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Dormston School is a secondary school in Sedgley, West Midlands, England. The school has specialist status as a Mathematics and Computing college.^[1] The school has approximately 1,100 pupils aged 11 to 16 on the roll, and approximately 80 members of staff (including non-teaching staff). The school's capacity was increased to around 1,400 in September 2016 when it took in some pupils of The Coseley School.^{[citation needed]}

History

Dormston School was established in 1935. The original site consisted of a single two-storey building that contained 19 classrooms as well as a dining hall, gymnasium, assembly hall and library. This building remains in existence to this day, although substantial alterations have taken place since the mid 1990s and several completely new buildings have been added since the late 1960s. The school was built by Sedgley Urban District council, but since 1966 has existed within the Borough of Dudley^[1]

In July 1996, the National Lottery granted the Dormston School £4 million to build the Arts and Sports Center, which was completed nearly four years later.^[2] It includes a theatre, sports hall, art gallery and gymnasium.

In 2000, Dormston School was credited with the Charter Mark in recognition of its excellent standards.

During December 2001, the school raised well over £1,000 for the Birmingham Children's Hospital Cancer Unit - where a pupil was receiving treatment for lymphatic cancer.

A memorial staff garden was created at the back of the main assembly hall in 2007 in memory of former school caretaker John Hopson, who died in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

In the summer of 2012, the school achieved the worst GCSE grades in the Dudley Borough. The school was inspected by Ofsted a year later and placed in Special Measures. Stephanie Sherwood retired at the end of the school year in July 2013 and her successor Ben Stitchman took charge in September 2013. After turning the school around to a "Good" Ofsted rating, Stitchman left the school and Steve Dixon took over as the new headteacher.

Timeline

This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (December 2011)

• 1935 - Dormston Secondary Modern School is opened, consisting of one building containing 19 classrooms, an administration area, library, two playgrounds, a large playing field, gymnasium and dining hall. It has capacity for up to 600 pupils, with boys and girls being taught separately.


• 
  c. 1968 - A new Technology and Science block is completed, and boys and girls are gradually integrated together for the first time.


• 
  c. 1972 - A third classroom block for the teaching of Art, Science and Cookery is completed. Boys and girls are now fully integrated for lessons.


• September 1972 - Dormston becomes a 12-16 school due to a reorganisation of schools in Dudley, Sedgley, Coseley and Brierley Hill, which is sparked by the Raising of school leaving age in England and Wales. There is no entry of pupils to the school for the academic year.


• September 1975 - The school's status changes from secondary modern to comprehensive, as part of Dudley MBC's decision to make all of the borough's secondary schools comprehensive.


• September 1990 - Dormston re-opens to 11-year-olds after 18 years as a 12-16 school, coinciding with the introduction of "continuous" year group numbers (years 7-11). A fourth classroom block, D Block, is completed during the 1990/91 academic year and includes a new administration area, new music studio, the school's first purpose-built drama and dance studios, as well as seven new classrooms.


• 1991/92 - Following the completion of a fourth classroom block, further expansion takes place to the school with the construction of a further Technology workshop and two new Art classrooms. The former Art rooms are converted into Science laboratories.


• October 1992 - Local councillor John T Wilson officially opens the extensions to Dormston School, with a commemorative plaque being placed inside the main entrance.


• July 1996 - the National Lottery awards a £4 million grant to Dormston School, and contributes towards the cost of a £5.5 million sports/arts centre which is anticipated to be open by the end of the decade, having first been proposed in 1989 but its development has been delayed until now due to a shortage of funding.^[2]
  


• September 1996 - Dudley College opens a new sixth-form centre at Dormston, in a new temporary building on the school's playing fields.


• January 1998 - Construction of the Dormston Centre begins, with a targeted completion date of September 1999.


• March 1999 - The school excludes or removes 41 girls from lessons for wearing short skirts which were more than 2 inches (51 mm) above the knee.^[2][2][3]
  


• March 2000 - The Dormston Centre opens six months behind schedule. The complex includes a theatre, sports hall, art gallery, gymnasium and bar.


• September 2002 - The Dormston sixth-form is expanded by Dudley College to include a site at nearby High Arcal, in a bid to gain more popularity among post-GCSE students who up till now were choosing other establishments including Halesowen College as their post-GCSE destination.


• July 2006 - The school is awarded its specialist mathematics and computing college status.


• September 2007 - A new blue and purple school uniform is launched, signalling the end for the red, white and black uniform which had been in place for more than 20 years.^[1]
  


• July 2012 - Dormston is the lowest ranking school in the borough for GCSE results, with only 40% of pupils gaining 5 or more GCSEs at grade C or above.


• July 2013 - Following a damning OFSTED report, Dormston is placed in special measures and Stephanie Sherwood retires as head teacher, bringing forward her planned retirement a year from July 2014.


• September 2013 - Ben Stitchman is appointed as the new head teacher of Dormston.


• November 2014 - Ofsted remove Dormston from special measures 12 months earlier than planned, but score them a 3 (Requires Improvement). This is however, a much improved result from the last inspection in July 2013.


• September 2016 - Around 300 extra pupils join Dormston due to the phased closure of The Coseley School.


• November 2016 - After achieving the best results in the school's history and taking over from Ellowes Hall as the best performing of Sedgley's three secondary schools, Ofsted visit and rate the school as Good. This represents another significant improvement from June 2013 when the school was placed into Special Measures under the leadership of the previous headteacher.


• September 2017 - New classrooms are added to the school to meet the increased demand for places following the closure of the Coseley School.


