Type Community school Deputy Head Andy Hawkins Local authority | Headteacher Joy Mitchell Chair of Governors Councillor Sarah Boad Phone +44 1926 338711 Number of students 1,350 | |
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Location Sandy LaneBlackdownLeamington SpaWarwickshireCV32 6RDEngland Motto Believe and you will achieve Similar Myton School, Kenilworth School, Aylesford School, Southam College, Warwick School | ||
North Leamington School (NLS) is a mixed comprehensive school for pupils aged 11 to 18 located in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. It now operates on one main site, whereas prior to September 2009 it operated from two sites in Leamington Spa. The new school is no longer in Leamington, but the parish of Blackdown just off the B4113 road on Sandy Lane.
Contents
Admissions
North Leamington is a mixed 11 to 18 comprehensive school maintained by Warwickshire County Council. The school mainly serves North Leamington. It has approximately 1350 students on roll, including 200 in the Sixth Form. Joy Mitchell is currently headteacher.
History
The school was formed in 1977 from the merging of three schools: Blackdown High School (Park Road site), Leamington College for Girls, a girls grammar school (Cloister Way site) and Leamington College for Boys (Binswood Hall site) on Binswood Avenue. The sixth form centre at Binswood Hall was separate to the school until 1994, when the teaching staff was merged with the 11-16 school. This was not a simple operation, with the disparate nature of the sites.
Current site
In September 2009, a completely new school was opened, built where the existing Manor Hall building was located. This new complex merged both the main school and the Sixth Form. The old site of the school has been demolished and the land sold to developers. The new site was designed by Robothams Architecture, an architectural firm based in Warwick.
Sports Memorabilia
Inside the school's sports hall are various sports tops from notable pupils such as former England and Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster. There is also a signed Celtic F.C. Shirt from 2007 and a Ronaldinho signed match jersey from the same year.
Former sites
Prior to September 2009, the main site, located at the north of the town between the A452 and A445. This site consisted of the Lower School (Years 7, 8 & 9, approached from Cloister Way, previously called Croft Hall) and the Upper School (Years 10 & 11, approached from Park Road, previously called Park Hall). The Sixth Form Centre (Years 12 & 13) was situated in the centre of Leamington at Binswood Hall, Binswood Avenue. This was the former Leamington College for Boys, a Boys Grammar School, which opened in 1848. When it ceased being used as a school, it was empty for several years and is now a luxury retirement village (owned by Audley Retirement) with a health club and Whittles Restaurant.
Sixth Form
Binswood Hall is a listed building with previous incarnations as a Girls' Convent School and as a College for Boys. It offered 36 AS Level courses, leading onto A2 courses in Year 13. It had an overall pass rate of 97% with 40% of 435 individual exam entries attaining Grades A or B in 2004. The head of the Sixth Form was Robert Lowries, who was also Deputy Head of NLS as a whole. The Sixth Form gets good A level results, better than two Warwickshire Grammar Schools.
Arts College
NLS was granted school for specials as a Performing Arts College in 1999 thanks to sponsorship by EMI Music Sound Foundation, and, as a result of success in this role, the DfES confirmed the status for a further five years, 2003 to 2008. It was the first Arts College school in Warwickshire.
Artsmark
In 2002 the school also won the Arts Council's 'Artsmark Gold' Award and also gained 'Sportsmark' status from Sport England in 2004. Due to vast improvement in exam results between 2000 and 2003, NLS received a "School Achievement Award" from the Government and in addition, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Council has recently elected NLS to its 'Most Improved Schools Club'. It gets GCSEs just under the England average.