England
England is a country, part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to Scotland to the north-northwest; the Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south; the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century, since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world; the English language, the Anglican Church, English law – the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world – developed in England, the country's parliamentary system of government has been adopted by other nations.
The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's terrain is chiefly low hills and plains in central and southern England. However, there is upland and mountainous terrain in the west; the capital is London, which has the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. England's population of over 55 million comprises 84% of the population of the United Kingdom concentrated around London, the South East, conurbations in the Midlands, the North West, the North East, Yorkshire, which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century; the Kingdom of England – which after 1535 included Wales – ceased being a separate sovereign state on 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union put into effect the terms agreed in the Treaty of Union the previous year, resulting in a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The name "England" is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means "land of the Angles"; the Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages. The Angles came from the Anglia peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea; the earliest recorded use of the term, as "Engla londe", is in the late-ninth-century translation into Old English of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The term was used in a different sense to the modern one, meaning "the land inhabited by the English", it included English people in what is now south-east Scotland but was part of the English kingdom of Northumbria; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that the Domesday Book of 1086 covered the whole of England, meaning the English kingdom, but a few years the Chronicle stated that King Malcolm III went "out of Scotlande into Lothian in Englaland", thus using it in the more ancient sense.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its modern spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, in which the Latin word Anglii is used; the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars. How and why a term derived from the name of a tribe, less significant than others, such as the Saxons, came to be used for the entire country and its people is not known, but it seems this is related to the custom of calling the Germanic people in Britain Angli Saxones or English Saxons to distinguish them from continental Saxons of Old Saxony between the Weser and Eider rivers in Northern Germany. In Scottish Gaelic, another language which developed on the island of Great Britain, the Saxon tribe gave their name to the word for England. An alternative name for England is Albion; the name Albion referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus the 4th-century BC De Mundo: "Beyond the Pillars of Hercules is the ocean that flows round the earth.
In it are two large islands called Britannia. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, i.e. it was written in the Graeco-Roman period or afterwards. The word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins, it either derives from a cognate of the Latin albus meaning white, a reference to the white cliffs of Dover or from the phrase the "island of the Albiones" in the now lost Massaliote Periplus, attested through Avienus' Ora Maritima to which the former served as a source. Albion is now applied to England in a more poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England and made popular by its use in Arthurian legend; the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximate
Warwickshire College Group
Warwickshire College Group is the managing body that administers several colleges of further education in the English West Midlands, namely in the counties of Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Its most recent acquisition concerned its August 2016 merger with South Worcestershire College of which the two campuses reverted to their historical names of Evesham College in Evesham and Malvern Hills College in Great Malvern; the merger makes it the largest group of further and adult education institutions in the country and one of the five colleges in the United Kingdom empowered by the Privy Council with the authority to award Foundation Degrees As of June 2018 the group manages seven colleges with a faculty of around 1,500 staff for 15,000 students. The group offers more than 1,000 courses over 20 areas of discipline with an A-Level pass rate of 98%. Royal Leamington Spa College Moreton Morrell was the first equine college in Britain The Power Industry Academy at Rugby College Pershore College Warwick Trident College Evesham College Malvern Hills CollegeThe group group provides National Curriculum courses and vocational education in a broad range of subjects to students aged 16 and over.
It was formed in 1996 with the merger of Mid-Warwickshire College in Leamington Spa and Warwickshire College for Agriculture, Equine & Related Studies in Moreton Morrell and became Warwickshire College. In a further expansion the college merged with Rugby College in 2003, followed shortly by a new campus opening in Warwick called the Trident Centre, it merged with a fifth site at Henley-in-Arden. In August 2007, Warwickshire College merged with Pershore College, Centre of Horticultural Excellence, in Worcestershire, spreading Warwickshire College across the two counties. In 2014, each college was given an individual identity in that Warwickshire College Royal Leamington Spa Centre became Royal Leamington Spa College, part of Warwickshire College Group. In 2016 a merger between WCG and South Worcestershire College took place, adding two further campus' in Worcestershire at Evesham and Malvern. At this point, it was decided that the college would trade as WCG to avoid conflicts between Warwickshire in the name, three campus being in Worcestershire.
