Whitley Bay High School
Encyclopedia
Whitley Bay High School is a foundation state school in Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay is a town in North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the North Sea coast and has a fine stretch of golden sandy beach forming a bay stretching from St. Mary's Island in the north to Cullercoats in the south...

, North Tyneside
North Tyneside
The Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England and is part of the Tyneside conurbation. Its seat is Wallsend Town Hall....

, 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

It is a mixed school with around 1600 pupils, 500 of these being in the school's Sixth Form
Sixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...

. In 2006 the school was awarded Specialist College Status in Science & Humanities. The school has successful sports teams and extensive sporting facilities. They have also been successful in "Mock Trial" competitions with the sixth form team winning the national bar finals and the year nine team reaching the national finals.

It is situated next to Monkseaton Drive (A1148), towards the north of Monkseaton
Monkseaton
Monkseaton is a village near Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, in the northeast of England. It is in the north-east of the borough, less than a kilometre from the North Sea coast and around 5 km north of the River Tyne at North Shields...

. There is a subway for access under the main road. It is in the parish of St Peter, Monkseaton.

In 2010 the school was branded 'Outstanding' by Ofsted
Ofsted
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 ....

, achieving a clean sweep of 'outstanding' grades in each and every one of the assessment areas. This makes it the first secondary school in England to do so since the launch of Ofsted's new and rigorous inspection framework in 2009. According to the school website this affirms Whitley Bay High School in the 'top flight of high performing schools nationally.' http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/oxedu_reports/display/%28id%29/118668

Intake

The majority of students live in the surrounding area of Whitley Bay, Tynemouth and Monkseaton. However significant numbers of students travel via Metro
Tyne and Wear Metro
The Tyne and Wear Metro, also known as the Metro, is a light rail system in North East England, serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Sunderland. It opened in 1980 and in 2007–2008 provided 40 million public journeys on its network of nearly...

 from various other parts of Tyne and Wear. The majority of students join the school from one of four middle schools: Valley Gardens Middle School
Valley Gardens Middle School
Valley Gardens Middle School is located in Monkseaton, Whitley Bay in North Tyneside, United Kingdom. The Headteacher is Michael Homer. It is the largest middle school in Whitley Bay, with about 730 pupils on roll and SATs results are significantly above the national average...

, Wellfield Middle School Monkseaton Middle School and Marden Bridge Middle School
Marden Bridge Middle School
Marden Bridge Middle School is a middle school taking pupils from year 5 to year 8 in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear.The building originally housed Whitley Bay's grammar school. In the 1960s this moved to the current Whitley Bay High School, and in the 1970s the middle school system was introduced....

. Many students remain at the school, from year 9 to year 13, taking A levels in the sixth-form (year 12-13).

Exams

The school has consistently performed above average during exam season. The exams that Whitley Bay High School currently cover are GCSEs and A/AS levels. The school consistently secures one of the top two places in the North Tyneside school league tables; in addition it regularly features as one of the top performing state schools in the country, appearing in national newspapers: The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

 and The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

. Whitley Bay High School regularly sends significant numbers of its more academically able students to Oxbridge
Oxbridge
Oxbridge is a portmanteau of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior social status...

, Durham University
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

 and other Russell Group
Russell Group
The Russell Group is a collaboration of twenty UK universities that together receive two-thirds of research grant and contract funding in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1994 to represent their interests to the government, parliament and other similar bodies...

 universities.http://www.whitleybayhighschool.org/Prospectus/gcse_sum.htm

Grammar school

The school was originally built as a 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...

 in 1963, and was originally known as Whitley Bay and Monkseaton Grammar School. The buildings were officially opened on 7 December 1963, by Edward Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth. It was formerly housed in what is now the Marden Bridge Middle School
Marden Bridge Middle School
Marden Bridge Middle School is a middle school taking pupils from year 5 to year 8 in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear.The building originally housed Whitley Bay's grammar school. In the 1960s this moved to the current Whitley Bay High School, and in the 1970s the middle school system was introduced....

. The original buildings on site were A Block, B Block and C Block.

