Valley Gardens Middle School
Encyclopedia
Valley Gardens Middle School is located in Monkseaton
, Whitley Bay
in North Tyneside
, United Kingdom
. The Headteacher is Michael Homer. It is the largest middle school in Whitley Bay
, with about 730
pupils on roll and SATs
results are significantly above the nation
al average. It serves a mainly suburban catchment.
Its motto is 'What do you want to achieve?'
Most students transfer to Whitley Bay High School
at the end of Year 8 due to its close proximity.
Prior to school
reorganisation in the 1970s the building
was a secondary modern; hence it has always had relatively good technology
facilities for a middle school
.
was built in 1957. It closed through the summer
of 1967 and turned from Whitley Bay
County Secondary School into Valley Gardens Middle School . In 2000 the school was threatened with closure after North Tyneside council wanted to turn to a two-tier system instead of the three-tier system that was then used, this did not happen. In 2002 an extra year five class was added to take the numbers from 5 classes to 6, at that time every other year had six classes already. This move was taken to increase capacity and increase chances of getting into sixth form
in later life. Also in 2002 the school governors encouraged the local education authority to provide more classrooms and modernise the buildings.
The Valley Gardens Gazette, which is a newspaper
containing events in school written by pupils. The Valley Gardens Gazette is published once a term and is sold by the reporters at a break and lunch time.
The other is a formal publication called the VG Magazine, this features literacy work by pupils and is sold in school and at local bookshop Paper Treasures priced at £1.
. These boards
have now been fitted into nearly every classroom in the school. The front of the school has been rebuilt with a new main office, a head teacher's room and a meeting room. Two special needs rooms have been also built to help with the number of pupils on the special needs register. This is all to bring the school from its 70's style into the 21st Century.
The next stage is to demolish two out of date mobiles containing 3 class rooms at the rear of the school and replace this with a large block containing: 2 MFL classrooms, a general classroom, Art room, Office and toilets.
It also takes pupils on trips in the UK such as High Borrans.
Also, pupils are chosen to go countries including Cyprus
and Hungary
as part of the Comenius Partner Schools project, with which the school partakes in.
reader Anna Ford
in 2006.
results above the national average.
The SATs results for 2006 are listed in the table and graph below.
]
Monkseaton
Monkseaton is a village near Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, in the northeast of England. It is in the north-east of the borough, less than a kilometre from the North Sea coast and around 5 km north of the River Tyne at North Shields...
, Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay is a town in North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the North Sea coast and has a fine stretch of golden sandy beach forming a bay stretching from St. Mary's Island in the north to Cullercoats in the south...
in North Tyneside
North Tyneside
The Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England and is part of the Tyneside conurbation. Its seat is Wallsend Town Hall....
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The Headteacher is Michael Homer. It is the largest middle school in Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay is a town in North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the North Sea coast and has a fine stretch of golden sandy beach forming a bay stretching from St. Mary's Island in the north to Cullercoats in the south...
, with about 730
730
Year 730 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 730 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Europe :* Charles Martel defeats the last independent...
pupils on roll and SATs
National Curriculum assessment
National Curriculum assessments are a series of educational assessments, colloquially known as Sats or SATs, used to assess the attainment of children attending maintained schools in England...
results are significantly above the nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
al average. It serves a mainly suburban catchment.
Its motto is 'What do you want to achieve?'
Most students transfer to Whitley Bay High School
Whitley Bay High School
Whitley Bay High School is a foundation state school in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, England.-Admissions:It is a mixed school with around 1600 pupils, 500 of these being in the school's Sixth Form. In 2006 the school was awarded Specialist College Status in Science & Humanities. The school has...
at the end of Year 8 due to its close proximity.
Prior to school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
reorganisation in the 1970s the building
Building
In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...
was a secondary modern; hence it has always had relatively good technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
facilities for 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...
.
History
The school has had a varied history. The schoolSchool
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
was built in 1957. It closed through the summer
Summer
Summer is the warmest of the four temperate seasons, between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, with day-length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice...
of 1967 and turned from Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay
Whitley Bay is a town in North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the North Sea coast and has a fine stretch of golden sandy beach forming a bay stretching from St. Mary's Island in the north to Cullercoats in the south...
County Secondary School into Valley Gardens Middle School . In 2000 the school was threatened with closure after North Tyneside council wanted to turn to a two-tier system instead of the three-tier system that was then used, this did not happen. In 2002 an extra year five class was added to take the numbers from 5 classes to 6, at that time every other year had six classes already. This move was taken to increase capacity and increase chances of getting into sixth form
Sixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
in later life. Also in 2002 the school governors encouraged the local education authority to provide more classrooms and modernise the buildings.
