Type Academy Chaplain Fr Marco Villani Founders Salesian Brothers Founded 1971 Number of students 1,500 | Headteacher James Kibble Deputy Mr Andrew Clarke Phone +44 1932 582520 Founder Salesians of Don Bosco | |
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Established 1921 (As Salesian College) Address Guildford Rd, Chertsey KT16 9LU, UK Motto Enlightening minds, uplifting hearts Similar Jubilee High School, Fullbrook Secondary School, Heathside School, St George's College, The Matthew Arnold Sc Profiles | ||
Salesian School is a split-site Roman Catholic Comprehensive Secondary School in Chertsey, Surrey. The two sites were originally a pair of single-sex education Roman Catholic private schools maintained by the Salesian Fathers and Sisters. The Salesian College at Highfield Road, founded in 1921, was for boys and the later Guildford Road school was for girls. In 1971 they merged to form one comprehensive school but still maintained single-sex education on separate sites.
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In 1983 it became a coeducational school with pupils located on sites according to their age or subject taught. As of 2009, however, Years 7 to 11 (aged 11–16 years) began to exclusively study at the larger Guildford Road, while the Sixth Form Centre (ages 16–18) remains at Highfield Road - the students currently following a two-week timetable.
Staff
Father James Curran was Headmaster until 1963, followed by Father Vincent Ford (1964-1967), Father Edward O'Shea (1967–1977), Father John Gilheney (1977–1990), David Cleworth (1990–2005) and Eric Doherty (2005–2006). In September 2006, James Kibble took on the post of Head teacher. Currently, there are over 100 members of staff, either working as teachers, learning and teaching assistants or associate staff. One of the most famous former members of staff at Salesian School was Sean Devereux, the inspirational UNICEF worker assassinated while helping the poor of Somalia in 1993, who taught Physical Education at Salesian School from 1986-1988.
Ofsted
Following a two-day inspection in early September, on October 4, 2013 OFSTED published its most recent report on the school, declaring it to be outstanding in all four categories of inspection.
Partnerships
Salesian has a track record of supporting other schools in difficulty.
From December 2010-August 2011, head teacher James Kibble worked as Interim Executive Head for St John Bosco College, London, while overseeing the winding down of two schools: Salesian College (London) and John Paul II School in Wimbledon. In this capacity he worked with a range of stakeholders and appointed the new school's first head teacher. In March 2013, an Ofsted inspection judged the new school to be Good.
In May 2012, a neighbouring school, Jubilee High, Addlestone, was given a 'notice to improve' by OFSTED and the head teacher resigned. Salesian head teacher James Kibble, was appointed executive head of Jubilee High, until a permanent appointment could be made. He returned to the full-time headship of Salesian with the appointment of Stephen Price as head teacher of Jubilee in the spring of 2013.
In July 2013, Deputy Head teacher Ciran Stapleton, who served as Head of School during the Salesian/Jubilee partnership, was seconded to St Joseph's Catholic High School in Slough as interim head teacher. He has since been employed as the head teacher.
In September 2014, Salesian became a Teaching School, as leader of the Salesian Teaching School Alliance. In September 2015 the school started training teachers as a School Centre for Initial Teacher Training (SCITT), in partnership with St John the Baptist School, Woking, under the umbrella body Teach SouthEast. The school is also supporting the work of the Bourne Education Trust to open a new Free School in Chertsey, following approval by the Department for Education in May 2015.
Alumni
Extra-Curricular activities
The school has built up a solid reputation in the performing arts in recent years, staging successful productions of Sweet Charity, Bugsy Malone and Grease, The Wizard of Oz and Oliver!. It also produces two well-attended bi-annual community musical concerts. The school also has a positive record in national and regional contests, taking part in Young Enterprise events as well as the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.