St. Bartholomew's School
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- This article is about the Berkshire school. See Bartholomew School Eynsham for the school in Eynsham, Oxfordshire
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| Ad lucem | |
| (Towards the light) | |
| Established | 1466 |
| School type | Comprehensive |
| Headmaster | Stuart Robinson |
| Specialisms | Business & Enterprise College status |
| Location | Newbury, Berkshire, United Kingdom |
| LEA | West Berkshire |
| Enrolment | 1,630 total |
| Website | stbarts.co.uk |
St. Bartholomew's School (colloquially St. Bart's) is a co-educational comprehensive school founded in 1466 in Newbury, Berkshire. It accepts students aged 11-18 and currently has approximately 1,600 students on roll including a sixth form of around 400.
It is one of only a few comprehensive schools to participate in the Combined Cadet Force, with around 200 cadets between the ages of 14 and 18 taking part in weekly training sessions and annual residential trips.
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[edit] House System
The school operates a house system, whereby students are divided up into four houses, each of which is named after a former pupil who was killed in the First World War:
- (George) Curnock - Green
- (Alexander) Davis - Red
- (Bertram) Evers - Blue
- (Robert) Patterson - Yellow/Gold/Purple
[edit] Patterson house
Patterson house also uses the colour purple, but only in the senior house colours tie and occasionally as a contrast to yellow on house literature. The fourth house in the boys' school formerly always used purple, but switched to the yellow of the girls' school's fourth house when the schools merged in 1975.
[edit] Competitions
Each house enters into annual competitions in sports, music and drama versus the other houses. The winning house in each competition is awarded a certain number of points, which are accrued during the academic year. The house with the most points at the end of the year will win the House Championship. House colours, in the form of ties for boys and sashes for girls, are awarded at the end of Years 10 and/or 12 to students who excel in a certain field, either academic or extra-curricular.
[edit] Facilities
- St. Bartholomew's is based on two sites. The Luker site, at one end of Buckingham Road was formerly Newbury County Girls' Grammar School. The Wormestall site, at the opposite end of Buckingham Road, was formerly St. Bartholomew's Boys' Grammar School. The two grammar schools merged in 1975 to form a large comprehensive.
- Both sites have large playing fields.
- On the Wormestall site, there is a 15m indoor swimming pool, shared between local schools and the Newbury Swimming Club
- Across the Luker site, there are five dedicated ICT suites, as well as computer terminals in the library and other classrooms
- Each site has a large hall with stage
- Wormestall hall houses an indoor rock climbing wall
- St. Bart's is one of around 55[1] schools in England with facilities for playing Eton Fives
[edit] Location
The school is located in a residential area and is split between two sites, Luker and Wormestall, that are located 200m from each other. The former was named after the first headmistress Jane Luker and the latter after its founder Henry Wormestall. There is also an administration site, situated in between the two, called Digby Croft. Years 7 to 11 are based mainly at Luker and the sixth form mainly at Wormestall.
[edit] History
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This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
The school was founded in 1466 from the legacy of Henry Wormestall who set aside £12 2s 4d annually for
"teching gramar scole of the whiche that toune hath grete nede"[2]
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1466 | Male-only St. Bartholomew's Boys' Grammar School founded at the Wormestall site. |
| 1904 | Female-only Newbury County Girls Grammar School founded at the Luker site. |
| 1966 | The school celebrates quincentenary. |
| 26 May 1972 | Visit by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II |
| 1975 | Newbury County Girls' Grammar School and St. Bartholomew's Boys' Grammar School merge to form the present-day comprehensive school |
| September 2002 | School designated as a Business and Enterprise College - a specialist school status |
[edit] Alumni
The alumni of St. Barts are referred to as Old Newburians.
- Charles Neufeld - inventor[3]
- Robert Newton - actor
[edit] Sixth form
St. Bartholomew's sixth form students are based on the Wormestall site, with their own Tutors and House staff. Membership allows students to mentor younger pupils in subject lessons, music and drama activities. Students have their own dedicated study area in the library, computer facilities, careers services, common rooms and canteen.
[edit] The Lifelong Learning Centre
The Lifelong Learning Centre, built in the summer of 2002, is a purpose-built library, conference and training facility that includes two large information technology suites.
The two technology classrooms are situated on the ground level, on opposite sides of the building. There are around 30 computers in each room, as well as an interactive whiteboard in each. Situated in the centre of the ground floor is a conference room that can be split in to two rooms that displays artwork. The Lifelong Learning Centre (inluding the computer rooms) are available to hire for conferences, training and seminars to members of the public and is used for school meetings at other times.
On the first floor is a library, with a range of books as well as 16 computer terminals, some reserved for sixth form. On the south-eastern end of the libraries is a sixth form study area, as well as a small careers room.
[edit] The Ad Lucem Project
On 23 November 2006 St. Bartholomew's was awarded a government grant to be used to rebuild its premises. The school was chosen ahead of three other schools in Berkshire: Kennet School, Theale Green Community School and John O'Gaunt Technology College. The rebuild project must be completed by September 2009.[4] It is still in the consultation stages, and building is due to begin in early 2008, under the name The Ad Lucem Project. There are currently several proposals under review, including rejuvenating both sites, rebuilding the entire school on the luker site and using Wormestall site as an Admin and Sixth Form non-teaching Building.
[edit] See also
- List of schools in the United Kingdom
- List of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom
- Specialist school
[edit] External links
- Official Homepage
- Old Newburians' Association
- History of the grammar school - written in 1958
- BBC News: Latest league tables
- A 1956 Memoir of the school.
[edit] References
- ^ Eton Fives Association - Courts in England and Wales
- ^ The Cotswold Pages - Newbury Grammar School
- ^ Telegraph.co.uk obituary
- ^ Council vote for Newbury school to get government grant to help rebuild premises, newburytoday.co.uk, November 23, 2006
