Langley High School, Oldbury

Oldbury Grammar School, later known as Oldbury High School, Langley High School, Oldbury College of Sport, then Oldbury Academy, was a secondary school located in Oldbury, West Midlands, England. It served the Warley (Smethwick, Oldbury, Whiteheath) area of Sandwell (West Bromwich and Warley) and was situated in Moat Road, Langley. It was between Oldbury and Smethwick to the east of what is now the M5 motorway.

Oldbury Grammar School (later Langley High School)
Address
Moat Road

Oldbury
,
West Midlands
,
B68 8ED

England
Coordinates52.4858°N 2.0017°W / 52.4858; -2.0017
Information
TypeComprehensive community school
MottoCresco ("I Grow")
Established1926
Closed31 December 2006[1]
Local authoritySandwell (from 1974)
GenderCoeducational
Age11 to 16
Enrolment580
HousesTrinity, Kings, Queens, School

History

Oldbury Grammar School

Oldbury Grammar School originally opened as Oldbury County High School in 1926,[2] situated next to Barnford Hill Park in Langley Green after the transfer of Oldbury Secondary School, founded in 1904, from Flash Road, Oldbury. In 1944, following the new Education Act, the County High, originally co-opting its location within Worcestershire, became Oldbury Grammar School.

In 1929, local glass artists Tom Stokes and Bill Pardoe created a window for Oldbury Grammar's main school hall as a memorial to the Old Boys of the school who died in the 1914 war. It consists of eight lights with the allegorical figures of Justice, Courage and Fortitude and with extracts from the story of the Peloponnesian War, specially selected by Mr Willis Bond, that great figure in Worcestershire education of those days. Around the same time, money was raised for a multi-pipe church-style organ. "I Vow To Thee My Country" became a regular fixture of morning assembly.

The school motto was Cresco ("I Grow"). Former grammar school pupils are known as "Old Cresconians".

Serving a mainly working class area, the school acted as a bridge to University education and a career in the professions. A thriving sixth form, lost when the school changed to a comprehensive in 1974, saw many pupils attain sufficient quality A-levels (Advanced levels) to attend major British universities and gain social mobility.

A history of Oldbury Grammar School from 1904 to 1974 was written by former history teacher at the school Mr A.A.L Pearce and published in 1979.[3] "Farewell to Oldbury Grammar School", a poem written to commemorate the last grammar school intake to leave the school in the summer of 1978, appeared in The Blackcountryman, the quarterly publication of The Black Country Society.[4]

As a selective grammar with open entry dictated only by academic ability at 11+ rather than the ability to afford school fees, the school not only promoted similar levels of academic excellence to that of private schools but adopted many of their trappings including a House system, winter and summer school uniform (which included distinctive striped blazers and straw boater hats for girls) and a school song[5] which drew on the working-class roots of the area.

Comprehensive

The school became a non-selective 11–16 comprehensive school in September 1977 when many of the former Grammar School teaching staff retired or left for posts in other schools and pupils seeking A-level education left to continue education at new Sixth Form Colleges established at the premises of the former Holly Lodge Grammar School for Boys (renamed West Park College) in Smethwick and Rowley Regis Grammar School in Rowley Regis. On becoming a comprehensive, the school marked the move away from selective intakes with a name change to Oldbury High School and a smaller, more localised, catchment area. The name change coincided with the Warley (which included the school and Oldbury, Smethwick and Rowley Regis) and West Bromwich county boroughs merging to become known as Sandwell. Oldbury High School merged with comprehensive Albright High School in September 1983 to become Langley High School.[6]

Closure and merger

Plans were announced in 2006 to merge Langley High with nearby Bristnall Hall Technology College. These plans coincided with the school finishing lowest of 18 secondary schools in Sandwell, when a mere 16% of GCSE students attained five or more 'A' to 'C' grades compared to 95%+ of pupils gaining five or more 'O' Levels at grades 1–5 (A-C) when the school held Grammar status and a majority successfully passing eight 'O' Levels.[7]

However, the school later merged with nearby Warley High School (Oldbury Tech), becoming Oldbury College of Sport. it was announced that Bristnall Hall Technology College (formerly Bristnall Hall Secondary School and now Bristnall Hall Academy) was to be rebuilt on the Moat Road site, with the relocation expected to take place during the early 2010s. Oldbury College of Sport[8] was renamed Oldbury Academy in 2011, with the school moving all activity to the former Oldbury Technical School site on Pound Road and abandoning the Grammar School site in Moat Road. Sandwell Council have since issued a prospectus with a view to an educational trust reopening the former Grammar School site as a new school.[9]

The original grammar school building was destroyed in 2015, when work began on redeveloping the site.