The college has Centre of Vocational Excellence awards in engineering, farriery and construction, leadership and management. Following a March 2015 inspection, an Ofsted report accorded the college an overall Grade 2 for its performance; the college is a member of the Collab Group of high performing schools. The Henley-in-Arden centre focuses on sports related studies and beauty, fashion and textiles and offers courses from further education right through to postgraduate qualifications; the centre has sports academies. The college is affiliated to British Colleges’ Sport and takes part in competitions covering team and individual sports. After a reassessment of the colleges resources and the students demographic and locality, Henley-in-Arden College courses are now run at Moreton Morrell College and Royal Leamington Spa College, but gymnasium facilities still exist; the main campus for WCG is located in Leamington Spa. It lies in the Milverton area of town, it offers courses including A Levels, health care and beauty, construction and tourism and supported learning programmes.
The Centre has a range of facilities, including a learning centre and library, a lecture theatre and beauty salon, sports hall and gym, a travel centre, college shop and a children's nursery. The Leamington Spa centre is the current home to Warwickshire School of Arts; the school of arts offers foundation diploma in art and design and extended/national diploma in fashion and clothing. Located in the Warwickshire countryside, the Moreton Morrell centre offers courses in equine and blacksmithing, countryside, environment, construction, animal welfare and veterinary nursing; the resources include a 345-hectare commercial farm with a large dairy herd and sheep, wildlife habitats including woodlands and wetlands. The College has equine facilities, with stabling for over 100 horses, an indoor school, a covered school and large outdoor riding arenas. There are 3 forges, purpose-built centres for horticulture and veterinary nursing, as well as a large animal welfare centre housing a wide range of animals and facilities.
Pershore College is situated on a 60 hectare site near Evesham and offers courses in Horticulture, Animal Welfare, Veterinary Nursing and Countryside Management. The resources include a commercial plant nursery, plant centre, fruit unit with fruit juice production and pick your own facilities, extensive amenity grounds and commercial glasshouses; the College manages several national plant collections in the popular and much visited College gardens. The College is home to the Royal Horticultural Society Regional Centre and the Alpine Garden Society. There is the specialist resource of an animal unit. Pershore College was an independent institution founded in 1954 to train horticultural workers in the Vale of Evesham, it began offering higher education courses in 1993 and was merged into Warwickshire College in August 2007. The Rugby centre's new building opened in 2011, it houses the Power Industry Academy. The centre includes a Learning Resource Centre, sports hall and gym, astroturf pitch and conference facilities, purpose-built art and craft workshops and beauty salons and colleg
Campion School, Leamington Spa
Campion School was formed in 1977 when it moved to the present site on Sydenham Drive in Leamington Spa, England. It was the only school in the central area of Warwickshire to benefit from brand new buildings. In 2006, Campion was awarded dual specialisms of Business and Enterprise, Visual Arts; the school became an academy on 1 January 2012. Campion School is a mixed 11 to 18 secondary school. Although the school serves South Leamington, it take pupils from Whitnash, Radford Semele and Bishop's Tachbrook, other areas of Leamington, the Heathcote area of Warwick; the maximum number of pupils admitted in any one year is 155. Campion School has facilities that include: sports hall, youth centre, adult education centre, sixth form centre, playing fields, community rooms, conference/assembly hall, floodlit activity area, provision for the disabled, a new technology block. Sydenham Sports Centre is a dual use facility opened in the late 1970s, situated in the school grounds. Official website
Rugby School
Rugby School is a day and boarding co-educational independent school in Rugby, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up to 1667, the school remained in comparative obscurity, its re-establishment by Thomas Arnold during his time as Headmaster, from 1828 to 1841, was seen as the forerunner of the Victorian public school. It is one of the original seven Great Nine Public Schools defined by the Clarendon Commission of 1864. Rugby School was the birthplace of Rugby football. In 1845, three Rugby School pupils produced the first written rules of the "Rugby style of game"; as the nature of the school shifted, a new school – Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School – was founded in 1878 to continue Lawrence Sheriff's original intentions. Rugby expanded further in the 20th century and new buildings were built inspired by the Edwardian Era; the Temple Speech Room, named after former headmaster and Archbishop of Canterbury Frederick Temple is now used for whole-School assemblies, speech days, musicals – and BBC Mastermind.
