St Gregory's RC Middle School is a Middle school

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

 in Biddenham

Biddenham

Biddenham is a large village and a civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, located to the west of Bedford near the A428 road.The village largely serves as a dormitory settlement for Bedford, and also for commuters to London, being on the same side of the town centre as Bedford railway station...

, Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

, England.

History

The school was originally opened in 1952 as a catholic Secondary Modern School

Secondary modern school

A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...

. However following the 1967 Plowden Report

Plowden Report

The Plowden Report is the unofficial name for the 1967 report of the Central Advisory Council For Education into Primary education in England. The report, entitled Children and their Primary Schools reviewed Primary education in a wholesale fashion. The collation of the report took around 3 years...

, Bedfordshire LEA

Local Education Authority

A local education authority is a local authority in England and Wales that has responsibility for education within its jurisdiction...

 decided to implement the three-tier education

Three-tier education

Three-tier education refers to those structures of schooling, which exist in some parts of England, where pupils are taught in three distinct school types. A similar experiment was also trialled in Scotland....

 system of lower, middle and upper schools in the county. By the end of the 1970's, St Gregory's was redesignated as a comprehensive middle school.

The School is named after St Gregory

Pope Gregory I

Pope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...

 or 'Gregory the Great' who was Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

 at the end of the 6th, and the beginning of the 7th centuries.

The school today

St Gregory's is a Roman Catholic school, and although it is sited on Biddenham Turn in Biddenham, it has no specific catchment area. Most of St Gregory's pupils come to the school from St John Rigby Lower School and St Joseph's Lower School in Bedford. Most of St Gregory's graduating students go on to attend St Thomas More Catholic Upper School

St Thomas More Catholic Upper School

St Thomas More Catholic Upper School is a Roman Catholic school located in Bedford, England.The school is located on Tyne Crescent in the Brickhill area of north Bedford. 'Tommy More' is the only Catholic upper school in Bedford...

.

Middle school closures

Bedford Borough Council has decided to implement a two-tier education system in the borough, meaning that all middle schools in the area will close. The changes are due to take effect from September 2014, however the current site of St Gregoy's School will be used to accommodate a new enlarged St Joseph's School.

External links

• St Gregory's Middle School