Christopher Whitehead Language College is a school in Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

, Worcestershire

Worcestershire

Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, 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 a co-educational school, in which there are about 1100 students enrolled, aged between 11 and 16. The school holds Specialist Language College

Language College

Language Colleges were introduced in 1995 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enables secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, modern foreign languages...

 status.

History

The school was opened in 1983 following the merger of two schools and it draws its pupils mainly from the St John's area of Worcester and the surrounding west side of Worcester City. The school gained specialist language college status in September 2005.

Grounds and Facilities

The school occupies a large site on the west bank of the River Severn with views of the Malvern Hills and of Worcester City and its Cathedral. The school was formed in 1983 by the amalgamation of two schools, Christopher Whitehead Boys School and Christopher Whitehead Girls School. The Boys School was formerly housed in the older 1950s buildings and the Girls Schools in the newer 1960s and 1970s buildings. As such, its buildings vary in age and architecture. To add to the confusion, the 1950s School building originally housed both the Boys and Girls school, separate entrances were used. It has been substantially modernised and re-equipped since its formation.

Houses

Since September 2007, the school was divided into six houses. Each pupil wears a coloured tie of their corresponding house. Pupils now share their forms with approximately 5 pupils from each year at the school in the same house. The houses are: Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

, Pankhurst

Pankhurst

Pankhurst is a surname, and may refer to:Members of a prominent family of suffragettes:* Emmeline Pankhurst , one of the founders of the British suffragette movement...

, Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

, Curie

Marie Curie

Marie Skłodowska-Curie was a physicist and chemist famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes—in physics and chemistry...

, Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

, and Seacole

Mary Seacole

Mary Jane Seacole , sometimes known as Mother Seacole or Mary Grant, was a Jamaican nurse best known for her involvement in the Crimean War. She set up and operated boarding houses in Panama and the Crimea to assist in her desire to treat the sick...

.

External links

• School Website