Publications
The school has two main publications:The Valley Gardens Gazette, which is a newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
containing events in school written by pupils. The Valley Gardens Gazette is published once a term and is sold by the reporters at a break and lunch time.
The other is a formal publication called the VG Magazine, this features literacy work by pupils and is sold in school and at local bookshop Paper Treasures priced at £1.
Size
The school is a medium size with:- 5 Mobile classrooms,
- 2 ICT rooms,
- 1 LRC(Library),
- 1 Music room,
- 1 Design room,
- 2 Design technology rooms,
- 1 Art room,
- 1 Gym,
- 1 Dining/ Assembly Hall,
- 19 Main school classrooms and
- 6 Year 5 classrooms
Renovation
Recently, the school has been renovated to fit the large number of pupils in the school. A new year five block with state-of-the-art interactive whiteboards in each classroom has been built and was opened by the former Foreign Secretary, David MilibandDavid Miliband
David Wright Miliband is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband...
. These boards
Interactive whiteboard
An interactive whiteboard , is a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface where users control the computer using a pen, finger, stylus, or other device...
have now been fitted into nearly every classroom in the school. The front of the school has been rebuilt with a new main office, a head teacher's room and a meeting room. Two special needs rooms have been also built to help with the number of pupils on the special needs register. This is all to bring the school from its 70's style into the 21st Century.
The next stage is to demolish two out of date mobiles containing 3 class rooms at the rear of the school and replace this with a large block containing: 2 MFL classrooms, a general classroom, Art room, Office and toilets.
Residential Trips
The school takes pupils on many trips abroad including;- GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(Christmas Market) - FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(French Trip and Skiing) - CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
(Skiing) - AmsterdamAmsterdamAmsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
It also takes pupils on trips in the UK such as High Borrans.
Also, pupils are chosen to go countries including Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
as part of the Comenius Partner Schools project, with which the school partakes in.
Productions
Nearly every year the school puts on a school production featuring around 60 pupils.- 2003: Oliver!Oliver!Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
- 2004: Bugsy MaloneBugsy MaloneBugsy Malone is a 1976 musical film, very loosely based on events in New York City in the Prohibition era, specifically the exploits of gangsters like Al Capone and Bugs Moran, as dramatized in cinema...
- 2005: Return to the Forbidden PlanetReturn to the Forbidden PlanetReturn to the Forbidden Planet is a Jukebox musical by playwright Bob Carlton based on Shakespeare's The Tempest and the 1950s science fiction film Forbidden Planet ....
- 2006: No Production
- 2007: Tin Pan Ali
- 2008: The Wizard of OZThe Wonderful Wizard of OzThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
- 2009: Stereotypes and Prejudice
Awards
The school has been awarded numerous awards and trophies. One of them is the International School Award, which celebrates the school success in doing international activities such as an International Day in 2005, plus the schools high success in languages. It was presented by BBC NewsBBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
reader Anna Ford
Anna Ford
Anna Ford is a retired English journalist and television presenter, best known as a newsreader....
in 2006.
SATs
Valley Gardens normally have SATsNational Curriculum assessment
National Curriculum assessments are a series of educational assessments, colloquially known as Sats or SATs, used to assess the attainment of children attending maintained schools in England...
results above the national average.
The SATs results for 2006 are listed in the table and graph below.
| Level | English | Maths | Science |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 4 or Above | 88% | 79% | 95% |
| Level 5 | 53% | 36% | 56% |
| Pupils Absent or Not Able to Access Test | 1% | 1% | 1% |
Boys
- School tieNecktieA necktie is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck...
- Grey school trousersTrousersTrousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...
- White shirtShirtA shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body. Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for almost any garment other than outerwear such as sweaters, coats, jackets, or undergarments such as bras, vests or base layers...
- Navy pullover with school badge
- Grey or black sockSockA sock is an item of clothing worn on the feet. The foot is among the heaviest producers of sweat in the body, as it is able to produce over of perspiration per day. Socks help to absorb this sweat and draw it to areas where air can evaporate the perspiration. In cold environments, socks decrease...
s, black shoes
Boys PE Kit
- Royal blue shortsShortsShorts are a bifurcated garment worn by both men and women over their pelvic area, circling the waist, and covering the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to or even below the knee, but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they are a shortened...
