Fulford School

History

Fulford School was founded in 1963 and has been a comprehensive school since 1970. The site is close to the former Fulfordgate football ground, demolished in 1932. It is also adjacent to the Germany Beck site, where The Battle of Fulford happened. Its original motto was 'Ad posse ad esse' which translates to "from possibility to realisation". This can still be seen in the Archimedes block where there is a logo print on the floor.

Key information

The school is situated in Fulford on the southern edge of the city of York, about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) from the University of York. It is heavily subscribed and has a large catchment area. It currently takes in pupils from York including Hungate, Fulford and Fishergate as well as from the nearby villages of Dunnington, Elvington, Wheldrake, Thorganby, Escrick, Naburn and Bishopthorpe. The current headteacher is Mrs Lorna Savage, who was appointed in 2013. Notable ex-pupils of the school include Mark Hearld, a local artist.

Performance

Fulford School was highlighted by The Independent as having the third best sixth form of all Comprehensive Schools in England. It has been suggested that this may be the reason why many pupils from fee-paying Independent Schools have been leaving the private sector and electing to continue their studies at Fulford School. In 2007 it received the best A level results in York LEA area, and the third best in the Yorkshire and the Humber region, higher than four grammar schools. At GCSE it does well for a comprehensive. In 2013, 80% of all pupils attained five GCSEs grade A* to C including English and Mathematics. This is an increase of four percentage points since 2012. In the 2012 government Top 10 list of 'Highest proportion of pupils going to Oxbridge Universities' (non-selective schools/colleges), Fulford School was listed joint second, with 6%.

Achievements

A group of students from the school, working with students from University of York, won the Regional Millennium Volunteer of the Year Team Award in 2007 for their work in renovating a youth room for young people.

The opening of the Fulford sports hall marked the end of a long 20-year campaign to get a sports hall for Fulford school. This would not have been possible without the support of students, staff, parents, governors and councillors as the facility cost around £3 million.

Headteachers

Expansion

An increase in the number of pupils on roll led to a £3.5 million building programme in 2003, which included the 'Archimedes Block' or 'A block'. This has added several new specialist classrooms: 4 rooms for geography, 8 for mathematics, and 2 for ICT. The addition of specialist status in Mathematics and Computing has also facilitated the upgrade of ICT facilities in the school, with a new centre added in 2006 to allow the school to offer 10 places to students with Autism and Asperger syndrome.

In 2015, new houses were built in Hungate which led to another expansion costing £7 million. This included the 'Newton block' or 'N block'. This has added several brand new modern classrooms: 5 rooms for geography, 1 for history, and a new sixth form resource area. In addition, the old sixth form area was converted into 2 new art rooms. These facilities opened on 8 September 2015.

In January 2016, the new sports hall opened to the school and community to use in or out of school. The completion of the project allows the school to offer more space to play sports, improves the range of sports in lessons, and to end the trip to and from the University's York Sport Centre.

In order to cater for the extra students, the school canteen was refurbished and redesigned, which was completed in October 2016. It offers more seating capacity and significantly reduce queueing times. A much larger food technology room, a new photography studio, a drama studio and a classroom have also been created in the Hawking block.

Key learning attributes and values

In 2014, Fulford School introduced Key Learning Attributes and values for the school to work on. These are taught in school so that everyone fulfills positive outcomes. They are on big boards placed throughout the school corridors so that students can regularly be reminded of them. The values are placed down in an acrostic fashion to spell out HEART.