Ormiston Park Academy, formerly the Belhus Chase Specialist Humanities College, is now a secondary school and

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

located in

Aveley Aveley is a town and former civil parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex, England, and forms one of the traditional Church of England parishes. Aveley is 16 miles (26.2 km) east of Charing Cross. In the 2021 United Kingdom ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England. The school was reformed as an academy in 2009 under the sponsorship of the

Ormiston Academies Trust Ormiston Trust is a charitable trust based in London, England. It is a grant-making trust that chiefly assists schools and organisations supporting children and young people. The trust was established in the memory of Fiona Ormiston Murray who d ...

and the new building was designed by

Nicholas Hare Architects Nicholas Hare Architects is a UK architectural practice, with a portfolio of award-winning projects. These include schools, higher education, refurbishment, commercial projects, and buildings for the arts. Founded by Nicholas Hare in 1977, the pr ...

and completed in Spring 2014.

History

The then Aveley County Technical High School first opened its doors in 1957 and originally had a capacity of 660 students. It amalgamated with the

Grays County Technical High School The Hathaway Academy, formerly the Grays School Media Arts College (TGSMAC or Grays School), is a coeducational, non-selective secondary school with academy status that is located in Grays, Essex, England. It is currently part of the Academ ...

Grays, Essex Grays (or Grays Thurrock) is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex, England. The town which is both a former civil parish and one of Thurrock's traditional Church of England parishes is located on the north ...

to form the Aveley and Grays Technical High School in 1968. The Headmaster of the merged school was Frederick F. Harsan

The merger between the two schools discontinued when the Grays campus was taken over by the Grays Park School in 1971 and the Aveley Technical closed a year later when it amalgamated with the Palmer's Boys' and Girls' Schools to form

Palmer's College USP College (Unified Seevic Palmer's College, previously known as Seevic and Palmer's Colleges Group) is a large general further education college in Essex, England. It was established in August 2017 from the merger of Palmer's College in Gra ...

. In 1976 the Aveley School, located in Love Lane, relocated to the former Aveley Technical site. By 2004 it was called the Aveley Secondary School and in 2007 the school specialised as the Belhus Chase Specialist

Humanities College Humanities Colleges are a type of specialist school introduced in 2004 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary and primary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, humanities ...

. The Headteacher at the time was Tess Walker. In 2009 the school closed at the end of the August 31 school day, reopening the next day as Ormiston Park Academy. Tess Walker became Principal of the new academy and she left in 2014, being replaced by Huw Derrick. Derrick was Deputy Head since 2004 and announced his retirement in 2019, being replaced by current Principal Mark Roessler at the beginning of the 2020–2021 academic year.

Ofsted judgements

As of 2022, the school was last inspected by

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

in 2017, when it received a judgement of Good. Previously it was rated as Requires Improvement.

References

External links

Official website
Academies in Thurrock Secondary schools in Thurrock Ormiston Academies Aveley {{Essex-school-stub