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Langley Grammar School opened in 1956 and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year (2006). To get into the school, children of the age 11 have to pass the 11+, which consists of verbal, non-verbal and mathematics tests. The school has a high pass rate for GCSE and A level and there are many excellent teachers (although this view is questionable). The school has had three headteachers. Until 1976 Mr. Day, 1976 - 1999 the legendary Dr. A. G. Robinson who still commands respect from teachers, parents and students alike. The current head teacher of Langley Grammar is Ms Hilda Clarke, who has been a very successful head teacher; with only minimal expulsions, thefts, fires and bomb scare during her 6-year reign of terror. The school has undergone a lot of building work over the past year and a new language and religious education department has been created. The biggest project has been the new sports hall, which has now opened to the public. This is because we as a school believe that physical education lessons are most deserving of new buildings and funds. Some may argue that this money would be better spent on facilities that would actually help further a pupil‘s education but what do they know? They‘re probably bad at sports. The new courts built at the school last year have been a great success. These courts were built at the expense of large amounts of school field but I think I speak for everyone when I say that grass and trees are no comparison to miles of Astroturf. The school is Mathematics and computing school. They show this by their advanced I.C.T. program where in year 7 the students learn up to year 9 ICT and then in year 8 they start the GCSE course and finish it in year nine. The students do four pieces of coursework, which are: Word processing, Spreadsheet, Power point/Web design and Database. They also do a Mock and GCSE exam. The course work is 60% of the grade and the exam is 40%. An ICT teacher did NOT write this entry. The mathematics part of the school is shown by the fact that the year 11‘s in the top group do the maths GCSE in November instead of May. That’s five; count them, FIVE whole months earlier. Planned building works include a brand new sixth form centre due to be ready for September 2007 (or if it goes as the same rate of the Sports Hall which was around 6 months late, don’t expect to have it by 2008 at the earliest). The new sixth form centre will provide the students with a brand new common room (which will be a mess within a week, spray paint on the floor, chairs cut you get the idea..), and some new classrooms, and a new lecture theatre (wow!) The only down side is that yet more field area will be covered up by this new building. Future expansions (to get rid of the remaining field) include a new staff room (for the tons of pointless staff and support staff the school seems to be taking on) A new drama studio (Which is possibly the only sensible choice they‘ve made thus far!) A brand new swimming pool (which the school used to have) The school has recently introduced cashless catering system; all the students and staff are issued with a catering card, which they use to pay for food. The main idea is to top students getting “bullied for their lunch money“ which seems a bit pointless as the new system requires students to still bring in money but instead of paying at the till putting into the top up machine (which sounds like its shreds your money when it takes it in). Also planned is electronic registration system however it is (what a surprise) running late and probably will be introduced sometime around 2010 Despite building a new drama studio, the school seem to look down upon the arts (going to the extreme of sending those who were deemed as too arty to see the schools one day a week councillor), seeing as it is a maths and IT specialist school this isn‘t surprising (specialist school is not to be confused with special school, although this comparison could easily be made). They frown upon those who choose the arts over more traditional subjects, such as maths and English. In a BBC documentary it was discovered that pupils were discouraged from going on to higher education courses they wanted to do in favour of medicine, business and law, as Langley Grammar only really wishes to align itself with successful business, medicine and law students. Artistic and free thinking students have usually been victimised for their attitudes, in some instances, former students have been escorted off the school premises or been refused visitor status upon returning to collect work. Langley Grammar were seemingly trying to phase out the drama department after much loved teacher Chris Lambert left, they went so far as to hire someone with no knowledge of the subject whatsoever as well as cutting all ties with Workswell productions, a company that routinely came in to do theatre seminars with the students and to teach kids about history through drama. However, thanks to two of the year 13 students at the time, Michael Eckett and Christopher Wood, the department was able to survive this crushing blow, both boys gave up days of their time in order to oversee the running of the department, much to the annoyance of many members of the senior staff. |
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