Between the wars, the Memorial Chapel, the Music Schools and a new Sanatorium appeared. In 1975 three girls were admitted into the sixth form, the first girls’ house opened 3 years followed by three more. In 1992, the first 13-year-old girls arrived, in 1995 Rugby had its first-ever Head Girl, Louise Woolcock, who appeared on the front page of The Times. In September 2003 a last girls’ house was added. Today, total enrolment of day pupils, from forms 4 to 12, numbers around 800. Rugby School was founded in 1567 as a provision in the will of Lawrence Sheriff, who had made his fortune supplying groceries to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Since Lawrence Sheriff lived in Rugby and the neighbouring Brownsover, the school was intended to be a free grammar school for the boys of those towns. Up to 1667, the school remained in comparative obscurity, its history during that trying period is characterised by a series of lawsuits between the Howkins family, who tried to defeat the intentions of the testator, the masters and trustees, who tried to carry them out.
A final decision was handed down in 1667, confirming the findings of a commission in favour of the trust, henceforth the school maintained a steady growth. "Floreat Rugbeia" is the traditional school song. Pupils beginning Rugby in the F Block study various subjects. In a pupil's second year, they do nine subjects which are for their GCSEs, this is the same for the D Block; the school provides standard A-levels in 29 subjects. Students at this stage have the choice of taking three or four subjects and are offered the opportunity to take an extended project; the Governing Body provides financial benefits with school fees to families unable to afford them. Parents of pupils who are given a Scholarship are capable of obtaining a 10% fee deduction, although more than one scholarship can be awarded to one student. Rugby School claims its goal is to give pupils more than education with a new tagline being'Whole Person, Whole Point'; the school has many traditions including two annual carol services, as well as the pushcart race, an event in which the entire school competes, with each house designing and racing their own cart.
This race has been won by School house every year since 2012. The school has three magazines: Quod, it was no longer desirable to have only local boys attending and the nature of the school shifted, so a new school – Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School – was founded in 1878 to continue Lawrence Sheriff's original intentions. The core of the school was completed in 1815 and is built around the Old Quad, with its Georgian architecture. Notable rooms are the Upper Bench, the Old Hall of School House, the Old Big School. Thomas Hughes once carved his name on the hands of the school clock, situated on a tower above the Old Quad; the polychromatic school chapel, new quadrangle, Temple Reading Room, Macready Theatre and Gymnasium were designed by well-known Victorian Gothic revival architect William Butterfield in 1875, the smaller Memorial Chapel was dedicated in 1922. By the twentieth century Rugby expanded and new buildings were built inspired by this Edwardian Era; the Temple Speech Room, named after former headmaster and Archbishop of Canterbury Frederick Temple and now used for whole-School assemblies, speech days, musicals – and BBC Mastermind.
Oak-panelled walls boast the portraits of illustrious alumni, including Neville Chamberlain holding his piece of paper. Between the wars, the Memorial Chapel, the Music Schools and a new Sanatorium appeared. In 2005, Rugby School was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel allowing them to drive up fees for thousands of parents; each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who atte
Kenilworth School and Sixth Form
Kenilworth School and Sixth Form known as Kenilworth School and Sports College, is a secondary school and sixth form based in both Leyes Lane & Rouncil Lane, Warwickshire, England. Kenilworth School was three schools from the 1960s until 1974, Abbey High School, Castle High School & Kenilworth Grammar School; the three sites were merged into Kenilworth School, with Castle High School becoming Castle Sixth Form, the Grammar school becoming Priory Hall and Abbey remaining as it was. Both Halls were overseen by the Principal of Kenilworth School, Mr Wilson. Today, the school retains its three sites: Upper School and Sixth Form; each site is the main area for a certain key stage. In February 2013 the school was inspected by Ofsted – the grading awarded was 1 in every category this was an improvement on the previous inspection 5 years previous where the school was awarded 2 under the old Ofsted framework. Lower School is for students in Key Stage 3; the Building of Lower School accommodates Lower School students for the registration period and break-times.