Comprehensive

In 1974, it became a high school. In 1995, the biology class of Elizabeth Pollack featured in the Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 programme Six of the Best, looking at how the human eye worked.

Buildings

It has four main buildings, with several other outlying blocks around them. They are:
  • A-Block: English
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

    , Modern Foreign Languages (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...

     and German
    German 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....

    ), Science
    Science
    Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

     (predominately Chemistry
    Chemistry
    Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

    ), the school gym
    Gym
    The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...

    , canteen, main hall and various offices.
  • B-Block: Mathematics
    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...

    , Geography
    Geography
    Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

    , Philosophy and Ethics
    Philosophy
    Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

    , ICT and an additional sports hall (known as B-Block Hall).
  • C-Block: Childcare
    Childcare
    Child care means caring for and supervising child/children usually from 0–13 years of age. In the United States child care is increasingly referred to as early childhood education due to the understanding of the impact of early experiences of the developing child...

    , Design and Technology, Media Studies
    Media studies
    Media studies is an academic discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history and effects of various media; in particular, the 'mass media'. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass...

    , Food Technology
    Food technology
    Food technology, is a branch of food science which deals with the actual production processes to make foods.-Early history of food technology:...

    , Healthcare, Science
    Science
    Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

     (predominately Biology
    Biology
    Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

    ) and Textiles.
  • D-Block (built 2003): Art
    Art
    Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

    , Drama
    Drama
    Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

    , Music
    Music
    Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

    , Science
    Science
    Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

     (predominately Physics
    Physics
    Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

    ), the School 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...

    , a music recording studio and a drama studio.
  • E-Block (built 2008): Art
    Art
    Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

     and Textiles.
  • H-Block: History
    History
    History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

     and a Reprographics office.
  • L-Block: Business Studies
    Business studies
    Business studies is an academic subject taught at higher level in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, as well as at university level in many countries...

     and Economics
    Economics
    Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

    .
  • P-Block: Psychology
    Psychology
    Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

    .

Renovation

As well as this there is a block which contains the Physical Education offices, changing rooms, and main sports hall - it was refurbished in 2003. In 2006, major renovation took place for the 6th form facilities. The very small common room was emptied out, and extended into a new 2-storey block in between blocks A and B. This new block provides 6th form students with a 24 unit ICT facility, predominantly for their use, as well as a new 6th form canteen. The ground floor of this block consists of specialised IT rooms built. These rooms feature computers, projectors, interactive white boards and comfortable chairs. This is referred to as the ACL Block and features classrooms "SX1" and "SX2".
Also in mid-2006 a major renovation of C-Block and the science laboratories on its first floor was completed. The new building work included two observation classrooms (one a laboratory and the other a normal classroom), with one way mirrors allowing people in a small room in between the two observation classrooms to sit and observe lessons without being seen.

The school also offers use of their facilities and are available to rent. Facilities to rent include their 3 multi-purpose outdoor courts, their school Gym, their IT rooms and general classrooms.

Student TV Station

Whitley Bay High School also offers students the opportunity to become involved in its student television station
Student television station
A student television station is a television station run by university, high or middle school students that primarily airs school/university news and in many cases, student-produced soap operas, entertainment shows, and other programming....

, Bay TV, conceived in 2006, through a student-teacher partnership. All programmes are broadcast through its own website. The mainstay of the station's broadcasts are 'Jam Today,' a popular music show, and 'It's Baytime!' a news & current affairs programme. The station recently received favorable critical appreciation from the likes of BBC News readers Huw Edwards
Huw Edwards (journalist)
Huw Edwards is a BAFTA award-winning Welsh journalist, presenter and newsreader.He is a news presenter for BBC News in the United Kingdom. Edwards presents Britain's most watched news programme, BBC News at Ten, which is also the corporation's flagship news broadcast...

 and Sophie Raworth
Sophie Raworth
Sophie Jane Raworth is an English newsreader and journalist who works for British broadcaster the BBC. She is the main presenter of the BBC News at One, presenting Tuesday to Friday, and regularly appears on the BBC News at Six and occasionally on BBC News at Ten.-Early life:Born in Surrey to a...

