Chantry High School and Sixth Form Centre is a 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 Chantry

Chantry, Suffolk

Chantry is a large residential area within the large town of Ipswich, in the Ipswich Borough in the English county of Suffolk.- History :Chantry estate was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the estate was named after the Chantry....

, Ipswich

Ipswich

Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, 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...

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History

In September 1962, the newly constructed comprehensive Chantry Secondary Modern opened to serve the recently established council estate of Chantry in southwest Ipswich. Originally, the school consisted of the two three-floored blocks (A to the north and G to the south), and the main Hall area, which were designed to the standard architectural appearance of many early 1960s office buildings. Following the growth of the estate, the school’s student attendance grew rapidly into the 1970s, resulting in the extension of the site to accommodate the two-floored Science Block (that was later extended), and the three single-floored Damien, Shaftsbury, and Kenny blocks.

It wasn’t until the late 1970s, following numerous educational reforms, that the ‘Secondary Modern’ was dropped in favour for Chantry High.

Although the reputation of the school was know to be the most precarious in the region, since the late 1990s this generalisation has gradually been eroded, resulting in the school’s status to be praised by Ipswich County Council and Ofsted.

Sixth Form Centre

In 1981, the quarter-of-a-million pound Sixth Form Centre and library block opened to the school’s west following the extensive amalgamation of creating further education centres to accommodate east Suffolk. Originally, the Sixth Form served Chantry, East Bergholt, Stoke, Copleston, Kesgrave, and numerous smaller schools, acting as an alternative the already established Northgate Sixth Form centre. Recently, due to the increase of Sixth Form Centres within Ipswich, Chantry became renowned for serving mainly Stoke and Chantry – resulting in the name Chantry and Stoke Sixth Form Centre.

Following the opening of Suffolk One in September 2010, the chapter finally closed on Chantry and Stoke Sixth Form Centre. Nevertheless, 34 students of Year 13 are still situated in the centre, standing as the remaining generation to use the facilities. In June 2011, the centre will close.
There people at chantry will go to Suffolk One

In the Twenty-First Century

It was expected for the school to be rebuild under the Labour Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme, however severe cuts in public expenditure by the coalition government has halted this programme, leaving the future of any reconstruction in doubt.

Recently, a major structural issue has become apparent in the school’s Science Block. Built in two halves, the first half was constructed in the 1960s on a moving foundation that responds to land shifts; meantime, the 1970s extension was built on a solid foundation on a lower level. This structural difference has resulted in the appearance of cracks in the building’s central corridor where one part of the block is moving away from the other.