Roade
School and Sports College
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Roade School
is an 11-18 co-educational comprehensive school serving a
largely rural catchment and is currently fed by ten contributory
primary schools located in the villages of Hardingstone, Wootton,
Hackleton, Collingtree, Hartwell, Ashton, Stoke Bruerne, and
Roade and at the new development on Grange Park. At September
2003 there will be 1,660 students on role, 260 of whom will
be pursuing Post-16 studies.
The school’s original buildings date back to 1956, but
with a continuing increase in population following the introduction
of comprehensive education in 1975, there have been a series
of major building programmes, each of which has provided an
impressive range of facilities.
The summer of
1994 saw completion of a £2.75m building programme,
which was quickly followed by additional ICT and Technology
facilities in September 1997.
Early in 2000, the Post 16 Library and conversion of adjacent
rooms to computer suite were finished providing further excellent
study facilities for students. Later the same year Post 16
students gained the use of a new Coffee Shop, built adjacent
the canteen, the servery of which undertook major renovation.
A further capital
building programme was completed in autumn 2001 when a £1.2m
enhancement and upgrade of sports provision and an additional
two-storey science block were commissioned. The Redmond Hall
was extended and a fitness centre and social area were added
together with additional changing rooms, staff and office
accommodation. Existing changing rooms to both Redmond Hall
and swimming pool were gutted and refurbished. Capital was
raised through the school's own fundraising, generous donations
and money from the National Lottery and the Department for
Education and Skills.
In keeping with
the spirit of the successful National Lottery grant and those
from other charitable organisations, the school’s facilities
are readily available to the community through the Willison
Centre, which affords splendid opportunities, both sporting
and non-sporting, to members of the public both in term time,
and also during the holiday periods when many extra facilities
and courses are available. Contact details for the Willison
Centre can be found at the bottom of this brief article.
In September
2000, Roade School gained Sports College Status. As with all
specialist school status, the purpose is to raise academic
standards, and in our case the medium is sport. In addition
to significantly enhanced sports provision, revenue funding
enables the provision of a range of out-of-school activities,
masterclasses and taster sessions in a variety of areas and
not exclusively in sport.
The school is
justly proud of the quality awards it holds. They are an indication
the school’s capacity to self-regulate its provision
and services against nationally recognised high quality and
prestigious benchmarks. Quality marks include Sportsmark Gold
Award, Basic Skills Award and Investors in People. Roade School
also has recognised status as an initial teacher training
centre, and, in conjunction with its partner schools in South-West
Northamptonshire, offers a Postgraduate Certificate of Education
qualification through the University of Leicester. The school
is licensed to display the logos of the Youth Sports Trust
and the European Social Fund as a result of its recognition
as a Sports College and its commitment to inclusion practices.
For the Willison Centre:
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Contact:
Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail:
Website: