Lord Grey School
Encyclopedia
The Lord Grey School is a comprehensive
co-educational secondary school
in West Bletchley
, Milton Keynes
. The school is a dual specialist Language College
and Humanities College
.
inspected the school in January 2003. In their report summary, they say
, French
, Spanish
and Italian
as its core languages. Depending on what band students are in they take either one or two languages. Band A students take two lessons each of two core languages a week. Band B students have three lessons of one core language a week. The school also offers extra curricular languages: Russian
, Mandarin-Chinese, and formerly Japanese
. Japanese studies will no longer be continued in 2007 because of the departure of the Japanese specialist, Ben Gale.
Lord Grey's infrastructure has undergone a large amount of development in the period 2003 - 2006 and this has led to the creation of a Maths
block, a Language
Block (completed November 2005), a pavilion and a new library
. In the school summer holidays 2006, the large water tower in the front entrance of the school was demolished and replaced with new tarmac
. New carpets were also laid and the tower block was re-painted.
, caused much controversy for her management methods. Ms Pavlou was finally suspended in 2006 for allegedly assaulting the deputy head, Mrs Linda Lennox. Ms Pavlou was mentioned in the national press twice in 2006, once for the assault and a second time for winning a court battle with an excluded student regarding an arson attack on the school that she believed he had caused although he denied it. From February 2006, Ms Pavlou was replaced by Dr Jones, who was already part of the Lord Grey staff. She, however resigned at the end of the school year (July 2006) after being offered a job as headteacher at another school. When a new school year started Jill Coughlan was officially made the headteacher, although she left after two years. For the beginning of the new school year 2009 Dr Jones returned and is now the Headteacher.
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...
co-educational secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
in West Bletchley
West Bletchley
West Bletchley is a district and civil parish that covers the western part of Bletchley, a constituent town of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England. The parish covers that part of Bletchley that is south of Standing Way , west of the West Coast Main Line and north of Water Eaton Brook...
, Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
. The school is a dual 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...
and 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...
.
Ofsted report
OfstedOfsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....
inspected the school in January 2003. In their report summary, they say
Lord Grey is a good school. It has improved significantly through very good leadership with a strong focus on learning. Standards have risen and GCSE results are at the national average. Students achieve well from their standard of attainment on entry. Teaching is good, because many teachers are enthusiastic and give good support to individual students. However, in some lessons students need more opportunities to think for themselves. Students’ attitudes and behaviour are generally good, though a minority have attendance problems. Management is good at all levels and both teachers and support staff work well as a team in students’ interests. There is good potential for further improvement. The school gives satisfactory value for money.
Specialist curriculum
Lord Grey school teaches GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
as its core languages. Depending on what band students are in they take either one or two languages. Band A students take two lessons each of two core languages a week. Band B students have three lessons of one core language a week. The school also offers extra curricular languages: Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Mandarin-Chinese, and formerly Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
. Japanese studies will no longer be continued in 2007 because of the departure of the Japanese specialist, Ben Gale.
Banding
In order to make sure each student works up to their full potential, Lord Grey has a student banding system. In the previous system there were 3 bands (A, B and C) and six groups in each band, in September 2006, C was removed. E.G, 8a-Ge1 (the 8 representing the year group and the Ge1 representing the class the student is in).Since September 2007, this was changed to "X" and "Y" which were determined by which language they were studying (those who are learning French or Italian would be in Y and those learning Spanish or German in X), the number group would mean best and worse so X Maths 1 and Y Maths 1, for example would be of equal intelligence.General information
Lord Grey has five school houses: Lorenz, Enigma, Mercury, Ultra and Colossus, representing the code breaking machines in Bletchley Park . Throughout the year, there are a number of events that give 'house points' as prizes.Lord Grey's infrastructure has undergone a large amount of development in the period 2003 - 2006 and this has led to the creation of a Maths
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
block, a Language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
Block (completed November 2005), a pavilion and a new library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
. In the school summer holidays 2006, the large water tower in the front entrance of the school was demolished and replaced with new tarmac
Tarmac
Tarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...
. New carpets were also laid and the tower block was re-painted.
Former head-teacher controversy
The previous head teacher of Lord Grey, Despina PavlouDespina Pavlou
Despina Pavlou was the head teacher of the Lord Grey School in Bletchley, Milton Keynes from September 2002 to November 2006. Ms Pavlou was suspended for allegedly assaulting her Deputy Head. She was officially dismissed in November 2006...
, caused much controversy for her management methods. Ms Pavlou was finally suspended in 2006 for allegedly assaulting the deputy head, Mrs Linda Lennox. Ms Pavlou was mentioned in the national press twice in 2006, once for the assault and a second time for winning a court battle with an excluded student regarding an arson attack on the school that she believed he had caused although he denied it. From February 2006, Ms Pavlou was replaced by Dr Jones, who was already part of the Lord Grey staff. She, however resigned at the end of the school year (July 2006) after being offered a job as headteacher at another school. When a new school year started Jill Coughlan was officially made the headteacher, although she left after two years. For the beginning of the new school year 2009 Dr Jones returned and is now the Headteacher.