Hele's School

Template:Linkless Hele's School, in Plympton, Plymouth, is a secondary school that has specialist status in Modern Foreign Languages, Mathematics & Computing and Vocational Qualifications - placing it in the top four of all schools in the United Kingdom.

History

Hele's School was founded in 1658 by Elize Hele, whom the school is named after. It was for a while situated in Castle Barbican, but later moved back to its present position on Seymour Rd. Originally Plympton Grammar School, it was later renamed Hele's School, when it became a comprehensive.

Staff

The school currently employs (2006) 80 teaching staff in a variety of subjects, such as Mathematics, English Literature and Media, French, German, Chinese, Spanish and many others. Th Principal of the school, Michael Uglow, is due to retire at the end of the academic year (2006) and, due to a lack of good applicants for the job, one of the three deputy principals, A. Birkett, will be taking over the school for the first two terms (Hele's School is switching to a six term year - 2006)

The School employs many native speakers (Foreign Language Assisstants) to aid in lessons (French and German) and to teach (Chinese). As of 2006-2007 academic year the scholl will employ an FLA for Spanish classes as well.

Drama Prodictions

Hele's School Drama Department puts on anual productions that are open for parents of pupils, staff and friends of Hele's School to come and watch. These shows are often popular and they raise awareness of the importance of Drama and the performing arts in personal development. The shows are run both by staff, but also some Sixth Form and upper-school pupils are encouraged to take part in the direction and technical aspects of these shows.

A list of the most current shows (latest first):
Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (pre-production)
The Crucible (AS-level exam piece)
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
The Cantubry Tales
Jesus Christ Superstar
The Hobbit

Curriculum

Hele's School offers the opppurtunity, by GCSE level, for students to take the following subjects (July 2006):
Chinese,
French,
German,
Russian,
English Media,
English Literature (both with English Language),
Health & Social Care,
Travel and Tourism,
Food and Nutrition,
Textiles,
Engineering,
CiDA/DiDA (I.T),
Mathematics,
Statistics, (Higher groups only)
Resistant Materials,
Various NVQs,
Spanish,
History,
Religious Studies,
Geography,
Physical Education,
Drama,
Theatre Studies (A-Level),
Systems & Control,
Business Studies,
Business & Communications Studies,
Art & Design,
Graphic Products
Music.

Trivia

The School Library used to be the Main Hall. Heles used to be spelt, and many still spell it as, Hele's School. There are two chameleons in residence in the Science Department.

Personel Development

This is a chance to have time with the class tutor. It covers First aid , Healthy eating , puberty and growing up.