Alumni

Oldbury Grammar School alumni
  • Allan Ahlberg (1938– ), children's book author; writer of contemporary children's classics including Each Peach, Pear, Plum, The Jolly Postman and Burglar Bill
  • Mick Aston (1946–2013), archaeologist on Time Team
  • Steve Bennett (1964– ), aka Quicko McBrain,[10] drummer with Iron Maiden tribute band Hi-on Maiden, 1994–2008 Duran Duran tribute band, Planet Duran 2017–
  • Judith Cutler (1946– ), author
  • Martin Elliott (1946–2010), photographer best known for the iconic Athena Tennis Girl poster[11]
  • Simon Fox (1949– ), drummer, Be-Bop Deluxe
  • Sir John Jennings (1937– ), CBE, Chancellor of Loughborough University since 2003; managing director of Shell, 1987–97[12]
  • Canon Ralph Stevens (1915–2006), Chaplain to the Queen[13]
  • Lewis Stevens (1936– ), MBE, Conservative MP for Nuneaton, 1983–92
  • Robin Stubbs (1941– ), Birmingham City and Torquay Utd footballer[14]
  • John Bryan Taylor (1928– ), Fondren Professor of Plasma Theory at the University of Texas at Austin, 1989–94; Chief Physicist at the Culham Laboratory, 1981–89[15]
  • Peter Withers (1946–2012), youngest Governor of Glasgow's notorious Barlinnie Jail, Europe's busiest prison; board member of the Scottish Prison Service and prison service reformer[16]
  • Squadron Leader Bruce McDonald (1930-2018), jet fighter pilot who became one of the best-known instructors at the RAF's Central Flying School. Twice awarded the Air Force Cross for acts of exemplary gallantry while flying[17]
gollark: Did you try the experimental potatOS build I suggested?
gollark: It still takes storage.
gollark: Hmm, it did not appear to work.
gollark: That might actually work.
gollark: Oh, you might want to look at the logfiles.

See also
  • Secondary schools in Sandwell

References
  1. "Oldbury College of Sport". Archived from the original on 21 April 2010. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
  2. "Gallery 3 – Oldbury County High School". The Local History Societies of Langley, Oldbury and Warley. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  3. "Bibliography of Oldbury, Langley and Warley". The Local History Societies of Langley, Oldbury and Warley. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  4. "Farewell to Oldbury Grammar School", The Blackcountryman, Vol.11, No.1, Winter 1978, p.18.
  5. Extract from Alan Arlberg's Autobiography: The Boyhood of Burglar Bill
  6. "History of Oldbury Timeline". "The Local History Societies of Langley, Oldbury and Warley". 2008. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
  7. "Records of Oldbury High School, 1930–1976". Sandwell Community History and Archives Service.
  8. http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/local/10087750.Historic_Great_War_memorials_moved_to_new_Oldbury_Academy_site/
  9. http://www.sandwell.gov.uk/news/article/2757/new_secondary_school_plan_for_oldbury
  10. Quicko McBrain
  11. "Martin Elliott: Photographer whose iconic print adorned millions of bedroom walls". The Independent. 13 April 2010. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  12. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/anniversary/pages/history-chancellors.html
  13. http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2005/6-may/gazette/canon-ralph-stevens
  14. "Oldbury Grammar School's 'brilliant season'". Black Country Bugle. 30 July 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
  15. "Oral History Transcript – Dr. J. B. Taylor". American Institute of Physics. 3 February 2007. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  16. URL: http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-peter-withers-prison-governor-1-2532385.
  17. URL:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/12/13/bruce-mcdonald-pilot-flew-combat-missions-mau-mau-uprising-later/.
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