Whickham School and Sports College is a school in the north-east of England, near the city of Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

. It holds around 1700 pupils between the ages of 11-19 and has 300 members of staff. It offers a range of vocational and traditional qualifications at Key Stage 4 and 5, including GCSE, BTEC and A-Level. It also has the largest Sixth Form in Gateshead.

Within the Community

It is a well established and well known school within the community which holds frequent events for the local community. Most notably the annual Community Carol Service. The local supermarket (a branch of the Co-op on Oakfield Road) often receives many customers at lunch time from the Year 11 and Sixth form students.

Drama at Whickham School

The local community greatly benefits from the effort and talent of the Whickham School pupils . A minimum of two productions are staged every year (a spring play and an autumn musical).
Recent Whickham School productions include the hit musicals, Les Miserables, West Side Story, We Will Rock You

We Will Rock You

"We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded and performed by Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. Rolling Stone ranked it #330 of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and the RIAA placed it at #146 on its list of Songs of the Century...

 and the classic Sweet Charity

Sweet Charity

Sweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria...

.

Fire

On 21 March 2008 (Good Friday), there was a fire which destroyed the staff room, library, two music rooms, sixth form common room and study area. New and improved Sixth Form facilities opened ready for the academic year beginning in September 2009. Until the re-build of the entire school site expected to begin in 2015, the new school build has been halted by the new government.Portakabin classrooms were installed on the main school yard in late 2008.

Legal challenge to school uniform

In June 1999, University Professor Claire Hale took legal action against the School when they refused permission to allow her daughter, Jo Hale, to wear trousers. Amongst others, the Equal Opportunities Commission decided to back pupil Jo Hale's case. On February 24, 2000, the school was forced to avoid a costly legal battle and resolved the dispute by announcing that, in future, girls would be able to wear trousers.