Haydon School

History

The school was formed in September 1977 from the union of St Nicholas Grammar School For Boys and St Mary's Grammar School For Girls.

It was named after the local family, of which Haydon Hall was also named after. It was Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby, who had the hall built in 1630. Lady Spencer was a patroness and dedicatee of many Tudor and Stuart poets and playwrights, including Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne and Milton, and whose father Sir John Spencer was a direct ancestor of Lady Diana Spencer.

Languages

It is a designated language college teaching students and the local community a range of modern foreign languages. Students entering the school in year seven select two languages, either French and Italian, Spanish and German or Mandarin. The school offered Japanese classes to students until July 2016 when they were unable to continue teaching the language due to lack of teachers able to teach the subject. Students learning Japanese were then instead taught Spanish and French. Students can attend Russian, Arabic, Portuguese, Punjabi and Greek classes after school or at lunchtime.

Sixth form

Haydon School has over 500 students in its sixth form, one of the largest sixth forms in the country. It offers over 40 advanced level courses all on one site. According to Ofsted, Haydon is one of the country's best sixth forms, with successful Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, LSE and Warwick applicants.

Former houses

Haydon used to have five houses; Discovery, Challenger, Voyager, Endeavour and Pioneer.

Each house was named after space craft, including three space shuttles. Following the Challenger disaster. it was decided to keep the name.

The houses had different colours. Challenger was red, Discovery was yellow, Pioneer was purple, Voyager was green and Endeavour was blue.

In September 2012, the house system was scrapped, being replaced with a year system.

Academy status

On 10 February 2011, the Governors of Haydon School voted unanimously to change the school's status from Foundation to Academy, to give the school increased freedom.

The Peter Woods Building

The Peter Woods building was officially opened on Thursday 9 July 2009 by a former headmaster, and namesake, Peter Woods, and his two children. Many former staff attended, along with those who worked on the project.

ID badges

ID badges are given to all students. The card has a picture of the student and has their name on it. It can also be used to take books out of the library. The string is the colour of their year.

Rewards

The school offers many rewards for students who consistently achieve. Students from all years receive good news notes, square coloured pieces of paper which a teacher signs and can write comments on, such as "excellent uniform" or "worked hard". The school also offers Headteacher's Commendations, which are a certificate printed and signed by the headteacher; they also include a reason for the award. Other rewards are given out at every end of term assembly, such as to the student of the term for each form and for 100% attendance.

Show My Homework

In July 2016, Haydon School introduced the Show My Homework app to the students. This lead to the discontinuation of the homework diaries previously used. The Show My Homework app has also lead to the disuse of Fronter and MyMaths.

St. Nicholas Grammar

Haydon School