown School

Hounsdown School is a secondary school in Totton, near Southampton, Hampshire, England. The Headteacher is Miss D Nightingale. The School is housed in recently rennovated 1960s buildings, and new specialist blocks built since the millennium. The school has 1214 pupils, spanning ages 11 to 16. In 2005 the School received "outstanding" recognition from OFSTED.Soon the school is to have houses.

Science College Status

Hounsdown gained Science College status in 2005, and the school changed its official title to 'Hounsdown School- A Science College'. With the new title came a new logo, new uniform and a £500,000 government grant to be spent on science equipment. However, rather than spending all the money on science equipment, it was decided to buy a new sports hall.

Structure of the school

Pupils begin at the school in year 7, most having attended one of the 3 feeder primary schools - Abbotswood Junior School (majority), Bartley Junior School or Foxhills Junior School. Pupils study the Key Stage 3 syllabus until the SATs, which, at Hounsdown, take place at the end of year 8, instead of at the end of year 9 as happens in most other schools in England and Wales. In Year 9, pupils begin GCSE courses in some subjects, whilst in others, they work on consolidating their learning from primary school and KS3. GCSE courses start for all subjects in year 10, with the examinations held during the summer term of year 11. Pupils can then enter jobs, or continue their education at 6th Form College.

At GCSE level, pupils can and will study some of the below:

Core Subjects
GCSE Mathematics
GCSE Statistics GCSE English
GCSE English Literature
GCSE Media Studies
GCSE Philosophy & Ethics
GCSE Physical Education (non examination core)
GCSE Information Technology
GCSE Business & Communications Systems (Year 9)

Sciences
GCSE Core Science + Additional Science
GCSE Triple Science
GCSE Applied Science

Humanities
GCSE Geography
GCSE History Modern World
GCSE Schools History Project
GCSE Business Studies

Arts
GCSE Drama
GCSE Music
GCSE 3D Art
GCSE Fine Art
GCSE Textiles Art

Technology
GCSE Food Technology
GCSE Graphic Products
GCSE Resistant Materials
GCSE Textiles
GCSE Child Development
GCSE Electronics

Governors

The Chair of the Governors is currently Mrs C Bega.

The Resources Centre

The Resources Centre provides a wide range of materials for pupils to use for their coursework in different subjects. The Centre includes a library which is administered with a computer system using technology based on a mathematical template of each child’s fingerprint.

In addition to books, the library houses music CDs, audio tapes, internet linked computers which include word processing facilities, as well as photocopying and document production facilities.

The Resources Centre is involved the Hampshire Book Award and pupils regularly review new books for the School and Schools Library Service.

The "Resource Centre Manager" is Mrs Bancroft, a librarian who teaches Information Literacy lessons to year groups 7, 8 and 9. The former librarian, Mrs Wynn-Jones, now lives and works in Milan.

Sports facilities

Hounsdown School has a swimming pool, a sports hall, tennis courts, a rugby pitch, a gym, a dance studio and a cricket pitch, The sports hall and the swimming pool of which are available for pre-booked community purposes outside of school hours and during holidays.

Hounsdown Eco-school status

Hounsdown Has an eco-school system that consists of 72 Representatives (2 from each tutor group). There is an Eco-school club that runs every monday at lunschtime which is lead by the science departments comunity links class teacher and is run mainly by the Lead tream that consists of Year 10 and 11 pupils (but as the Year 11 exams aproach the pupils it is the year 10 team mainly making desisions). The school has won the Bronze and silver awards and is now looking to go for the greenleaf award. For more information please visit the official website: Hounsdown Eco School website

External links

• Official Hounsdown Website
• Image of D J Nightingale, the school's headmistress