Priestley College

Infobox_School
name = Priestley Sixth-Form And Community College
motto = We Realise Your Potential Now May The Pope Be With You
established = 1970s
type = Sixth-Form
affiliation = Secular
grades = 16+
principal = Mike Southworth
students = 2,588 (at March 2007)
colors = Medium Blue and Gold
location = Loushers Lane, Warrington
website = [http://www.priestley.ac.uk www.priestley.ac.uk]

Priestley Sixth Form and Community College is a sixth form college for 16-19 year olds, located on Loushers Lane, Warrington, England. It also offers adult courses, and professional training on another site, and is an associate college of the University of Salford. The college motto is 'We Realise Your Potential, Now May The Pope Be With You'. The pope opened this college officially for the first time, hence the motto.

Namesake

Priestley College is named for Joseph Priestley (March 13, 1733 - February 8, 1804), a clergyman, chemist and educator who was a pioneer in teaching modern history and the sciences. Priestley was a Protestant dissenter and non-conformist who help establish the reputation of Warrington Academy as one of the foremost educational centres in Britain. The Academy was one of the first educational non-sectarian centres in the country.

A statue of Priestley now stands inside the main entrance of the college.

History of the College and Structure

The College opened in 1979, however it was the site of a girl's school previous to it becoming a mixed Sixth-Form.

It is a single campus college with 5 buildings,

*The Priestley building (rooms prefixed with P) holds the administrative facilities (finance etc.), social facilities(The Café Bar and Mezzanine), History, Graphics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Performing Arts, ICT, and Modern Foreign Languages.

*The Adamson Centre (rooms prefixed with A) currently holds Maths, English, Vocational Courses, Law, Business Studies, Accounts, Geography and Geology.

*The Art and Design centre (rooms prefixed with D) holds 3D-Design, Woodwork, Art and Textiles.

*The sports centre (rooms prefixed with S) holds sports and physical education.

*The learning resource centre (or library) (rooms prefixed with L) holds offices, the library and a communal IT cluster.

* A new building has been recently constructed and was completed in September 2007, and is known as The Crescent. This building is to replace the Adamson building which is set to be knocked down after the completion of the new building. The Crescent building now holds the colleges Humanities department as well as public services, accounting, geography and geology.

The college is close to the town centre of Warrington.

[http://www.warrington.gov.uk/traffic/concfares/student/default.asp] . Buses serving the college are routes 5, 6, 6A, 7, 7A, 8, 8A, 8X, 9, 45, 46 and 62. These busss serve the Wilderspool Causeway entrance. Routes 11, 11A, 12, 12A, and 95 (contract) serve the Loushers Lane entrance. A walk from the centre of the town to the college is approximately 15 minutes.

Priestley offers AS/A2 Levels, BTEC, AVCE, GCSE resits, foundation, key skills and pre-University foundation courses.

In March 2007 the college was inspected by a team Ofsted inspectors and achieved "outstanding" status making it a leading centre of education in the North West of England.

External links

* [http://www.priestleycollege.ac.uk/ Priestley College official website]
* [http://www.priestleytraining.co.uk/ Priestley Training Services]
* [http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/pdf/?inspectionNumber=298685&providerCategoryID=524288&fileName=\school\130\c12_130624_20070621.pdf Ofsted Inspection Report]