The George Ward Technology College
Encyclopedia
The George Ward Technology College was a medium sized comprehensive school
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

 in Melksham
Melksham
Melksham is a medium-sized English town, lying on the River Avon. It lies in the county of Wiltshire.It is situated southeast of the city of Bath, south of Chippenham, west of Devizes and north of Warminster on the A350 national route. The 2001 UK census cited Melksham as having 20,000...

, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, with many notable alumni.

The George Ward School was maintained co-educational secondary school catering for pupils aged 11 to 18. Wiltshire County Council is the Local Authority for the school.

The school had over 1100 pupils.

The school's latest Ofsted report, publish on 12 February 2010, labelled the school as "inadequate" , "performing significantly less well than in all the circumstances it could reasonably be expected to perform." It has therefore been given a notice to improve.

The School Name

The school is named after Alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...

 George Ward, J.P.
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

. George Ward and its predecessor (Shurnhold School) was in Melksham for over 50 years. Shurnhold Secondary school opened in September 1953 with accommodation for 800 pupils. It was a secondary modern school and the name change marked a transition to being a comprehensive school.

School history

The school opened in September 1953 on a smaller site. It was the first post-war secondary school in Wiltshire. George Ward served as the first Chairman of Governors from the opening of the school until he died in February 1969.

In 2006 the George Ward School was selected for replacement by a new school under the UK government's "Building Schools for the Future" programme. The new school will be built on the Woolmore Farm site and is currently under consultation with local residents.

Consultation on the new school for Melksham is taking place and People in Melksham are being given the opportunity to comment on plans to build a replacement school in the town.

A series of three exhibitions is being held where initial plans for the new buildings will go on show to allow local people to give their views about the proposed design of the school.

The new school was due to open in September 2009.

Senior staff

Head Teacher: Mr Tudor

Deputy Head (Pastoral): Paula Smith

Deputy Head (Academic): Tim Lamb

School Mascot: The Procrastination Hat

The School and the Local Community

The school has many links to the local community. These include:

Melksham Saturday Academy

There are 8 Academies throughout the year. This was started in 2002 with a grant from the Lottery Fund
National Lottery (United Kingdom)
The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then...

. The Academy is designed to promote out of school learning in the community.

The Academy offers a variety of activities including: Spread Sheets, Databases, Web Page Design, Food Technology, Basic Skills, Mind Mapping, Study Techniques, Arts & Crafts, Radio, Music, Drama, DIY, Being a DJ, Acting, Animation, CV Writing and Sports.

Melksham Volleyball Club

The Melksham Volleyball Club has strong links to the George Ward School and has been extremely successful locally and nationally.

Community Choir

The Community Choir is made up of pupils, staff and parents from George Ward School along with members of the local community. It has sung in front of 800 people at Bath Abbey
Bath Abbey
The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Bath, commonly known as Bath Abbey, is an Anglican parish church and a former Benedictine monastery in Bath, Somerset, England...

. The Choir comprises approximately 100 individuals.

School Departments

  • Art
    Art education
    Art education is the area of learning that is based upon the visual, tangible arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practical fields such as commercial graphics and home furnishings...

  • Business Studies
    Business studies
    Business studies is an academic subject taught at higher level in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, as well as at university level in many countries...

  • Child Development
    Child development
    Child development stages describe theoretical milestones of child development. Many stage models of development have been proposed, used as working concepts and in some cases asserted as nativist theories....

  • Citizenship
    Citizenship education
    There are two very different kinds of citizenship education,The first is education intended to prepare noncitizens to become legally and socially accepted as citizens...

  • Design Technology
  • Drama
    Drama
    Drama 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...

  • English Studies
    English studies
    English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...

  • Geography
    Geography
    Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

  • History
    History
    History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

  • Information Communication Technology
    ICT (education)
    Information and communication technologies in education deal with the use of information and communication technologies within educational technology.-Purpose:...

  • Life Skills
    Life skills
    Life skills are problem solving behaviors used appropriately and responsibly in the management of personal affairs. They are a set of human skills acquired via teaching or direct experience that are used to handle problems and questions commonly encountered in daily human life...

     (ASDAN)
  • Mathematics
    Mathematics education
    In contemporary education, mathematics education is the practice of teaching and learning mathematics, along with the associated scholarly research....

  • Modern Foreign Language
    Language education
    Language education is the teaching and learning of a foreign or second language. Language education is a branch of applied linguistics.- Need for language education :...

  • Music
    Music
    Music 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...

  • Physical Education
    Physical education
    Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....

  • Psychology
    Psychology
    Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

    /Sociology
    Sociology
    Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

  • Personal, Social and Health Education
    Personal, Social and Health Education
    Personal, social, health and economic education has in various forms been part of the national curriculum for schools in England since 2000. Some aspects, but not all, have been compulsory...

  • Religious Education
  • Special Educational Needs
    Special education
    Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...

  • Science
    Science
    Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...



Work Related Learning

External links

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