Dormston School

Dormston School is a secondary school in Sedgley, West Midlands, England. The school has specialist status as a Mathematics and Computing college.[2] As at 2020, the school has approximately 1,100 pupils aged 11 to 16 on the roll,[1] and approximately 80 members of staff (including non-teaching staff). In 2016 some pupils of The Coseley School, which had closed, transferred to Dormston School.[3]

The Dormston School
Address
Mill Bank, Sedgley

Dudley
,
DY3 1SN

England
Information
TypeSecondary school
Local authorityDudley Metropolitan Borough Council
Department for Education URN103855 Tables
OfstedReports
HeadteacherSteve Dixon[1]
GenderMixed[1]
Age range11–16[1]
Enrolment1127[1]
Capacity1120[1]
WebsiteSchool website

History

Dormston School was established in 1935. The original site consisted of a single two-storey building that contained 19 classrooms as well as a dining hall, gymnasium, assembly hall and library. This building remains in existence to this day, although substantial alterations have taken place since the mid 1990s and several completely new buildings have been added since the late 1960s. The school was built by Sedgley Urban District council, but since 1966 has existed within the Borough of Dudley[2]

In July 1996, the National Lottery granted the Dormston School £4 million to build the Arts and Sports Center, which was completed nearly four years later.[4] It includes a theatre, sports hall, art gallery and gymnasium.

In 2000, Dormston School was credited with the Charter Mark in recognition of its services to the pupils and the local community.

The school's current head teacher is Stephen Dixon, who was appointed in September 2018.

Head teachers
  • Barbara O'Connor - Head Teacher from September 1983 to December 2000.
  • Stephanie Sherwood - Head Teacher from January 2001 to July 2013.
  • Ben Stitchman - Head Teacher from September 2013 to July 2018.
  • Steve Dixon - Head Teacher since September 2018.[2]

Timeline
  • 1935 - Dormston Secondary Modern School is opened, consisting of one building containing 19 classrooms, an administration area, library, two playgrounds, a large playing field, gymnasium and dining hall. It has capacity for up to 600 pupils, with boys and girls being taught separately.
  • c. 1968 - A new Technology and Science block is completed, and boys and girls are gradually integrated together for the first time.
  • c. 1972 - A third classroom block for the teaching of Art, Science and Cookery is completed. Boys and girls are now fully integrated for lessons.
  • September 1972 - Dormston becomes a 12-16 school due to a reorganisation of schools in Dudley, Sedgley, Coseley and Brierley Hill, which is sparked by the Raising of school leaving age in England and Wales. There is no entry of pupils to the school for the academic year.
  • September 1975 - The school's status changes from secondary modern to comprehensive, as part of Dudley MBC's decision to make all of the borough's secondary schools comprehensive.
  • September 1990 - Dormston re-opens to 11-year-olds after 18 years as a 12-16 school, coinciding with the introduction of "continuous" year group numbers (years 7-11). A fourth classroom block, D Block, is completed during the 1990/91 academic year and includes a new administration area, new music studio, the school's first purpose-built drama and dance studios, as well as seven new classrooms.
  • 1991/92 - Following the completion of a fourth classroom block, further expansion takes place to the school with the construction of a further Technology workshop and two new Art classrooms. The former Art rooms are converted into Science laboratories.
  • October 1992 - Local councillor John T Wilson officially opens the extensions to Dormston School, with a commemorative plaque being placed inside the main entrance.
  • July 1996 - the National Lottery awards a £4 million grant to Dormston School, and contributes towards the cost of a £5.5 million sports/arts centre which is anticipated to be open by the end of the decade, having first been proposed in 1989 but its development has been delayed until now due to a shortage of funding.[4]
  • September 1996 - Dudley College opens a new sixth-form centre at Dormston, in a new temporary building on the school's playing fields.
  • January 1998 - Construction of the Dormston Centre begins, with a targeted completion date of September 1999.
  • March 1999 - The school excludes or removes 41 girls from lessons for wearing short skirts which were more than 2 inches (51 mm) above the knee.[4][4][5]
  • March 2000 - The Dormston Centre opens six months behind schedule. The complex includes a theatre, sports hall, art gallery, gymnasium and bar.
  • December 2000 - Mrs Barbara O'Connor retires after 17 years as head teacher.
  • January 2001 - Miss Stephanie Sherwood is appointed head teacher.
  • September 2002 - The Dormston sixth-form is expanded by Dudley College to include a site at nearby High Arcal, in a bid to gain more popularity among post-GCSE students who up till now were choosing other establishments including Halesowen College as their post-GCSE destination.
  • July 2006 - The school is awarded its specialist mathematics and computing college status.
  • September 2007 - A new blue and purple school uniform is launched, signalling the end for the red, white and black uniform which had been in place for more than 20 years.[2]
  • July 2012 - Dormston is the lowest ranking school in the borough for GCSE results, with only 40% of pupils gaining 5 or more GCSEs at grade C or above.
  • July 2013 - Following a damning OFSTED report, Dormston is placed in special measures and Stephanie Sherwood retires as head teacher, bringing forward her planned retirement a year from July 2014.
  • September 2013 - Ben Stitchman is appointed as the new head teacher of Dormston.
  • November 2014 - Ofsted remove Dormston from special measures 12 months earlier than planned, but score them a 3 (Requires Improvement). This is however, a much improved result from the last inspection in July 2013.
  • September 2016 - Around 300 extra pupils join Dormston due to the phased closure of The Coseley School.
  • November 2016 - After achieving the best results in the school's history and taking over from Ellowes Hall as the best performing of Sedgley's three secondary schools, Ofsted visit and rate the school as Good. This represents another significant improvement from June 2013 when the school was placed into Special Measures under the leadership of the previous headteacher.
  • September 2017 - New classrooms are added to the school to meet the increased demand for places following the closure of the Coseley School.
  • July 2018 - Ben Stitchman leaves the school after five years as head teacher.
  • September 2018 - Former deputy head Steve Dixon is promoted to head teacher.