, and Channel 4's Alex Thomson. In addition, an article about Bay TV appeared in the north-east's Evening Chronicle
Evening Chronicle
The Evening Chronicle is a daily, evening newspaper produced in Newcastle upon Tyne, covering Tyne and Wear, southern Northumberland and northern County Durham. It was founded in 1885 by Joseph Cowen...

.

The student TV station is helping to promote special needs awareness, and will base future issues around this theme.

Uniform

  • White
    White
    White is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...

     school polo shirt
  • Navy
    Navy
    A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

     school sweatshirt and/or
  • Navy
    Navy
    A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

     school hoodie
    Hoodie
    A hoodie is a sweatshirt with a hood. The characteristic design includes large frontal pockets, a hood, and a drawstring to adjust the hood opening. They are sometimes worn with sweatpants. Some hoodies have zippers on them to allow easy removal much like a jacket...

  • Black
    Black
    Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...

     school trousers
    Trousers
    Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...

  • Black
    Black
    Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...

     trainers or shoes

Alumni

  • Greg Lake - Cast member of Geordie Shore
    Geordie Shore
    Geordie Shore is a reality television series, broadcast by MTV and available the next day via iTunes. Set in and around Newcastle upon Tyne, it is the British adaptation of American show Jersey Shore. The first episode aired on 24 May 2011. Geordie Shore is the first official adaptation from the...

  • Karl Andrew Mennear
    Karl Andrew Mennear
    Karl Andrew Mennear has been a Conservative councillor in the London Borough of Camden in the United Kingdom since 1998. He represents the Frognal and Fitzjohns ward, and during the LibDem-Conservative "temporary stewardship" of the borough, from 2006 to 2010, was executive member for schools.He...

     - Conservative candidate for Finchley at the 2005 election
    United Kingdom general election, 2005
    The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

    .
  • Peter Ramage
    Peter Ramage
    Peter Iain Ramage is an English footballer who plays for Crystal Palace on loan from Queens Park Rangers as a defender. He broke into the first team playing at centre back but is versatile enough to play at full back as well. Ramage began his career with Newcastle United as an academy player...

     - current Queens Park Rangers defender.
  • Lucy Ratcliffe
    Lucy Ratcliffe
    Lucy Ratcliffe is an English fashion model and the inaugural winner of Britain's Next Top Model.-Early life:Lucy is believed to have suffered from eczema whilst growing up in Cullercoats...

     - model and Britain's Next Top Model
    Britain's Next Top Model
    Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model is a British reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of Britain's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modelling industry...

    , Cycle 1
    Britain's Next Top Model, Cycle 1
    Britain's Next Top Model, Cycle 1 was the first series of Britain's Next Top Model and it was broadcast on LIVINGtv.The international destination of the series was Milan, Italy...

     winner.
  • Ben Smith
    Ben Smith (goalkeeper)
    Benjamin James "Ben" Smith is an English football goalkeeper, currently playing for Shrewsbury Town.-Biography:Smith is son of the renowned goalkeeper and goalkeeping coach Simon Smith...

     - current Shrewsbury Town goalkeeper.
  • Prof Arthur Darling CBE, Professor of Dental Medicine from 1959-82 at the University of Bristol
    University of Bristol
    The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

  • Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher
    Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher
    Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher was a noted Soviet intelligence officer...

    , Soviet intelligence officer
  • Prof Sir Lawrence Freedman
    Lawrence Freedman
    Sir Lawrence David Freedman, KCMG, CBE, PC, FBA, FKC is Professor of War Studies at King's College London, and was a foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair...

     CBE, Professor of War Studies since 1982 at King's College London
    King's College London
    King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...

    , and one of the inquirers of The Iraq Inquiry
  • John Thomas Young Gilroy - English artist and illustrator, best known for his advertising posters for Guinness, the Irish stout.
  • Joyce Quin
    Joyce Quin, Baroness Quin
    Joyce Gwendolen Quin, Baroness Quin, PC is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.Quin was educated at Whitley Bay Grammar School, University of Newcastle and the London School of Economics...

