Arthur Mellows Village College is a secondary school in Glinton in the local authority of

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

. The college is an

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 ...

with a specialism in technology. Olympic gymnast Louis Smith and footballers Luke Steele and Lia Cataldo are amongst the alumni.

History

The school is named after its founder, Arthur Holditch Mellows (1892–1948), a British army captain from the Hunts Cyclist Battalion who was promoted to colonel during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, served in Iraq during the 1920s, and commanded local

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...

units during World War II. In the interwar years he became a solicitor, and from 1935–37 he was Mayor of Peterborough. From 1943 onwards he headed the national education committee. He owned a black

Chrysler Windsor The Chrysler Windsor is a full-size car which was built by Chrysler from 1939 through to the 1960s. The final Chrysler Windsor sold in the United States was produced in 1961, but production in Canada continued until 1966. The Canadian 1961 to 19 ...

, an unusual sight in wartime Britain. Chrysler Windsor Coupe 1940

Colonel Mellows was returning from a

shoot In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the spri ...

on 16 October 1948, when his car was struck by a train at

Conington, Huntingdonshire Conington (Conington All Saints, or "Conington-juxta-Petriburg") is an English village and civil parish in the Cambridgeshire district of Huntingdonshire. Conington lies about 10 km (6 miles) south of Peterborough and 3 km (2 miles) north of S ...

.1948 report of the accident
/ref> The college opened in 1949. From 1948 until the 1970s, the Arthur Mellows Memorial Trust hosted lectures at the college and provided education grants in subjects of interest to Mellows. In the 1970s and 1980s the college was ahead of its time in community links. Arthur Mellows offered evening classes and a meeting area for community groups and had a public library on site. As such the school used to refer to the headteacher using the title "Warden". More recently this was changed to the more recognisable term "Head of College". The college was originally built to serve the villages from Wittering to

Eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...

which form an approximate straight line, the village of Glinton being in the middle. More recently the school developed a broader catchment including pupils from the large Peterborough suburb of Werrington. In the 2000s multiple Peterborough schools were considered failing, closed down, demolished, rebuilt and re-named. However, Arthur Mellows converted to academy status, underwent significant expansion and was considered a successful school.

Architecture

Built just after WWII, the college was designed so that it could be quickly converted into a hospital if necessary. However, this was never required. It is most evident on the main ground floor teaching corridor of the original building, where large glass windows make easy viewing from corridor to classrooms which could be re-purposed as wards. The external walls of these classrooms are almost entirely glass, which would have allowed patients access to large amounts of light and south facing patios.

School performance and inspections

As of 2022, the college's most recent inspection 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 ...

was in 2014, with a judgement of Outstanding. In 2008, results at

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 ...

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 ...

were above average.

References

External links

Arthur Mellows Village College
{{authority control Academies in Peterborough Secondary schools in Peterborough 1949 establishments in the United Kingdom