Whitgift School, Grimsby
Encyclopedia
Whitgift School is a comprehensive co-educational secondary school on Crosland Road in Grimsby
Grimsby
Grimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...

, North East Lincolnshire
North East Lincolnshire
North East Lincolnshire is a unitary authority in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, bordering the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire and the administrative county of Lincolnshire...

, 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...

.

Admissions

The school became the John Whitgift Academy in September 2011. The Principal is Mr Mark Rushby. There are around 800 pupils. It serves the areas of Great Coates, The Willows and Wybers Wood. It is situated in the Great Coates
Great Coates
Great Coates is a village and civil parish in North East Lincolnshire, England. It is to the north-west of the Grimsby urban area, and is served by Great Coates railway station...

 district on the western outskirts of Grimsby near the A1136 and around 500m from a railway station
Great Coates railway station
Great Coates railway station serves the village of Great Coates in North East Lincolnshire, England. It was built by the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway in 1848...

, easily accessed via the A1136 Europarc interchange of the A180. It is an undersubscribed school. It is in the parish of St Nicholas, Great Coates.

History

It is named after John Whitgift
John Whitgift
John Whitgift was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horsemen...

, a native of Grimsby and Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...

 from 1583 to 1604. It opened in September 1971. Crosland
Anthony Crosland
Charles Anthony Raven Crosland , otherwise Tony Crosland or C.A.R. Crosland, was a British Labour Party politician and author. He served as Member of Parliament for South Gloucestershire and later for Great Grimsby...

 Road
where the school was built, was named after the former (pre-1977) MP for Great Grimsby
Great Grimsby (UK Parliament constituency)
Great Grimsby is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, consisting of the town of Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...

, who implemented Comprehensive Education
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...

 across the UK, specifically removing most grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

s. Until April 1974 it was administered by the County Borough of Grimsby Education Committee, then Humberside Education Committee in Beverley
Beverley
Beverley is a market town, civil parish and the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, located between the River Hull and the Westwood. The town is noted for Beverley Minster and architecturally-significant religious buildings along New Walk and other areas, as well as the Beverley...

. The school became known as Whitgift Community School.

In August 1996, teacher Barry Copestake was almost killed, with his wife, when staying at the Virgen de Las Nieves campsite near Biescas
Biescas
Biescas is a town in Aragon, Spain. It is located in the Tena Valley, in the Aragonese Pyrenees. It has a long history and one of its oldest houses is called Casa Josito: this house was built in 1789, the same year as the French Revolution....

 in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

.

Arson Attack

The East block of the school was burnt down between 1997 and 1998 in a fire allegedly started by two year 9 students. They broke into the school in by breaking a window in the North block, where the science labs are located. After breaking into the science labs, they turned the gas taps on and started the fire in the East block, in a bid to blow the school up. However, they did not turn the main gas valve on and that part of their plan failed.

The fire that was started in the East block completely gutted that part of the building. Mrs. Ireland, the headteacher at the time, told students that she could see the flames from the Humber Bridge when she was driving to Grimsby to survey the damage.

The school was closed to all students for approximately 1 month before they were eventually given work to do from home. Agreements were reached with neighbouring schools for students to travel to them to attend practical classes such as science and technology.

Whitgift Film Theatre

The school has the 203-seat Whitgift Film Theatre. This is the only school in the UK with such a building, and was built as part of the school when the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...

 wanted a network of regional film theatre
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

s. It opened on 28 September 1972, showing Gumshoe
Gumshoe (film)
Gumshoe is a 1971 film, and was the directorial debut of British director Stephen Frears.Written by local author Neville Smith, the film is set in Liverpool with Albert Finney playing the role of Eddie Ginley. Ginley is a bingo-caller and occasional club comedian who dreams of being a private eye...

, around the same time that Doncaster Film Theatre opened. There were 45 BFI-funded regional film theatres in the UK at that point. It became known as Grimsby Film Theatre.

From 1992 to 2000, it was known as Grimsby Screen. The cinema was bought from (former) Grimsby council when it was going to be closed by a group of amateurs who also had in their possession a large film library. The commercial operation briefly closed in April 2005 due to competition from the nine-screen Parkway Cinema in Cleethorpes
Cleethorpes
Cleethorpes is a town and unparished area in North East Lincolnshire, England, situated on the estuary of the Humber. It has a population of 31,853 and is a seaside resort.- History :...

 which opened in November 2004 but the group of amateurs stepped in two weeks later. It used to be Grimsby's only cinema, until the Odeon was re-opened as The Regal on Freeman Street. It is now equipped with DTS digital sound.

Vertical Learning

Whitgift's learning system was changed in 2006, when the tutor forms became "vertical", meaning that Year 7, Year 8, Year 9, Year 10 and Year 11 students are in tutor forms together, rather than "horizontal" tutor forms, whereby there is only one year group in each form. The system was then changed again in June 2008, to include GCSE classes consisting of Year 9 and Year 10 students in one class. The GCSE courses were also condensed from two-year courses to one-year courses. This meant that instead of choosing only two options at GCSE to study over two years, students could choose two options per year for three years, so students have the chance to study 4 more GCSEs than usual. The system was changed again in June 2009, so Year 9, Year 10, and Year 11 students were in the same GCSE classes. The year before, Year 11 students carried on with the old curriculum, so could not participate in the vertical system.

Academic performance

Whitgift School's 2008 results were its best ever, achieving 37% 5A*-Cs including English & Maths. It is the fourth best performing secondary school in the LEA (out of the twelve).

See also

  • Healing School
    Healing School
    Healing School A Science Academy is a co-educational, specialist academy school located on Low Road in the village of Healing, North East Lincolnshire, England.-Admissions:...

    , nearby school to the west
  • List of schools in Yorkshire and the Humber

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