Lower School is the home of the library and the dance studio. Lower School holds various subjects; the Subjects taught in the Lower School buildings are. The Building of Upper School accommodates Upper School students for the registration period and break-times. Upper School is the home of the drama studio. Like the Lower school, Upper school holds various subjects; this site was the site of Kenilworth Grammar School. The Subjects taught in the Upper School buildings are: Science -- Mathematics. English, The Expressive Arts Physical Education Business Studies Special needs Department ICT The Sixth Form is where students take A level education. Based in Rouncil Lane, Kenilworth students can take a wide range of subjects providing they have the correct GCSEs 5 A* to C including English and Mathematics; the majority of Sixth Form students will move onto some form of Further Education after leaving the Sixth Form. In 2013, Ofsted reviewed the Sixth Form and scored it with a 1 for'outstanding', making it one of the best Sixth forms in the midlands.
Some students study for BTEC qualifications. Students may take part in the consortium scheme, so they study other subjects at other local sixth forms. Kenilworth Grammar School Mr Robert Mitchell Abbey High School Miss Dorothy Parncutt Castle High School Mr. Jeremy 1956 - 1970 Kenilworth School Mr Wilson Dr Alex Begbie Mr Hayden Abbot The Meadows Sports Centre is an en-suite sports complex including a hall, fitness centre, men's and women's changing rooms and a new'astroturf'; the sports complex, as well as being used by the school, is used in'out of school' hours allowing members of the public to use it. Various sports are played in the sports complex, including football, badminton and hockey. Kenilworth School and Sports College Official Kenilworth Youth Radio
Alcester Grammar School
Alcester Grammar School is a co-educational 11-18 maintained selective grammar school, situated in Alcester, England. On 1 April 2011, Alcester Grammar School became the first school in south Warwickshire to achieve academy status. AGS was known as "Newport's Free School" from about 1592 until 1912 because Walter Newport provided in his will for the endowment which, in early years, paid the schoolmaster's stipend and enabled the scholars to be educated free of charge. Newport was a nephew of Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor in 1597, a relative of Robert, second Earl of Warwick. In 1912, the new coeducational school now known as Alcester Grammar School, on the site in Birmingham Road came into use. For admissions at age 11 to Year 7 of the school, the Governing Body participates in the Local Authority’s co-ordinated admissions scheme for maintained secondary schools. Admission to Year 7 is determined by the performance of candidates in an entrance examination and by the availability of places.
Only students who attain the required standard in the prescribed arrangements for selection by reference to ability or aptitude will be eligible to be considered for admission to the school. In September 2013 AGS increased its intake to 120 into Year 7, resulting in a 4 form entry of 30 students per form. In September 2015, the Governing Body decided that it would admit up to 30 additional students into year 7 over the Published Admission Number of 120. From September 2016 the PAN for entry in year 7 will be 150 students, resulting in a 5 form entry of 30 students per form; the priority circle for South Warwickshire Grammar Schools is based on the traditional area for application. It is based on a circle with a radius of 16.885 miles running from the American Fountain in Rother Street, Stratford-upon-Avon to the County boundary south of Long Compton. At age 16 for year 12 students may be admitted providing they achieve a minimum of GCSE Grade B in four subjects and at least Grade C in Mathematics and English Language.
Students should achieve at least a minimum of Grade B in the four subjects they select to study to A level. Subject specific variations to this latter requirement will be stated within the school’s sixth form prospectus. Alcester Grammar School offers a unique environment for post-16 education, it offers all students a degree of responsibility for their own learning and personal development, within a strong framework of support and guidance. This increases from year 12 to year 13. AGS offers a wide range of A level courses, with the freedom to choose any combination of four subjects, plus an optional Extended Project Qualification. AGS may admit to the Sixth Form a small number of students who come from an overseas EEA country that does not take UK GCSEs provided their qualifications are deemed acceptable to and compatible with the GCSE requirements stated above; the school receives high GCSE results. In 2015 99% of GCSE candidates achieved 5+ A*-C grades including English and maths GCSEs. In 2015 99.8 % of A level entries were with 88 % of A-Level entries achieving A * - C grades.
