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Marlborough School, Woodstock

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The Marlborough School (not to be confused with Marlborough College, the Wiltshire fee-paying school) is a co-educational Church of England comprehensive school serving the Oxfordshire market town of Woodstock and its surrounding villages.

The school, approximately six miles north west of the City of Oxford, takes its name from the title of the local duke, the Duke of Marlborough. The first Duke of Marlborough was given Blenheim Palace by a grateful nation, and this is on the other side of Woodstock.

The headteacher is Mrs. Julie Fenn and the school currently has over a thousand pupils on roll. In recent years the school has put more emphasis on results in academic examinations for which it previously had a rather mediocre reputation. The advent of exam result league tables has meant that all scholls must now do this. In 2006 The Times newspaper ranked The Marlborough as one of the top 500 state secondary schools and one of the top state schools by A level exam results. The school was built on the outskirts of Woodstock and consequently enjoys extensive sports fields.


History

WW2 to the 1970s

Although Geoffrey Chaucer once taught at a school in Woodstock and, in the 16th century, the town had its own Free Grammar School, The Marlborough School was opened in 1939 by the Lord Bishop of Dorchester, suffragan bishop of the Anglican diocese of Oxford. The original school was built as a single building which has become known as the main block, and by the main door is the foundation stone bearing the details of its opening.

After the war pre-fabricated ex-army barracks were erected at the west end of the site. At various times these were used for home-economics teaching and as a sixth form block.

Additional class rooms for music and for science and technology teaching together with a library and canteen were erected in the 1970's. The interior of the main block has been remodelled extensively over the years.

Community Comprehensive: 1970s-1990

The school suffered particularly badly from the underfunding of English state education in the 1980s and 1990s. The entire Foreign Language department and some parts of the English and Science departments were based in temporary porta-cabin classrooms situated on the east of the site. The largest of these, "the battleship" erected in the late 1990s has only recently been replaced.

From the 1970s through to the 1990s, the school had a reputation as a progressive comprehensive, with a focus on teaching how to learn and how to socialise (which it did with varying degrees of success). Former headmaster, Mr. Jerry O'Hagan, favoured CSEs over GCE 'O' level exams as he preferred to emphasise cumulative and cooperative learning for pupils over competition; the two examinations have since been combined to form the modern GCSE. Nonetheless, O-levels were reckoned the greater achievement by both employers and academic institutuions alike. Whether as a consequence of this educational philosophy or for other reasons, exam results at GCSE were mediocre into the mid 1990s and at A-level until more recently.

Ed McConnell, head-teacher in the 1990s and early 2000s slowly altered the direction of the school, increasing the emphasis on the importance of examinations. By the late 1990s GCSE results were starting to compete with the national average, although the sixth-form still suffered from middle-class flight to the Cherwell School and to private schools in Oxford.

Starting in the late 1990s, new language, mathematics and sixth form blocks were built to complement the existing brick modern-style science, music, library/cafeteria buildings and sports hall.

21st century

At the start of the 21st century the Marlborough has improved its reputation in A-level examinations. Results are now excellent [citation needed], particularly by the standards of local education authority controlled schools. In 2005 and 2006, the school was ranked in The Times "Parent Power Top State Schools" list.

The Marlborough acquired the status of a Business and Enterprise school under New Labour's specialist school programme.

In 2006, plans were unveiled for a new £1m multi-purpose school building with a theatre, cinema and conference venue proposed as future uses. This building, the Marlborough Enterprise Centre, opened in early 2007 and saw a student-led production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in July of the same year.

Elective System

The school has a popular "elective" afternoon every Wednesday for every pupil. This scheme was launched in the mid 1980's and originally took place every school day afternoon. Students choose, on a termly basis from a list of around 30 activities which vary from 5-a-side football or cookery to the Schools In Action project and coursework assistance for Key stage 4 pupils who require it.

Ormerod Department

A particular feature of the school is an embedded unit from the Ormerod school which allows children in Oxfordshire with disabilities to be educated in a mainstream secondary school. On 1st September 2007 the two schools merged into one, rather than the Ormerod School being situated at Marlborough.

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