Fearnhill School

Fearnhill School is a comprehensive school located in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England.

Admissions

It is a specialist school and a Maths and Computing College. It educates over 1,000 students and is one of a minority of high schools with a sixth form. The school is part of the Letchworth Sixth Form Consortium with The Highfield School.

It is situated in the west of Letchworth, just north of the railway line to Baldock and Cambridge. It is on the Icknield Way. 

History

The school's origins lie in Letchworth Grammar School, which moved to the site in the early 1970s.

Academic standards

The school is notable for leading the way in personal finance education. The GCSE results announced in August 2005 were the best since 2001. 59% of the students achieved A*-C grades. In 2009, it received GCSE results slightly under the England average, and A-level results well under average. Ofsted graded it as failing in 2011.

Sport

Fearnhill has very successful athletics teams. In April 2008, 2009 and 2010 the school won the combined boys' and girls' North Herts schools' athletics finals. This follows on from being the overall winners at the North Herts Schools' District Athletics Championships in June 2005 & 2006.

Alumni

• Dave Kitson, Premier League footballer
• Victoria Pendleton, Olympic and world champion track cyclist
• Simon West, film director
• Claire Rushbrook, TV actress
• Nicky Hunt, Double Commonwealth Gold medallist for Archery 2010
• Ruth Goodman (historian), Social historian and TV personality

Letchworth Grammar School

• Prof William Bonfield CBE, Professor of Medical Materials from 2000-5 at the University of Cambridge, who founded the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine
• Prof Meir M. Lehman, known for Lehman's laws of software evolution, and Professor of Computing Science from 1972-84 at Imperial College London
• John Ransford, Chief Executive since 2009 of the Local Government Association, and of North Yorkshire County Council from 1994-9
• Richard Wiggs, founder of the Anti-Concorde Project

Former teachers

• Richard Parry, Director of Education since 1998 for Swansea Council (Head of Maths from 1983-8)
• Ian Roberts, England Athletics Team Coach (Head of Physical Education from 1995 - 2003)
• Chris Husbands, Director, Institute of Education since 2011 (head of Humanities 1988-1990)

Bishops Hatfield Girls School

Bishop's Hatfield Girls' School is a girls' comprehensive school located in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. It was founded in 1960 as a girls' grammar school. It has a sixth form of about 120 students according to the latest OFSTED report. The current (since September 2004) Headteacher is Theodora Nickson, and the school recently became specialised in Humanities and English. In the last OFSTED report it got a 'good' rating.
Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl studied at the school.

The Thomas Alleyne School

The Thomas Alleyne School is a secondary school in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. It is one of three schools founded in 1558 from the will of Thomas Alleyne.

The Thomas Alleyne School is a school where success is expected, achieved and celebrated. We are very proud of our school. It is a school where we are developing a community of learners, parents, teachers, Governors and other members of our wider school community. We are an innovative and emotionally intelligent school where we consider the welfare, thinking and feelings of our learners so that we can link their own personal experiences to their individual and collective learning. 

Admissions

The school's headteacher is currently Mr Jonathan Block. In October 2010 it was anounced that the school would stay-put at the current site as a result of the government undoing the Building schools for the future grant.

It is situated in the north of Stevenage, known as Old Town, next to the roundabout of the A1072 and the A602 (former A1), and less than 200 metres to the east of the East Coast Main Line. It is next door to The Barclay School.

History

Grammar school

 

Francis Cammaerts DSO was the head teacher from 1952-61. From 1869 it was the Alleyne's Grammar School, a boys' grammar school.

Comprehensive

 

In 1969 it became a comprehensive, Alleyne's School. At first in the 1970s, the school results were some of the best in Stevenage, but that is no longer the case. In 1989 it merged with Stevenage Girls' School and changed to its current name. In July 2005, a 14 year girl stabbed another 14 year old girl.

Academic performance

 

Stevenage gets the lowest academic results in Hertfordshire. It gets very low GCSE and A-level results. Marriotts School gets similar results. The John Henry Newman School, a catholic school, now gets the best results in Stevenage, but not particularly high compared to many Hertfordshire schools.

Alumni 

Alleyne's Grammar School

• Michael Biggs, Group Chief Executive from 2007-8 of Resolution plc
• Peter Boorman, organist at St David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire from 1953-77
• Ewart Culpin, Chairman from 1938-9 of London County Council, and President from 1937-8 of the Town Planning Institute
• David Hamid, Chairman since 2006 of Nationwide Autocentre, and Chief Executive of Halfords from 2003-5
• Geoffrey Howard (cricketer and administrator), grandson of Sir Ebenezer Howard, pioneer of garden cities
• David Morgan, Chief Executive from 1987-98 of the Black Country Development Corporation
• Prof David Newland, Professor of Engineering from 1976-2003 at the University of Cambridge, and known for harmonic wavelet transforms

Alleyne's School

• Graham Poll, referee

Stevenage Girls' School

• Prof Susan Owens OBE, Professor of Environment and Policy at the University of Cambridge