- Royal blue and white hooped rugby shirtRugby shirtA rugby shirt, often referred to as a rugby jersey, is a shirt worn by players of rugby union or rugby league. It usually has short sleeves, though long sleeves are common as well....
- Royal blue knee length sockSockA sock is an item of clothing worn on the feet. The foot is among the heaviest producers of sweat in the body, as it is able to produce over of perspiration per day. Socks help to absorb this sweat and draw it to areas where air can evaporate the perspiration. In cold environments, socks decrease...
s - Football boots With aluminium studs for rugby
- Shin pads
- Mouth guard
- Plain white polo shirt
- White ankle sockSockA sock is an item of clothing worn on the feet. The foot is among the heaviest producers of sweat in the body, as it is able to produce over of perspiration per day. Socks help to absorb this sweat and draw it to areas where air can evaporate the perspiration. In cold environments, socks decrease...
s - Trainers
Girls
- School tieNecktieA necktie is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck...
- Navy or black school skirtSkirtA skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...
or trousersTrousersTrousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately... - White BlouseBlouseA blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that was formerly worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women and children. It is typically gathered at the waist so that it hangs loosely over the wearer's body. Today, the word most commonly refers to a woman's shirt but can also refer to a man's shirt if...
- Navy pullover with school badge
- White or grey sockSockA sock is an item of clothing worn on the feet. The foot is among the heaviest producers of sweat in the body, as it is able to produce over of perspiration per day. Socks help to absorb this sweat and draw it to areas where air can evaporate the perspiration. In cold environments, socks decrease...
s, black shoes
Girls PE Kit
- Royal blue and white hooped rugby shirt
- Royal blue knee length sockSockA sock is an item of clothing worn on the feet. The foot is among the heaviest producers of sweat in the body, as it is able to produce over of perspiration per day. Socks help to absorb this sweat and draw it to areas where air can evaporate the perspiration. In cold environments, socks decrease...
s - Football boots (optional)
- Shin pads
- Mouth guard
- Plain white polo shirt
- Royal blue shortsShortsShorts are a bifurcated garment worn by both men and women over their pelvic area, circling the waist, and covering the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to or even below the knee, but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they are a shortened...
- White ankle sockSockA sock is an item of clothing worn on the feet. The foot is among the heaviest producers of sweat in the body, as it is able to produce over of perspiration per day. Socks help to absorb this sweat and draw it to areas where air can evaporate the perspiration. In cold environments, socks decrease...
s - Trainers
Famous pupils and teachers, past and present
- Peter RamagePeter RamagePeter Iain Ramage is an English footballer who plays for Crystal Palace on loan from Queens Park Rangers as a defender. He broke into the first team playing at centre back but is versatile enough to play at full back as well. Ramage began his career with Newcastle United as an academy player...
, current Queens Park Rangers and former Newcastle United footballer. - Steven TaylorSteven Taylor (footballer)Steven Vincent Taylor is an English footballer, currently playing for Premier League club Newcastle United. He is a versatile central defender who can play at right back or, on rare occasions, at left back...
, Newcastle United footballer. - Andrew LawrenceAndrew LawrenceAndrew Lawrence may refer to:* Andrew Lawrence , American actor* Andrew Lawrence , British comedian* Andrew Lawrence , British basketball player...
Took part in the Motors TV UK karting challenge Motors tvMotors TVMotors TV is a television channel dedicated to news, documentaries and coverage of motorsport and automobiles, and to a lesser extent motorbikes, boats, aircraft and models. It is available in many countries via satellite and cable, with audio in English, French, German and Serbian...
Media
The school has appeared in the local media many times for various events including:- The opening of a new Year 5 block.
- A spate of thefts from the school, including a projectorImage projectorAn image projector is an optical device that projects an image onto a surface, commonly a projection screen.Most projectors creates an image by shining a light through a small transparent image, but some newer types of projectors can project the image directly, by using lasers...
and the attempted theft of an interactive whiteboardInteractive whiteboardAn interactive whiteboard , is a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface where users control the computer using a pen, finger, stylus, or other device...
. - Winning various awards, including the International Schools Award
- The schools fundraising efforts, including major charitable donations and fundraising events.
- Sporting events
- Concerns over a new fence
- Creative Writing
- Trips in other countries
- Mock Trials
- Vandalism to the school building and surroundings.
- In school achievements.
- Competitions.
- Major occurrences in school.
- The sudden illness of twenty pupils in a science lesson.