Waldegrave School for Girls
Encyclopedia
Waldegrave School for Girls is a girls comprehensive
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...

 secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 Science College (ages 11 to 16) in Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...

, London, England.

Description

Waldegrave School for Girls is part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is a London borough in South West London, UK, which forms part of Outer London. It is unique because it is the only London borough situated both north and south of the River Thames.-Settlement:...

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

. It is situated between the A311 and A305 around 500 metres north of Fulwell railway station
Fulwell railway station
Fulwell railway station, on the Shepperton branch line, is at Fulwell in the Richmond on Thames. It is in Travelcard Zone 6. The station and all trains serving it are operated by South West Trains.- History :...

 and west of Strawberry Hill
Strawberry Hill, London
Strawberry Hill is an affluent area of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in Twickenham. It is a suburban development situated 10.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It consists of a number of residential roads centered around a small development of shops and serviced by Strawberry...

.

Headteacher is Mrs Philippa Nunn, the school's third head, who has held the post since 2006 when she succeeded Heather Flint.

In 2002 it had an enrolment of 1034 pupils. Waldegrave was a Beacon School from 1999 and became involved in a Leading Edge Partnership
Leading Edge Partnership
The Leading Edge Partnership programme is an educational scheme organised by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in the United Kingdom. It was introduced in 2005 as a programme for High Performing Specialist Schools, a designation launched in 2004....

 with Grey Court School
Grey Court School
Grey Court School is a maximed comprehensive in Richmond, Greater London, England. It was built in the 1950s. Its head teacher is Maggie Bailey and it is twinned with Alexander-von-Humboldt-Gymnasium in Konstanz, Southern Germany...

 in 2004. It was also awarded specialist Science College
Science College
Science Colleges were introduced in 2002 as part of the now defunct Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, science and mathematics...

 status in September 2004. It is the only state-maintained non-mixed school in the borough.

Academic performance

Due to its exam success it is a popular school, and very much over-subscribed (close to 200% over-subscribed).
The over-subscription has been reported to have included a higher proportion of bogus applications than for other secondary schools in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

The 2002 Ofsted
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....

 report noted that the school, which received pupils from more than 40 different primary schools, was heavily oversubscribed and had been for several years. Attainment on entry was well above average, and over 90% of pupils went on to further education. It described Waldegrave as "a very good school that provides a high quality education for its pupils", despite receiving below average funding for a London school.

Strengths were identified as:
  • Teaching
  • Pupils' attitudes and behaviour
  • Leadership by the headteacher
  • Monitoring and evaluation of the school's work
  • A range of provision suitable both for more able students and for those with learning needs or behavioural difficulties


The report identified no major areas of weakness, and its Ofsted Inspections came out with successful results.Many of the girls achieve well above average GCSE results, as Waldegrave climbs higher in the Top State Schools. The girls have brought together many charity events, are very successful in Sport and Physical Education and are also one of the most environmentally friendly schools in their borough.
It gets the best GCSE results in the LEA, with some of the highest results at GCSE in England. Girls schools on average perform well at A level, compared to mixed schools.

In 2010 Waldegrave was named the top state secondary school, without a sixth form, in the country, by The Times Parent Power.

History

Waldegrave School was formed in 1980 by the merger of two girls' schools − Twickenham Girls' School and Kneller Girls' School − on its present day site. Its name commemorates Frances Waldegrave
Frances Waldegrave
Frances Elizabeth Anne Waldegrave, Countess Waldegrave , was the daughter of John Braham, the singer.Frances was born in London on 4 January 1821. She married, on 25 May 1839, John James Waldegrave of Navestock, Essex, who died in the same year. She married secondly, on 28 Sept. 1840, George...

, a former local resident.

Twickenham County School for Girls

Twickenham County School for Girls opened in 1909, later known as the all-girls Twickenham County Grammar School on Clifden Road. With the end of selective
Selective school
A selective school is a school that admits students on the basis of some sort of selection criteria, usually academic. The term may have different connotations in different systems....

 grammar
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

 education in the borough in 1972, the school became a comprehensive known as Twickenham Girls' School in 1973.

Ruth Kirkley (1935 – 21 July 2009), headteacher from 1977, continued as the first headteacher of Waldegrave school until 1991.

The site of Twickenham Girls' School is now the Clifden Centre of Richmond Adult Community College
Richmond Adult Community College
Richmond Adult Community College is a further education college located in the Richmond area of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, in South London, England.-History:The college traces its roots to the nineteenth century as a Technical Institute...

.51.4475°N 0.3342°W

Kneller Girls' School

Kneller Girls' School opened in 1936 at the railway end of the Meadway site shared with the mirror building, but initially completely segregated, Kneller Boys' School. The building was augmented by huts following the raising of school leaving age to 15
Raising of school leaving age in England and Wales
The Raising of school leaving age is the name given by Government to refer to changes regarding the legal age a child is permitted to leave compulsory education, usually falling under an Education Act...

 after the Education Act 1944
Education Act 1944
The Education Act 1944 changed the education system for secondary schools in England and Wales. This Act, commonly named after the Conservative politician R.A...

.

The schools merged as Kneller Secondary Modern School before 1959 when the boys moved to what is now Twickenham Academy
Twickenham Academy
Twickenham Academy is a co-educational secondary school in Whitton, Twickenham, London, England.Twickenham Academy is a co-educational secondary school in Whitton, Twickenham, London, England....

 in Whitton
Whitton, London
Whitton is a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, situated 10.7 miles west south-west of Charing Cross in Central London...

, and the school reverted to all-girls and its original name. The girls' numbers were increased with the transfer of secondary school age girls from the Stanley Road school. In 1978 the school relocated to the site in Fifth Cross Road.
(The Fifth Cross Road site had previously been occupied since 1928 by the Thames Valley Grammar School
Thames Valley Grammar School
Thames Valley Grammar School was a co-educational grammar school in Twickenham, Middlesex, England.-History:Thames Valley Grammar School opened in 1928 under one of the youngest headmasters in the country, Mr H. W, Bligh. Initially conceived as a boys school, unusually for the time it opened, and...

 which became a Sixth Form College
Sixth form college
A sixth form college is an educational institution in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Belize, Hong Kong or Malta where students aged 16 to 18 typically study for advanced school-level qualifications, such as A-levels, or school-level qualifications such as GCSEs. In Singapore and India, this is...

 in 1973 and had closed in 1977 with the formation of Richmond upon Thames College
Richmond upon Thames College
Richmond upon Thames College is a further education college in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, which provides education primarily to 16-19 year olds...

).

The former school site in Meadway is now a residential estate. 51.4478°N 0.3516°W

Twickenham Girls' School

  • Caroline Flint
    Caroline Flint
    Caroline Louise Flint is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Don Valley since 1997. She served as the Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2008, and later as the Minister for Europe until her resignation in 2009, citing the leadership of Gordon...

    , Labour MP for Don Valley since 1997
  • Phillipa Nunn, headteacher of Waldegrave School since 2006

Twickenham County Grammar School

  • Margaret Bourne OBE, Chairman from 1992-2001 of CORDA
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    , Conservative MEP for South West England
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    South West England is a constituency of the European Parliament. For 2009 it elects 6 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation, reduced from 7 in 2004.-Boundaries:...

     since 2009
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