St John's School and Community College

St John's School and Community College

Established	1975
Headteacher	Dr Patrick Hazlewood
Specialisms	Technology, Languages
Location	Stedman Building, Granham Hill Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 4AX England
Local authority	Wiltshire
DfE number	???/5405
DfE URN	126500
Ofsted	Reports
Students	1680
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	11–18
Former name	Marlborough Royal Free Grammar School
Website	St John's

Coordinates: 51°24′55″N 1°43′42″W / 51.41527°N 1.72841°W / 51.41527; -1.72841

St John's School and Community College is an age 11–18 mixed comprehensive school in the town of Marlborough, Wiltshire in England.

Admissions

As of November 2011, it has 1,690 students. The current headmaster is Dr. Patrick Hazlewood, who has occupied the position since 1996. It is situated in the south of the town. Seven past students are convicted bank robbers^{[citation needed]}.

History

The school was formed by the amalgamation of Marlborough Royal Free Grammar School and Marlborough Secondary Modern School on chopping Knife Lane. The grammar school was founded in 1550 at the Marsh at the Hospital of St John the Baptist.

It became a comprehensive in 1975. The Savernake building was the secondary modern school, built, in 1975. After the rebuilding of a new site, the former schools were demolished in 2010.

In 1998 the school became a specialist Technology College and in 2005 a specialist Language College as well (see Specialist school).

Buildings

Since the amalgamation of the grammar and secondary modern schools, the school operated on two separate sites. Building work for a new school started on site in June 2008, estimated cost of which is £26.5M and the new school was officially opened by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in 2010^[1]

The new building was designed by Re-Format - formerly Format Milton Architects. The single site project had been many years in the planning due to problems obtaining planning permission for development of the other site, and complaints from local residents, which cost the school approximately £1M in delays. The new school building also provides services to the local community such as a public library. The new site opened in late 2009, and can be seen live via webcam. ^[2]

Due to the crash in the housing market, the value of the properties that were to be built on the lower school's old site decreased substantially, causing the new building to be reduced in size to accommodate for the change in budget. This caused some issues when travelling from room to room, especially in certain areas where students would be both queuing for lessons and trying to walk to their next lesson.

Academic performance

It gets above-average results at both GCSE and A-level. In 2010, the GCSE results from St. John's students were higher than that of students at Marlborough College^{[citation needed]}..

Notable alumni

• Aaron Hicklin (editor of OUT magazine) ^[3]
• Lauren Child (children's author and illustrator) ^[4]

Marlborough Royal Free Grammar School

• Dr Robin Baker, Academic, Scientist, and writer, author of Sperm Wars, attended 1955-1962
• Frederick Bligh Bond, architect who was educated there by his father, Rev Frederick Hookey Bond the headmaster, 1854 - 1875
• Charles Chenery (1850-1928), sportsman who played football for England in the first three international matches, 1872-74.
• Frederick Patey Chappell, played for England in the first international football match
• Sir William Golding CBE, novelist, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate
• Dr Phil Hammond (comedian)
• Phil Harding, archaeologist (from Channel 4's Time Team)

References

1. ^ "Camilla officially opens St John's, Marlborough (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)". http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/5023391.Camilla_officially_opens_St_John_s__Marlborough/. 
2. ^ Webcam
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ Top of the Class

External links

• St Johns School Website
• St Johns Current School Building
• St John's New Building
• Marlborough Secondary Modern
• EduBase

News items

• Demolishing the former school in May 2010
• School opens in December 2009
• homework scrapped for 12 year olds in January 2005

Audio clips

• Woman Hour January 2005