The Billericay School

The Billericay School
File:Billericay logo.jpg
Location
Billericay , Essex England
Information
Type	Secondary school
Motto	'Caring about success'
Established	1938
Headmistress	Sue Hammond
Years offered	7-13
Enrolment	c.1600
Colour(s)	Black and Yellow
Website	Billericay School's website

Billericay School more formally known as The Billericay School, led by headmistress Sue Hammond[1], is a mixed intake secondary school and sixth form college for children aged between 11 and 18 (school years 7 to 13) . As of September 2004, the Student Body stood at 1673[2]. The school has recent Artsmark and Sports Mark designations and has Investors in People Status.

The school is located in the town of Billericay, Essex in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The school was opened on the 4th May 1938 by admiral Sir Vernon Haggard using a ceremonial silver key handed to him by the first head teacher Mr. P.G. White. Mr White later gained the nickname 'Tiggy White' amongst pupils. As the population of Billericay grew, Great Burstead School now known as Quilters Primary School became too small to accommodate all students. For this reason The Billericay School was built.

The school originally only had one main building that today would be recognised as 'A Block'. Over time the school has been developed and new school buildings have been raised upon existing school ground. The school was built on what was at one time a cornfield that produced poppies each summer.

List of Billericay School head teachers

1938 - P.G. White

1949 - Ronald Eden

1955 - John Goldwin

1968 - Arthur Lingard

1991 - Robert Goodier

1997 - Susan Hammond

Famous Alumni and visitors

It is famous as the secondary school, which the comedian Lee Evans attended. The sixth form was visited in May 2006 by the MP Tony Benn[3] who gave a speech on politics to sixth-form students. Other talkers who have visited school include the anti-fascist campaigner Leon Greenman who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp.

History

'B' block

The 'block' buildings currently range from A to F, although mysteriously there is no 'B block'. The reason for this was that although there was a 'B block’, which was believed to have been used for scientific studies, an unfortunate fire started within a science lab of the wooden built structure causing the fire to spread quickly. As a result, the building was damaged beyond repair and was replaced with one of the current cark parks that serve the school's staff and visitors.

'V' Block

In 2004, this trend was reversed when a 'V' block was created. It is thought that this refers to the concept of the block being a 'village' community. The V block was built partly in response to a fire that burnt down some of the buildings of 'D' block. However 2 of the 5 buildings still remain which were not touched by the fire.

List of Blocks Blocks

A Block

This block contains mostly Maths classes but some science, French , German and humanities classes also exist within the building.

C Block

The biggest block at the school. It contains mainly Science classrooms. The main wing of the block is a 3 stories high with toughly 1 and a half of these rooms as Science labs. This block aslso contains the RBLC (resource based learning centre) more commonly known as the library.

D Block

Due to a fire only four D block rooms remain.

E Block

This block contains the Art classrooms and the Food Technology and Textiles rooms.

F Block

This is where the IT and DT lessons take place.

V Block

This block contains the English classrooms.

Sixth-form

Sixth-form students (years 12 and 13) are located in an exclusive area of the school and have their own study areas and common room, although the unit does not have its own classrooms and so shares these with the rest of the school. However, many sixth form classes take place in converted rooms that are much smaller than ordinary classrooms (such as A9, A24 and C13) and therefore can be classified as 'for' the sixth form exclusively.. The sixth form elects a sixth form committee which aims to raise monety for the end of year prom held annually.

Recent History

Maths and Computing status

The School achieved Maths and Computing college status in 2003 allowing some use of selection based on aptitude in these subjects. It was thought that this status would generate an additional £1 million worth of funding, but a government policy on foundation schools had reduced this sum significantly.

Disused land sale

It is currently in the process of trying to sell the land adjacent to the school in order to raise funds for improvements throughout the site. This land was used for rural sciences when this formed part of the curriculum. There has been opposition to this as the land forms part of the green belt. A decision has yet to be reached on the issue as residents near the school fear that it may encourage further development from government officials in order to meet housing quotas in the South East.

Day structure changes

Between 2005 and 2006 the school made changes to its day structure. This involved cutting the lunchtime by 15 minutes reducing it to 45 minutes. In 2006 the school announced it was to split into houses groups. The houses were to be named after famous scientists. In addition to this the regular pattern of 'same year' registration groups were to be switched to a more influential system to stop bullying and encourage younger year groups to become more active within school life, by placing a selection of pupils from each year group into registration classes of around 30 individuals; e.g. six 'year 7' students, six 'year 8' students etc. The only exception is the Sixth form where students in year 12 and 13 are put together within an exclusive part of the school for studying.

Houses

Current Houses as of 2006

• Newton (Isaac Newton) - Mrs L Cripps [4]
• Scott (Robert Falcon Scott) - Mr J Stokes [5]
• Curie (Marie Curie) - Mr P Fifield [6]
• Keller (Helen Keller) - Ms S Cook [7]
• Edison (Thomas Edison) - Miss K Farrant [8]

Former House names (1969)

The school used a house system for a brief period in the 1960s. These house names were suggested for the new house system to be introduced in 2006 but were rejected in a school vote.

• Audley
• Fitzwalte
• de Vere
• Christopher Martin

FOBS

FOBS or Friends of Billericay School is charity which raises money for the school. Most of their income comes from various evening events, usually with singers or comedians, and the '200 Club', a monthly prize draw. The latest funding drive was used to fund the school receiving 'maths and computing college' status, and the organisation has recently raised enough funds to purchase a new school minibus.

Backchat and Student Voice

The schools council is called Backchat. Each year also have two represenatives which form a group known as Student Voice. The names of these groups were decided in a school vote.

Rivalry

There is reasonably well documented rivalry known by students of both Mayflower High School and Billericay School. Mayflower High School is located 3 miles away from its counterpart in the north of Billericay. Both schools continue to do considerably well in both academia and extra-curricular activities.

References

A book about the school has been published called Images of England: The Billericay School by Sylvia Kent, Tempus Publications ISBN 0-7524-3083-1.

External links

• Billericay School
• 2004 OFSTED report on the school (pdf)
• BBC league tables article
• The Billericay School Orchestra