Wootton Bassett School
Encyclopedia
Wootton Bassett School is a co-educational, comprehensive
secondary school
in the Wiltshire
town of Wootton Bassett
.
The school has technology college
status, and operates an on-site Sixth Form
department. These facilities have recently been developed, along with increased capacity parking and a larger on-site restaurant.
sports pitch and numerous sports facilities with catering for tennis
, cricket
, football, rugby
and hockey
.
The new Sixth Form centre includes many new classroom
s, a reception desk and a lift
(the complex is one storey taller than the surrounding buildings). The centre also provides a lecture theatre with retractable chairs, and as such is also used as a drama studio
.
The school operates via a system of tutor groups. Each tutor group is approximately 30 in size, and has a tutor to watch over them. The tutors themselves will be teachers in other areas of the school, and the tutor will rarely teach his or her tutor group any specific subject. The main role of the tutor group is to create a stable peer system which helps the students as they progress through the school (Tutors will usually stay with their tutor groups all the way from year 7 to year 13).
The physical layout of the school is highly organized in comparison to the old school. The school looks like two 'E's fit back to back, with the main corridor down the middle of the school nicknamed 'The Street' by both pupils and teachers alike. Each branch of the school is for a different subject. The wings are of varying lengths, with the longest three being the Admin/Reception wing, the School Hall and Gymnasium wing, and the Science and DT wing. Each floor of the wings are different subjects (For example, the English wing is underneath the Maths wing).
Until recently, the Modern Languages wing was the shortest in the school, being well under half the length of the others. When the school decided to build the new sixth form center, it was built onto the end of the Languages wing, extending it out.
There are colours associated with each house, Brunel is green, Newton is yellow, Roddick is blue and Whittle is red.
The Houses themselves were changed in spite of protest from those who opposed the move away from houses named after other villages in the local area which take part of their as Bassett. i.e. Compton Bassett, Winterbourne Bassett. The previous house names were Berwick, Compton, Wootton and Winterbourne, and prior to those there were eight house groups Bolingbroke, Langdon, Crispin, Clarendon, Despenser, Goddard, St John & Englefield.
- was killed in strong ocean current
s during leisure activities.
Jaz Carlin (swimmer)
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...
in the Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
town of Wootton Bassett
Wootton Bassett
Royal Wootton Bassett , informally known as Wootton Bassett, is a small market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 11,043 in 2001...
.
The school has technology college
Technology College
Technology College is a term used in the United Kingdom for a secondary specialist school that focuses on design and technology, mathematics and science. These were the first type of specialist schools, beginning in 1994. In 2008 there were 598 Technology Colleges in England, of which 12 also...
status, and operates an on-site 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,...
department. These facilities have recently been developed, along with increased capacity parking and a larger on-site restaurant.
Facilities
The school's facilities include an artificial turfArtificial turf
Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...
sports pitch and numerous sports facilities with catering for tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, football, rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
and hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
.
The new Sixth Form centre includes many new classroom
Classroom
A classroom is a room in which teaching or learning activities can take place. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, including public and private schools, corporations, and religious and humanitarian organizations...
s, a reception desk and a lift
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
(the complex is one storey taller than the surrounding buildings). The centre also provides a lecture theatre with retractable chairs, and as such is also used as a drama studio
Studio
A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...
.
Layout/Administrative Structure
The school used to split itself into three main categories, which it calls 'phases' until recently. The 'Transition' phase, the 'Development' phase, and the 'Extension' phase, all of which were presided over by an Assistant Headteacher. This system, having been adopted in the early 2000's has now been abolished, after proving unpopular with staff and drawing the criticism of simply being corporate jargon. The school recently returned to the traditional method of splitting the years into the groupings, Lower School, Upper School and Sixth Form, as had previously been the case seen the school's inception.The school operates via a system of tutor groups. Each tutor group is approximately 30 in size, and has a tutor to watch over them. The tutors themselves will be teachers in other areas of the school, and the tutor will rarely teach his or her tutor group any specific subject. The main role of the tutor group is to create a stable peer system which helps the students as they progress through the school (Tutors will usually stay with their tutor groups all the way from year 7 to year 13).
The physical layout of the school is highly organized in comparison to the old school. The school looks like two 'E's fit back to back, with the main corridor down the middle of the school nicknamed 'The Street' by both pupils and teachers alike. Each branch of the school is for a different subject. The wings are of varying lengths, with the longest three being the Admin/Reception wing, the School Hall and Gymnasium wing, and the Science and DT wing. Each floor of the wings are different subjects (For example, the English wing is underneath the Maths wing).
Until recently, the Modern Languages wing was the shortest in the school, being well under half the length of the others. When the school decided to build the new sixth form center, it was built onto the end of the Languages wing, extending it out.
Houses
The school has 4 houses, Brunel, Newton, Roddick and Whittle. The names represent notable British inventors and engineers. The houses were renamed from Winterbourne, Compton, Berwick and Wootton.There are colours associated with each house, Brunel is green, Newton is yellow, Roddick is blue and Whittle is red.
The Houses themselves were changed in spite of protest from those who opposed the move away from houses named after other villages in the local area which take part of their as Bassett. i.e. Compton Bassett, Winterbourne Bassett. The previous house names were Berwick, Compton, Wootton and Winterbourne, and prior to those there were eight house groups Bolingbroke, Langdon, Crispin, Clarendon, Despenser, Goddard, St John & Englefield.
Tragedy
The school gained publicity in July 2008 when Sean Foxcroft - the expedition leader of a school trip to South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
- was killed in strong ocean current
Ocean current
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting upon this mean flow, such as breaking waves, wind, Coriolis effect, cabbeling, temperature and salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun...
s during leisure activities.
Notable alumni
- Matt Evans (rugby player)Matt Evans (rugby player)Matt Evans is a Canadian international rugby union player. Matt Evans is a utility back and has played in various back-line positions including fly-half, centre, wing, and full-back.Evans competed at the 2008 IRB Junior World Championship representing Canada...
- Paul Stonehouse Bath City footballer
Jaz Carlin (swimmer)