Newstead Wood School for Girls

Newstead Wood School For Girls

Motto	Fortitudine Crescamus ('May We Grow in Strength')
Established	1957
Type	Grammar foundation school
Headteacher	Ms Elizabeth Allen
Specialism	Engineering and Languages
Location	Avebury Road Orpington London BR6 9SA England
Local authority	Bromley
DfE number	???/5405
DfE URN	101671
Ofsted	Reports
Students	978
Gender	Girls(Mixed in the sixth form)
Ages	11–18
Houses	Nightingale     , Wren     , Swift     , Falcon     , Griffin
Website	www.newsteadwood.bromley.sch.uk

Coordinates: 51°22′01″N 0°04′37″E / 51.367°N 0.077°E / 51.367; 0.077

Newstead Wood School for Girls is a selective girls' secondary school in Avebury Road, Orpington, London, England.

Admissions

It is an engineering and languages specialist school. The school has strong links with nearby St Olave's Grammar School. The current head teacher is Elizabeth Allen. The school's motto is Fortitudine Crescamus (Latin for: 'May we grow in strength'). The school has recently begun admitting boys into the sixth form.

It is situated in the Crofton area of Orpington, not far from the A21 and next to Darrick Wood. Darrick Wood School and the Princess Royal University Hospital are the other side of Darrick Wood, to the west. The London Outer Orbital Path passes adjacent to the playing fields. It lies in the parish of St Paul's, Crofton.

History

It was founded as the Orpington Grammar School for Girls in 1957, when administered by the Kent Education Committee. It became part of Bromley in 1965. There were firm plans for the school to become comprehensive in 1978. Nearby Bullers Wood School went comprehensive in the late 1970s.

In 1997, a survey in the Sunday Times found that the school was the best value in England for each A or B grade achieved at A-level, second to the St Olave's school; Bromley was a low spender (per pupil) comparative to other LEAs. In 2004, a pupil gained the best result at Maths GCSE in England. In 2009 the headteacher told the conference in Harrogate of the Girls' Schools Association ^[1] that schools were not concentrating on brighter pupils, instead trying to raise average pupils' grades from D to C, and that girls in mixed-sex schools can have their ambitions crushed and be held back in male-dominated professions (girls from single-sex schools are statistically more successful in science-based professions than from mixed schools). She also criticised a government scheme to give one-to-one tuition to less able pupils, and not more-able students, when considering the lack of women in traditionally-male occupations, and she claimed there was a 'huge reluctance' to concentrate on top students.

Headteachers

• Liz Allen (technically Mrs E Bennett) 2001-, (headteacher of Altwood C of E Secondary School from 1993–2001)
• Barbara Gibbs 1994-2001, (headteacher from 2001-6 of The British School in the Netherlands)

Academic performance

In 2003 Newstead Wood was described by Ofsted as "an outstandingly successful school". The school has a large catchment area, from which pupils are selected on the basis of tests in verbal and non-verbal reasoning. In 2004 there were eight applicants per place. Amongst leavers in 2005, 25 students gained places at Oxford and Cambridge universities.

It gets the second best A-level results in Bromley, after the St Olave's school - Bromley's other grammar school, and around the tenth best in Greater London.

In 2010, the school achieved the second best GCSE results in the country.

Transport

The school is relatively easy to get to, with Orpington Station situated fifteen minutes' walk away. There are many buses to the two bus stops which are also about 10 – 15 minutes walk away from the school. The school provides coaches for those who prefer not to use public transport. There is parking near to and surrounding the school. Inside the school it is possible to use the Bromley Tennis Centre car park.

Houses

Initially the school had no house system but when it was introduced there were only three houses, Nightingale, Wren and Swift. The first letters of each house came from the initials of Newstead Wood School, and the name of the house was both a bird, and a notable historical figure (Florence Nightingale, Christopher Wren and Jonathan Swift). Each year group had three classes, one from each house. As the school expanded, each year group grew to 4 classes, and a fourth house, Griffin, was founded. The school continued to expand, growing to 5 classes in each year, and so the Falcon house was founded.

The school now consists of five houses: Nightingale, Wren, Swift, Falcon and Griffin. The house names come from the school's initials NWSFG (Newstead Wood School For Girls). Each house has a captain and a deputy captain drawn from the sixth form; these house representatives are elected by members of the house and lead the house competitions in events like sports and performing arts.

In 2007, the house cup was won by Wren, and was presented by Alex Walkinshaw, who plays Sergeant Dale Smith (aka Smithy) in the ITV police-drama Series, The Bill. Wren also won the house cup in 2008 and 2009. In a surprising turn of events, Falcon won the 2010 house cup, after winning the annual Sports Day competition, as well as doing well in the Performing Arts Festival. In 2009 Wren won the sports day cup which was collected by the Sports Captain Elizabeth Gaden. In 2011, Falcon won the annual Sports' Day competition for the second time in a row, this prize was collected by the House Captain, Arielle. The 2011 House Cup winner was Falcon again.

Tests

There are currently 2 tests to get into the school: verbal and non-verbal reasoning. The school is very selective and only the top 1% get into the school among the vast number of applicants (over 9000).

Competitions

Newstead is very competitive when it comes to inter-house competitions. There are inter-house competitions for hockey, tennis, rounders, athletics, netball and football. There are also other competitive inter-house activities, which are not to do with sport such as the Harvest Festival, where each form makes a harvest box; a Christmas carol competition, where each form creates their own Christmas carol and Performing Arts where each form does a short play which involves live music, dancing, singing and acting.

Notable former pupils

See also: Category:People educated at Newstead Wood School for Girls

• Christine Hancock, General Secretary, Royal College of Nursing, 1989–2001
• Barbara Harriss-White, Professor of Development Studies, University of Oxford
• Emma Johnson, clarinettist, winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year, 1984
• Josie Long, comedian
• Kim Medcalf, actress
• Suzi Brent, blogger and author.

References

1. ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/6590063/Schools-reluctant-to-push-brightest-pupils.html Telegraph November 2009

External links

• Newstead Wood School website
• Alumni
• EduBase