School buildings

The school had originally been housed in what is now A Block. This held classrooms, offices, a library, assembly hall and gymnasium.

Art, Science (B Block) and Technology (C Block) blocks were added in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These were expanded in the early 1990s. A fourth block, housing music, drama, dance and English classrooms (D Block) was built in 1990/91, followed shortly afterwards by three Modern Languages classrooms, two mobile classrooms (removed by 2015) and two Art rooms.

These expansions took place to accommodate the extra pupils following the local authority's decision to lower the secondary school starting age from 12 to 11, as well as an increase in the school's capacity to hold more than 1,100 pupils. It had provided capacity for some 700 pupils during its days as a 12-16 school. That figure had risen to more than 900 when the age of admissions was reduced, but high demand for places saw it increased beyond 1,000 by the mid 1990s.

Two science laboratories were opened in the autumn of 2003, as was a Sixth Form Centre (owned by Dudley College) in September 1996. The sixth form block was demolished in about 2007 and transferred to the mobile classrooms which had been erected more than a decade earlier.

An additional block was completed in 2017 and originally housed 5 new Modern Foreign Languages classrooms (Block F). These have now been moved to Block A and F block houses history and Religious education classrooms.

Dormston Centre

The Dormston Centre includes a sports hall, fitness centre, art gallery, theatre and cafe.[2] It cost nearly £6 million to build, £4 million of which was provided by a grant from the National Lottery. Around a decade after it was first planned, the go-ahead for the centre was finally given in July 1996 when the Lottery grant was given, and the facilities were in use by March 2000 - six months behind schedule. The official opening took place on 1 December 2000.[4] Two years later, the Dudley News criticised the project as a "failure" as few people in the local area were making use of it.

The school has put on pupil productions of plays and musical theatre at the theatre in the Dormston Centre.

On 5 March 2009 the Dormston Centre hosted an edition of the BBC's Question Time.

Pupils suspended over short skirts

In March 1999, the school made the headlines when 41 girls were either sent home, made to put on baggy trousers or isolated from lessons for wearing excessively short skirts as part of a local crackdown on 'sexily dressed' school pupils.[4][4][5] 21 female pupils aged from 11 to 16 were suspended and the rest segregated away from the other pupils.[4][5]

Notable former pupils

References
  1. "The Dormston School". Get information about schools. Gov.UK. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 March 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) ["-05". Archived from the original on 18 March 2010./]. Retrieved on 5 March 2010.
  3. "Coseley pupils to join Dormston School in September". Dudley News. 19 July 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  4. "Pupils suspended over short skirts". BBC. 16 March 1999. Retrieved 24 July 2019..
  5. http://www.highbeam.com Archived 2002-03-31 at the Wayback Machine .Retrieved on 10 March 2010.
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