The Astley Cooper School is an English 11–18

comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

on the edge of

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a ne ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England.

History

The school was established in 1984 following a merger of two local schools, Grove Hill School and Highfield School. It occupies the former Grove Hill site on St Agnells Lane. The former Highfield site, on Fletcher Way, was redeveloped for housing. The school primarily serves the

Grovehill Grovehill is an area of Hemel Hempstead; it comprises two distinct developments. 'Precinct A' laid out and developed by the New Town Commission in 1967–68 and from the beginning a mixture of private and rented housing specifically intended to a ...

Woodhall Farm Woodhall Farm is a neighbourhood on the northern side of Hemel Hempstead in the county of Hertfordshire. It was built on the former Brocks Fireworks site. Its location on the edge of Hemel Hempstead means it has open fields to its north and east ...

and

Highfield Highfield may refer to: Places ;Places in England * Highfield, Bolton * Highfield, Derbyshire * Highfield, Gloucestershire *Highfield, Southampton *Highfield, Hertfordshire a neighbourhood in Hemel Hempstead * Highfield, Oxfordshire * Highfield, S ...

neighbourhoods of Hemel Hempstead. The school is named after Sir

Astley Cooper Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet (23 August 176812 February 1841) was a British surgeon and anatomist, who made contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology ...

, an English

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

and anatomist. The school celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2007. The school works in consortium with two neighbouring schools,

Adeyfield Adeyfield was the first planned neighbourhood to be built in the postwar new town expansion of Hemel Hempstead, in the English county of Hertfordshire. The keys to the first houses to be occupied, in Homefield Road, were handed over to their te ...

and Longdean, as the East Dacorum Partnership, for post-16 provision. The current headteacher is Edward Gaynor with Brett Daddow as Senior Assistant Headteacher.

Site and facilities

The school occupies a site in the Grovehill area of Hemel Hempstead. The school comprises teaching rooms, including laboratories,

ICT ICT may refer to: Sciences and technology * Information and communications technology * Image Constraint Token, in video processing * Immunochromatographic test, a rapid immunoassay used to detect diseases such as anthrax * In-circuit test, in ...

suites, workshops, a food technology kitchen and a library. Most teaching rooms are equipped with an interactive whiteboard. The award of Arts College status and its associated funding allowed the school to improve facilities for student learning. These included an iMac suite and newly equipped art studios, a dance studio and a drama studio. The sound capabilities of the main auditorium were improved allowing it to be used for concerts and shows. The school also contains a digital recording studio, photography suite, zen garden, organic vegetable allotment and a post-16 independent learning area. Sports teaching facilities include playing fields, a gymnasium, basketball courts, a fitness suite and a swimming pool. The school participates in the Dacorum Sports Partnership, an umbrella organisation for sports organisations in Dacorum. The facilities have been used by local sports clubs including Hemel Hempstead Swimming Club.

Curriculum

The school is an 11–18 comprehensive secondary school which follows the National Curriculum programme of study for core and foundation subjects. Pupils are taught towards

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

, GNVQ and BTEC qualifications. The school consortium provides access to post-16 learning such as AS Level and

A Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

courses, GNVQ courses and vocational courses. Astley Cooper provides a pastoral support system and a learning needs' team. Extracurricular activities include sport, art, music, drama, dance and creative writing clubs. The school has developed visiting artist-based art workshops centered on the theme of arts and ecology.

Awards

The school was awarded

specialist school Specialist schools, also known as specialised schools or specialized schools, are schools which specialise in a certain area or field of curriculum. In some countries, for example New Zealand, the term is used exclusively for schools specialis ...

status for the arts and has been awarded

Artsmark Artsmark is the creative quality standard for schools and education settings, awarded by Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is ...

Gold by

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

. The school is a member of the

Specialist Schools and Academies Trust SSAT (The Schools Network) Limited (branded as SSAT, the Schools, Students and Teachers network) is a UK-based, independent educational membership organisation working with primary, secondary, special and free schools, academies and UTCs. It ...

