Gateacre Community Comprehensive School
Encyclopedia
Gateacre Community Comprehensive is a secondary school and sixth form college located in Belle Vale, Liverpool
. The school is Coeducational with both male
and female
pupils from years 7 to 11 and throughout the sixth form
.
The school was built in two phases, a lower building in 1957 (by architects Weightman and bullen of Liverpool) and was followed by a much larger 'Main Building' which was completed in 1961 (by architect George Whitfield). The buildings on the school remained relatively unchanged for 40 years until a Music building and a Sixth form and Food Technology building were added to the previous 'lower yard' and bike shed area in 2002.
During the construction of the school, the playing field area needed to be leveled out. This proved difficult due to the nature of the ground, and it was decided by Liverpool Education committee that the most cost effective method of leveling out the playing field area was controlled tipping (a similar method was used for the now defunct field of Childwall College, found in Childwall Woods). This led to a large difference in ground height of the field compared to the school buildings, with pupils required to walk up a set of steps equivalent to 2 storeys. This decision also meant that the land could not be built on in the future. This eventually led to the school's need to move locations under the Building Schools for the future governemtn scheme as the only available ground on the grange Lane site was the ground the current school footprint was held on, and a new school was required before the old one could be demolished.
Gateacre Community Comprehensive School was the first comprehensive school to open in Liverpool. It was also the first of a number of Liverpool schools to house George Whitfield's design for main building (Anfield Comprehensive and New hays folllowing). It is also the last remaining example of Whitfield's 'Main building'.
Demolition is due to commence in January 2011 and £300,000 has been set aside for this task. In an attempt to prevent the building from being damaged by vandals in the meantime, the building is being occupied by 'Guardians' from the company Adhoc, who pay a basic amount of money to live in basic conditions. The scheme has been running for 3 months (as of 20th November) and has thus far proved extremely successful.
The 20 acre Grange Lane school consisted of;
3 Gyms
2 Kitchens (previously 3, but reduced to two upon completion of 'Main Building')
3 Assembly Halls
5 yards (reduced to 4 when one became a car park, and 3 when the Music Building was built)
A swimming pool
11 Tennis Courts
status as an Arts College
allows the school extra funding for arts related utilities and projects . The three main areas of arts are performing, visual and media. The other specialism is Humanities College
the lead subjects here are English and Religious Studies.
. The new building would cost over £
35 million and plans have been made to include high tech features such as solar panels, wind turbines and a cyber cafe. The new building can now be easily identified opposite Belle Vale Shopping Centre. The official school website has listed what the building will include:
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. The school is Coeducational with both male
Male
Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...
and female
Female
Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...
pupils from years 7 to 11 and throughout the sixth form
Sixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
.
The school was built in two phases, a lower building in 1957 (by architects Weightman and bullen of Liverpool) and was followed by a much larger 'Main Building' which was completed in 1961 (by architect George Whitfield). The buildings on the school remained relatively unchanged for 40 years until a Music building and a Sixth form and Food Technology building were added to the previous 'lower yard' and bike shed area in 2002.
During the construction of the school, the playing field area needed to be leveled out. This proved difficult due to the nature of the ground, and it was decided by Liverpool Education committee that the most cost effective method of leveling out the playing field area was controlled tipping (a similar method was used for the now defunct field of Childwall College, found in Childwall Woods). This led to a large difference in ground height of the field compared to the school buildings, with pupils required to walk up a set of steps equivalent to 2 storeys. This decision also meant that the land could not be built on in the future. This eventually led to the school's need to move locations under the Building Schools for the future governemtn scheme as the only available ground on the grange Lane site was the ground the current school footprint was held on, and a new school was required before the old one could be demolished.
Gateacre Community Comprehensive School was the first comprehensive school to open in Liverpool. It was also the first of a number of Liverpool schools to house George Whitfield's design for main building (Anfield Comprehensive and New hays folllowing). It is also the last remaining example of Whitfield's 'Main building'.
Demolition is due to commence in January 2011 and £300,000 has been set aside for this task. In an attempt to prevent the building from being damaged by vandals in the meantime, the building is being occupied by 'Guardians' from the company Adhoc, who pay a basic amount of money to live in basic conditions. The scheme has been running for 3 months (as of 20th November) and has thus far proved extremely successful.
The 20 acre Grange Lane school consisted of;
3 Gyms
2 Kitchens (previously 3, but reduced to two upon completion of 'Main Building')
3 Assembly Halls
5 yards (reduced to 4 when one became a car park, and 3 when the Music Building was built)
A swimming pool
11 Tennis Courts
Specialist School Statuses
In 2005 Gateacre received joint in Arts & Humanities. The Specialist schoolSpecialist school
The specialist schools programme was a UK government initiative which encouraged secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum to boost achievement. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust was responsible for the delivery of the programme...
status as an Arts College
Arts College
Arts Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the now defunct Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, the performing, visual and/or media arts...
allows the school extra funding for arts related utilities and projects . The three main areas of arts are performing, visual and media. The other specialism is Humanities College
Humanities College
Humanities Colleges were introduced in 2004 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enables secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, humanities. Schools that successfully apply to the Specialist Schools Trust and become Humanities...
the lead subjects here are English and Religious Studies.
New building
In 2011 the school relocated from Gateacre to the neighbouring area of Belle ValeBelle Vale, Liverpool
Belle Vale is a district of south-east Liverpool, Merseyside, England and a Liverpool City Council Ward that covers both Belle Vale and Netherley.-Description:...
. The new building would cost over £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
35 million and plans have been made to include high tech features such as solar panels, wind turbines and a cyber cafe. The new building can now be easily identified opposite Belle Vale Shopping Centre. The official school website has listed what the building will include:
- A 300-seater purpose-built theatreTheatreTheatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
to provide a showcase for musicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, dramaDramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, filmFilmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and dance performancesConcert danceConcert dance is dance performed for an audience. It is frequently performed in a theatre setting, though this is not a requirement, and it is usually choreographed and performed to set music.By contrast, social dance and participation dance may be performed without an audience and, typically, these...
- A musicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
recording studioRecording studioA recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
and film studio, musicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
practice rooms, composition suite and orchestral area.
- A 4-court sports hall, with lifestyle fitness suite, dance and activity studio and teaching area
- Outdoor hard-courts, sports fields, time-trial and assault courseAssault courseAn assault course is a special sort of trail that combines running and exercising. It was more popular in the 1970s than it is now. It is heavily used in military training...
.
- Complete wi-fiWi-FiWi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
coverage over the entire building for anytime, anywhere computerComputerA computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
access.
- Flexible classrooms which can be cofigured into different areas to enable individual tuition, small group-work, whole class activities and mass presentations.
- The "innovations suite" which will contain the most up to date big screen and interactive technology.
- A suite of 10 laboratories and outdoor science garden for learning in all sciences.
- Practical technology areas, graphicsGraphicsGraphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...
and electronics studios and outdoor vocational workshopWorkshopA workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...
.
- An open plan arts studio area providing accommodation for fine arts, sculptureSculptureSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, ceramics, photographyPhotographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
and textiles design.