     - Baroness Quin of Gateshead, former MP for Gateshead East, also former prisons minister and deputy agriculture minister.
  • Maj-Gen Roy Marshal CB OBE, Colonel Commandant
    Colonel Commandant
    Colonel Commandant is a military title used in the armed forces of some English-speaking countries. The title, not a substantive rank, could denote a senior colonel with authority over fellow colonels...

     from 1972 of the Royal Artillery
    Royal Artillery
    The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...

  • John Sands, Chief Executive from 1991-2003 of Pubmaster (based in Hartlepool
    Hartlepool
    Hartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...

    )
  • Dame Ethel Wormald
    Ethel Wormald
    Dame Ethel Wormald, DBE, OBE, DL, JP, the second woman Lord Mayor of Liverpool was a British politician, educationist and social activist. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her efforts.-Biography:Born as Ethel May Robinson, she attended Leeds University on...

    , Labour councillor and Lord Mayor of Liverpool
  • Keith Yeates, urologist, President from 1980-2 of The British Association of Urological Surgeons, and Editor from 1973-8 of the British Journal of Urology
  • Alan Campbell
    Alan Campbell (politician)
    Alan Campbell is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Tynemouth since 1997. He served as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from 2008 until 2010, when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats came to power...

     - MP for Tynemouth, taught History at the school from 1980-9, and married a former pupil.
  • Steven Tupling
    Steven Tupling
    Stephen "Steve" Tupling is an English former professional footballer born in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, who played as a midfielder in the Football League.-Playing career:...

     - former Middlesbrough
    Middlesbrough F.C.
    Middlesbrough Football Club , also known as Boro, are an English football club based in Middlesbrough, who play in the Football League Championship. Formed in 1876, they have played at the Riverside Stadium since August 1995, their third ground since turning professional in 1889...

    , Hartlepool United
    Hartlepool United F.C.
    Hartlepool United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Hartlepool that currently play in League One. The team won promotion to League One in the 2006–07 season...

     and Cardiff City
    Cardiff City F.C.
    Cardiff City Football Club are a Welsh professional football club based in Cardiff, Wales. The club competes in the English football pyramid and is currently playing in the Football League Championship. Cardiff City is the best supported football club in Wales, averaging approximately 22,500 for...

     player, currently teaches PE at the school.
  • Michael Shanks
    Michael Shanks (archaeologist)
    Michael Shanks is a British archaeologist who has specialized in Classical archaeology and archaeological theory. He received his BA and PhD from Cambridge University, and was a lecturer at the University of Wales, Lampeter before moving to the United States of America in 1999 to take up a Chair...

     - British archaeologist who taught Latin, Greek and Ancient History 1983-1988.
  • Roger Uttley
    Roger Uttley
    Roger Miles Uttley OBE MA is a former English rugby union player.- Career :He played 23 games for England both in the second row and the back row, 5 times as captain, 4 tests in the Lions back row on the undefeated 1974 tour to South Africa.Roger was born in Blackpool, and played first for...

     - former English rugby union player. Taught PE in the 1970s.
  • Andrea Rea, aka Huffty - presenter of The Word (TV series)
    The Word (TV series)
    The Word was a 1990s Channel 4 television programme in the United Kingdom.-Format:Its presenters included Mancunian radio presenter Terry Christian, comedian Mark Lamarr, Dani Behr, Katie Puckrik, Jasmine Dotiwala, Alan Connor, Amanda de Cadenet and "Huffty"...

    .
  • Graham Fenton
    Graham Fenton
    Graham Anthony Fenton is an English professional footballer, currently playing for North Shields. He was also capped once by England at under-21 level.-Career:...

     - footballer who formerly played for Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City.
  • Edward Olive
    Edward Olive
    Edward Olive is a film and television actor. He was a commercial litigation solicitor in London & Paris until throwing in the towel to pursue his more artistic interests working as a professional screen actor in the UK, France and from 2002 based out of Madrid, Spain...

     - photographer & screen actor (based in Madrid
    Madrid
    Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

    ).

External links

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