. The school has also been awarded the

Sportsmark Sportsmark is Sport England's accreditation scheme for secondary schools. The scheme recognises a school's out of hours sports provision.

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded par ...

for its delivery of the national PE, School Sports and Club Links Strategy. The school has implemented

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

's Charter Standard for Schools for football development. The school has been recognised by

Investors in People Investors in People is a standard for people management, offering accreditation to organisations that adhere to the Investors in People Standard. From 1991 to January 2017, Investors in People was owned by the UK government. As of 1 February 20 ...

. In 2013, headmaster Eddie Gaynor won the

Pearson Pearson may refer to: Organizations Education *Lester B. Pearson College, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada *Pearson College (UK), London, owned by Pearson PLC *Lester B. Pearson High School (disambiguation) Companies *Pearson PLC, a UK-based int ...

Teaching Awards ''The Teaching Awards'' is an annual teacher awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. In 2008, the awards were hosted by Jeremy Vine and Myleene Klass. In 2009, the awards were hosted by Jeremy Vine and Christine Lampard. In 2010, Lenny Henry presen ...

award for best headmaster in the East of England.

Uniform

The school introduced a new

school uniform A school uniform is a uniform worn by students primarily for a school or otherwise an educational institution.They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries. An example of a uniform would be requiring button-down shir ...

in September 2008. It consists of a black blazer with the school logo, a white shirt worn with a burgundy and light blue

necktie A necktie, or simply a tie, is a piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat, and often draped down the chest. Variants include the ascot, bow, bolo, zipper tie, cra ...

, black trousers, and black shoes. Pupils in years 10 and 11 may continue to wear the previous uniform, which includes a burgundy school sweatshirt and white polo shirt. Optional uniform items include a burgundy rain coat, sports polo shirt, specific sports strips and tracksuits.

Initiatives

Visiting Authors Initiative

The school supports a Visiting Authors Initiative where authors are invited to speak at the school. These sessions are followed by a public book signing in partnership with

Waterstone's Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Wa ...

. The aims of the sessions are to encourage young people, both at the school and in the wider community, to read more and to become engaged in creative writing. Students and members of the public are given opportunities to question the authors and to receive critiques of their works. Authors who have taken part in the initiative include: * Frederick Forsyth *

Jodi Picoult Jodi Lynn Picoult () is an American writer. Picoult has published 28 novels, accompanying short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 ...

* Sophie Hannah *

Joanne Harris Joanne Michèle Sylvie Harris (born 3 July 1964) is an English-French author, best known for her novel '' Chocolat'' (1999), which was adapted the following year for the film '' Chocolat''. Early life Harris was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, t ...

* Mark Billingham *

Michael Dobbs Michael John Dobbs, Baron Dobbs (born 14 November 1948) is a British Conservative politician and author, best known for his ''House of Cards'' trilogy. Early life and education Michael Dobbs was born on 14 November 1948 in Cheshunt, Hertfordsh ...

* Aidan Chambers *

Elizabeth Buchan Elizabeth Buchan, née Oakleigh-Walker (born 21 May 1948) is a British writer of non-fiction and fiction books since 1985. In 1994, her novel ''Consider the Lily'' won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association, ...

*Peter James * John Connolly

Wind turbines

The school was the first in Hertfordshire to install energy saving

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

s. They will generate around 13,500 kWh of electricity every year and cut the buildings'

carbon emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and larg ...

by nearly six tonnes each year. Over the 25-year life of the turbines, they will displace 150 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The school has also invested in a web-based monitoring system that will show students how much energy the turbines are generating, along with data on the amount of carbon dioxide being offset."Renewable Energy Generation at Astley Cooper School"
Monitoring system. Retrieved 22 October 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Astley Cooper School 1967 establishments in England 1984 establishments in England Secondary schools in Hertfordshire Educational institutions established in 1967 Educational institutions established in 1984 Schools in Hemel Hempstead Community schools in Hertfordshire