The 2017 League tables showed AGS to be the best performing grammar school in Warwickshire at 16-18 for progression. In 2012 Ofsted graded the school's Mathematics department as Outstanding. In its 2006 and 2009 Ofsted inspections the school was graded as Outstanding. In 2012 AGS, which first opened in 1912, marked its Centenary with a host of celebratory events. James Cooray Smith, writer. Simon Davis, comics artist Sarah Douglas, actress who played Ursa in Superman II Air Vice-Marshal Gerry Mayhew CBE, former Jaguar pilot, Station Commander from 2013-15 of RAF Leuchars Wendy Padbury, known from 1968-69 for her Zoe Heriot companion to the second Doctor Who Patrick Troughton Sadie Plant, founded the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at the University of Warwick Andrew Pozzi, Olympic hurdler Claire Ridgway, writer Alcester Grammar School's Website Alcester Grammar School Sixth Form Website "Archival material relating to Alcester Grammar School". UK National Archives. 12 Telegraph Website
Ofsted
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is a non-ministerial department of the UK government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, including state schools and some independent schools, it inspects childcare and fostering agencies and initial teacher training, regulates a range of early years and children’s social care services. The Chief Inspector is appointed by an Order-in-Council and thus becomes an office holder under the Crown. Amanda Spielman has been HMCI since 2017. In 1833, Parliament agreed an annual grant to the National Society for Promoting Religious Education and the British and Foreign School Society, which provided Church of England and non-denominational elementary schools for poor children. To monitor the effectiveness of the grant, two inspectors of schools were appointed in 1837, Seymour Tremenheere and the Rev. John Allen. Dr. James Kay-Shuttleworth secretary of the Privy Council education committee, ensured that the inspectors were appointed by Order-in-Council to guard their independence.
The grant and inspection system was extended in 1847 to Roman Catholic elementary schools established by the Catholic Poor School Committee. Inspectors were organised on denominational lines, with the churches having a say in the choice of inspectors, until 1876, when inspectors were re-organised by area. After the Education Act 1902, inspections were expanded to state-funded secondary schools along similar lines. Over time, more inspections were carried out by inspectors based in local education authorities, with HMI focussing on reporting to the Secretary of State on education conditions across the country; the government of John Major, concerned about variable local inspection regimes, decided to introduce a national scheme of inspections though a reconstituted HMI, which became known as the Office for Standards in Education. Under the Education Act 1992, HMI would supervise the inspection of each state-funded school in the country, would publish its reports for the benefit of schools and government instead of reporting to the Secretary of State.
In September 2001, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England became responsible for registration and inspection of day care and childminding in England, the position was renamed Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills. This was done by 150 local authorities, based on their implementation by 1992 of the Daycare Standards provisions of the 1989 Children Act. Schedule 11 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 changed the way in which Ofsted works without changing the provision. Since 2006 the structure of Ofsted has derived elements from business models, with a Chair, an executive board, regional officers, a formal annual report to Parliament in the light of concerns about schools, local authority children's services. In April 2007 the former Office for Standards in Education merged with the Adult Learning Inspectorate to provide an inspection service that includes all post-16 government funded education. At the same time it took on responsibility for the registration and inspection of social care services for children, the welfare inspection of independent and maintained boarding schools from the Commission for Social Care Inspection.
The services Ofsted inspects or regulates now include: local services, child day care, children's centres, children's social care, CAFCASS, state schools, independent schools and teacher training providers and learning and skills providers in England. It monitors the work of the Independent Schools Inspectorate. HMI are empowered and required to provide independent advice to the United Kingdom government and parliament on matters of policy and to publish an annual report to parliament on the quality of educational provision in England. Ofsted distributes its functions amongst its offices in London, Nottingham, Cambridge and Bristol. Ofsted only covers England; the current Chief Inspector is Amanda Spielman, appointed in January 2017 replacing Sir Michael Wilshaw. Ofsted directly employs Her Majesty's Inspectors; as of July 2009 there were 443 HMIs, of whom 82 were engaged in management, 245 in the inspection of schools, the rest in inspection of other areas for which Ofsted in responsible. All HMIs inspecting schools have teaching experience.
Most school inspections were carried out by Additional Inspectors employed by external companies known as Regional Inspection Service Providers. As of July 2009 there were 1,948 AIs. Although Ofsted claims that most of these have teaching experience, in 2012 it was forced to admit that it had done no quality control checks on these inspectors, that many of them – including lead inspectors – were not qualified teachers and many had no experience of working with children. A further scandal surrounded headteachers dismissed following poor OFSTED reports being hired as inspectors. In 2015, 40% of additional inspectors who wanted to continue working for OFSTED were not re-hired after a contractual change. Although OFSTED insisted that this was part of a quality control process and'should not be seen as an admi
