Barton Court Grammar School (formerly Canterbury Technical School for Girls and Barton Court Grammar School for Girls) is an 11-18 mixed

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 ...

of Excellence in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

, Kent, England. It has Foreign Language College status and offers A-Levels.

History

The school was founded before World War II as the Canterbury Technical School for Girls. It shared the old hospital site on the north side of Longport, along with the equivalent for boys (which became Chaucer School) and the Technical College (which became

Canterbury College Canterbury College may refer to: * Canterbury College (Indiana), U.S. * Canterbury College (Waterford), Queensland, Australia * Canterbury College (Windsor, Ontario), Canada * Canterbury College, Kent, England * Canterbury College, Oxford, England ...

). It moved across the road to the present site in 1945. Past Headmistresses were Miss E. Blackith (who retired in 1967) and followed by Mrs V. Arnold, Mrs J. Byers, and Headmasters Mr. J. Matthews and Dr. S. Manning. In September 2007 the school replaced

A-levels 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 ...

with the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

. From September 2011 the school re-introduced A-levels but kept the International Baccalaureate, giving students the option to do either. The school held a Foreign Language College status, and the school has transferred to the International Baccalaureate award scheme for those pupils in Years 12 and 13. Study of this course has begun from September 2007,The International Baccalaureate at Barton Court
and the first set of official results were published on 6 July 2009. The results were above the world average, and the school put the Middle Years Program (a version of the International Baccalaureate for younger pupils) into use. MYP (Middle Years Program) was stopped shortly before the end of 2010 and was replaced on the timetable by ICT. The International Baccalaureate was also discontinued in 2015. The school spent an estimated £5 million on new Maths and Biology classrooms in January 2018. There were early doubts about the appearance of the buildings, with some comparing it to 'prison'.

Academy governance

On 1 September 2011, Barton Court Grammar School became an Academy. Barton Court did not change its name as it wished to keep it the same.

Barton Manor School

In September 2022, Barton Court's sister school, Barton Manor School opened, which it shares teachers and facilities with.

Campus

The school stands on what was the farm of

St Augustine's Abbey St Augustine's Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Canterbury, Kent, England. The abbey was founded in 598 and functioned as a monastery until its dissolution in 1538 during the English Reformation. After the abbey's dissolution, it underwent ...

across the road; 'Barton' stems from 'bere tun' or 'barley enclosure'. The school is built around the lake in which the monks of the Abbey farmed fish. The campus has the sixth

Ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants. The scientific name is also used as the English name. The order to which it belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, 270 million years ago, and is now the only living genus within ...

tree to be introduced in England from China. The other five were planted in

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

. The main house of the school was built in 1750 as a manor house with the name 'Barton Manor'; the other buildings include a 1961 block, which is now the hall and corridor, a language block in 2001 and technology classrooms in 2007.

Curriculum

Kent is one of the counties in England that retains selection. This is a selective school: pupils gain entry by sitting the Kent test, an

eleven-plus The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academic ...

test.

Extracurricular activities

The school has an orchestra, choir and debating club.

References

External links

*
Article on first set of IB Results
{{authority control Grammar schools in Kent Academies in Kent Schools in Canterbury