Boston Spa School
Encyclopedia
Boston Spa School and specialist Sports College is a mixed-gender school aged 11–19 years old on Clifford Moor Road in Boston Spa
Boston Spa
Boston Spa is a village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England, south of Wetherby, on the banks of the River Wharfe...

, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is larger than other secondary schools in the area, with 1,880 students on roll, including 350 in the sixth form. Both Boston Spa and neighbouring Wetherby High School
Wetherby High School
Wetherby High School is a secondary school in the Hallfield area of Wetherby, West Yorkshire. It is run by the City of Leeds Local Education Authority. The school is situated on Hallfield Lane, on the Hallfields Estate in Wetherby...

 have large catchment areas and take pupils from much of North and East Leeds.

History

Previous to the school, the village had a secondary modern school
Secondary modern school
A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...

 on High Street. The school opened in 1973. It was made a specialist sports college in 2000, with outside backing from notable organisations, primarily Leeds United A.F.C.
Leeds United A.F.C.
Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...

. It has led to the subsequent partnerships with both the Leeds United Male and Female academies.
>

Location and student population

The school is located in a largely suburban and semi rural area, approximately four miles from Wetherby
Wetherby
Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...

. The school community is predominantly white British. The largest minority ethnic groups are Indian and Pakistani.
The West Oaks School, a Specialist Inclusive Learning Centre, is supported by the school, having a base on the school site, enabling positive experiences and opportunities for the students of both school.
The Boston Spa School Mission.

Our ambition for every learner is:

· Academic Capital: Achieving outcomes that match or exceed that which
they would have achieved in any other school.

· Moral Capital: To be young people who know right from wrong and make
good moral decisions especially in the company of their peers.

· Social capital: To be 'nice people to know', who understand and model
what it is to be an adult member of their communities.

Our ambition is achieved in a school where:

· Everyone is treated with respect

· Everyone makes progress

· No one steals learning

This creates:

· ‘A path to the future for all’

Academic performance

The School continues to improve its academic provision with 96% achieving 5+ A* to C GCSE, 52% achieving 5+ A* to C(EM) and 39% af students achieving at least 3 GCSE's at A* or A grade in 2011. The 2010 CVA progress measure from Key Stage 2-4 is
1002.
Around 70% of our Year 11 progress into our Sixth form where they are joined by students
moving to continue their post 16 education with us. In 2009 OFSTED judged our Sixth Form to be
'Good'. Our 2010 Key Stage 4-5 CVA score is 1015. Over 98% of students achieved A2 grades
with 59% gaining grades at A* to C. The sixth-form is now placed in the top 20% of national sixth-form colleges academically.

Progression to further education, 2010 saw a record number of students applying to go to either university or FE colleges; with more than 70% of their young people considering taking a degree or equivalent/other qualification. Boston Spa has a consistent record of around 3-5% of students applying to Oxbridge
Oxbridge
Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior social status...

 every year; with 2 successful applicants in 2010. The school has some students successfully accepted every year into globally recognised London institutions such as Imperial College and UCL
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

.
A number of students go on to study medicine or a science-based subject, as well as around 38% successfully applying to read at either a Russell Group
Russell Group
The Russell Group is a collaboration of twenty UK universities that together receive two-thirds of research grant and contract funding in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1994 to represent their interests to the government, parliament and other similar bodies...

 or top thirty (ranked) university - including the likes of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

, Newcastle, Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...

, Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

 and Durham
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

.

The school was awarded specialist sports college status in 2000 and successfully achieved re-designation of this status in 2004. Currently, it is also the base for the Leeds United Ladies football club.

In 2010 the school celebrated 10 years as a Specialist Sports College. Sculpter Jenny Barber, an ex-student, marked the occasion by designing and installing a 'running man' sculpture in the school grounds.

The school has also recently built acrylic indoor tennis courts to accompany the outdoor concrete courts which was formally opened on 26th September 2011.
External recognition.
In the last four years the school has been awarded chartermarks:

Safemark

Investors in People

Investors in Pupils

Healthy Schools

Inclusion Chartermark

The International Schools Award

FA National Charter Standard Award

Education Business Partnership Award

3 Specialist School and Academies Trust awards for acadenic achievement

Stephen Lawrence Award

Notable alumni

  • Stephen Booth
    Stephen Booth (cricketer)
    Stephen Charles Booth was a first-class cricketer who played for Somerset County Cricket Club from 1983 to 1985....

    , cricketer
  • Aaron Lennon
    Aaron Lennon
    Aaron Justin Lennon is an English footballer who plays as a right winger for Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League and the England national team.-Early life:...

    , professional footballer
  • Jordan Tansey
    Jordan Tansey
    Jordan Tansey is an English professional rugby league footballer for the Crusaders in the Super League . He was contracted to Hull FC in the Super League until February 2011...

    , professional rugby player
  • Danny Williams
    Danny Williams
    -Music:*Danny Williams , South African-born popular musician*Danny Williams , Australian singer, member of CDB-Sports:...

    , professional rugby player
  • Alex Zane
    Alex Zane
    Alex Zane is an English television presenter and DJ.-Background:Zane was born in Leeds and attended Boston Spa School before going on to study Medicine at University College London, a course which he left after a year, and then Media and Communications at Goldsmiths College.-Stand-up comedy and...

    , comedian/TV Presenter

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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