• September 2018 - Ben Stitchman announces he is leaving the school after 5 years as headteacher. Former deputy head Steve Dixon took over as the new headteacher of the school.

School buildings

Art, Science and Technology blocks were added in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These were expanded in the early 1990s. A fourth block, housing music, drama, dance and English classrooms was built in 1990/91, followed shortly afterwards by three Modern Languages classrooms, two mobile classrooms (mostly for teaching English) and two Art rooms were added. These expansions took place to accommodate the extra pupils following the local authority's decision to reduce the secondary school starting age from 12 to 11, as well as an increase in the school's capacity to hold more than 1,100 pupils. It had provided capacity for some 700 pupils during its days as a 12-16 school. That figure had risen to more than 900 when the age of admissions was reduced, but high demand for places saw it increased beyond 1,000 by the mid 1990s.

Two science laboratories were opened in the autumn of 2003, as was a Sixth Form Centre (owned by Dudley College) in September 1996. The sixth form block was demolished in about 2007 and transferred to the mobile classrooms which had been erected more than a decade earlier.

The school blocks A to F

A Block

On the school's completion in 1935, this was the sole building, containing 19 classrooms, offices, a library, assembly hall and gymnasium.

By the 1960s, however, the growing population of Sedgley meant that expansion of the school was necessary and new buildings were needed.

The library was relocated to the new Personal Learning Centre in October 2008 and the original library was divided into two ICT suites.

B Block

B Block was added in the early 1970s. It houses six Science laboratories as well as one Food Technology suite. Two further B Block classrooms - actually within C Block - were added in 1992 and house the Art department, which was previously accommodated in two downstairs B block rooms which were then converted into Science laboratories.

It has not been substantially altered since its construction, although all of the laboratories have been refurbished, as have both of the Food Technology suites.

C Block

C Block was built a few years before B Block in the late 1960s. The downstairs of the building includes two Science laboratories, a CAD/CAM centre as well as workshops for Graphic Design, Resistant Materials (which was opened in 1992 to replace a downstairs workshop in A Block) and Systems & Control. The upstairs of the block is given over to a Textiles suite, and two classrooms which have been used for the teaching of ICT since the 1980s.

D Block

D Block houses the senior management offices, reception area, music studio, drama studio, dance studio, one music classroom and formerly five Old Languages classrooms. First planned in the early 1980s, its construction was finally given the go-ahead in 1989 and took place the following year as the school looked to improve its performing arts facilities and provide additional classroom space due to a growing demand for pupil places and the increased pupil numbers that the reduction of the secondary transfer age would see. It was opened during the 1990/91 school year and was detached from the rest of the school until the Dormston Centre was opened a decade later.

E Block

E Block was completed in September 2003 and houses two classrooms used for Art and Science. An upstairs floor was added five years later - this houses the Personal Learning Centre.

Mobile classrooms

There were mobile classrooms at the school from the 1970s, but all of these were removed by 2015. A single-storey temporary building was also opened in September 1996 for the teaching of sixth form students, with a second storey added the following year, but this was removed in 2010.

F Block

F Block was completed by December 2017 and houses 5 new Modern Foreign Languages classrooms and a Staff Room.

Dormston Centre

The Dormston Centre includes a sports hall, fitness centre, art gallery, theatre and cafe.^[1] It cost nearly £6 million to build, £4 million of which was provided by a grant from the National Lottery. Around a decade after it was first planned, the go-ahead for the centre was finally given in July 1996 when the Lottery grant was given, and the facilities were in use by March 2000 - six months behind schedule. The official opening took place on 1 December 2000.

The theatre in the Dormston Centre has hosted pupil productions of West Side Story (March 2000), Oliver! (March 2001), Macbeth (July 2001) and We Will Rock You (March 2009). Pupils worked and are working on a series of new productions including, Hairspray (9–12 February 2010), The Blues Brothers was shown in February 2011, Our House in February 2012, Grease in February 2013, We Will Rock You in February 2014, Fame in February 2015 and the upcoming Return to the Forbidden Planet for 2016.

On 5 March 2009 the Dormston Centre hosted an edition of the BBC's Question Time.

Dormston School's lottery grant

The Dormston School received a National Lottery grant in July 1996 to contribute towards the cost of building a high quality sports and arts centre on its site. Work began in early 1998, with the facilities opening in March 2000 and being officially opened on 1 December that year.^[2] Two years later, the Dudley News criticised the project as a "failure" as few people in the local area were making use of it.^{[citation needed]}

Head teachers

• Ben Stitchman - Head Teacher since September 2013.


• Steve Dixon - Head Teacher since September 2018.^[1]
  

The '1999 Short skirts débâcle'

In March 1999, the school made the headlines when 41 girls were either sent home, made to put on baggy trousers or isolated from lessons for wearing excessively short skirts as part of a local crackdown on 'sexily dressed' school pupils.^[2][2][3] 21 female pupils aged from 11 to 16 were suspended and the rest segregated away from the other pupils.^[2][3]

Notable former pupils

• 
  Mark Briggs - former West Bromwich Albion, Notts County and Shrewsbury Town footballer, attended from 1993 to 1998


• 
  Reece Brown - footballer who plays for Forest Green Rovers and previously Birmingham City, attended from 2007 to 2012


• 
  Chris Marsh - former Walsall defender, attended from 1982 to 1986.


• 
  Phil Parkes - former West Ham goalkeeper, attended from 1961 to 1965.

See also

• School uniform

References