Bispham High School Arts College was a
secondary school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
situated in
Bispham, Blackpool, Lancashire, England, with a mixed intake of both boys and girls aged 11–16. It was replaced with
Blackpool Aspire Academy
Blackpool Aspire Academy is a secondary school located in the Layton area of Blackpool, Lancashire, England.
The school was formed in 2014 by merging Collegiate High School with Bispham High School Arts College. It was temporarily located on ...
in 2014.
History
Bispham High School was formerly an all girls' school, founded in the 1950s.
Bispham was initially called Arnold High School for Girls, a girls' grammar school, having been split from local public school
Arnold School
Arnold School was an independent school in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, established on the Fylde coast in 1896 during the Victorian expansion of public boarding schools in England.
The school was in the United Church Schools Trust group o ...
by the local council. Arnold Girls' amalgamated with local girls' secondary modern Claremont to become Arnold-Claremont in 1975, before changing its name to Greenlands (grey and gold uniform, 6th form wore bottle green uniform) in 1976. The school had an 11 to 18 age range until 1989, when
Blackpool Council
Blackpool Council is the local authority of the Borough of Blackpool, Lancashire, England. It is a unitary authority
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additiona ...
separated from
Lancashire County Council
Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. It consists of 84 councillors. Since the 2017 election, the council has been under Conservative control.
Prior to the 2009 La ...
and moved A Levels to
Blackpool Sixth Form College
The Blackpool Sixth Form College is a co-educational state funded sixth form college serving the Fylde and surrounding areas in Lancashire, England. The college has around 2,000 full-time students. It offers academic and applied programmes to a wi ...
.
The school became Bispham High School (navy blue and yellow uniform), a co educational secondary school, a
specialist Performing
Arts College
An Arts College, in the United Kingdom, is a type of specialist school that specialises in the subject fields of the performing, visual, digital and/or media arts. They were announced in 1996 and introduced alongside Sports Colleges to England i ...
and a Centre of Excellence for
Performing Arts
The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...
in 2000.
At the last arts college redesignation, the school was judged exceptional in every criterion.
Plans to merge Bispham and Collegiate High School were under discussion from 2012 to 2014. The new merged school (named
Blackpool Aspire Academy
Blackpool Aspire Academy is a secondary school located in the Layton area of Blackpool, Lancashire, England.
The school was formed in 2014 by merging Collegiate High School with Bispham High School Arts College. It was temporarily located on ...
) was formally created in September 2014, and is sponsored by the Fylde Coast Academy Trust. The school was temporarily housed at the former Bispham High School campus, but has now been relocated to new buildings at the Collegiate site during November 2015.
Academic subjects and achievements
In 2011, 86% of the school's students achieved a
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 ...
equivalent pass rate of five or more A to C grades. This was the best result in the school's history. The school was acknowledged by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust at that point as one of the country's most improved schools.
[ ] The final two percentages (2013 and 2014) for GCSE 5 A-Cs including English and Maths (the new government measure) were 47% and 43%.
The school held the
ICT Mark The Self-review Framework is an online tool that schools in the United Kingdom can use to assess and benchmark their use of technology ( ICT). It enables schools to identify where they are and shows the practical steps they can take to improve thei ...
, the Eco Silver Award, the Geography Quality Mark and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust's Cultural Diversity Quality Standard Gold Award.
The school offered French, Spanish and German on the Modern Foreign Languages programme. It offered Food Technology, Resistant Materials, Graphic Design and Textiles as Design Technology options. It also offered a variety of
BTEC course subjects to 14 to 16-year olds as well as the usual GCSE programme.
The school had firm links with most Further and Higher Education establishments in
The Fylde
The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills ...
.
Building and refurbishment project
A£6M project was completed in the beginning of 2007.
The project included -
*A two-floor unit housing a
Learning Resource Centre and
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
on the first floor and a computer suite, Recording Studio and Video/Film/Media editing suite on the ground floor
*A 14 classroom block for
Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
and English Faculties
*Arts Block with two large Drama Studios
*Additional
dance studio
A dance studio is a space in which dancers learn or rehearse. The term is typically used to describe a space that has either been built or equipped for the purpose.
Overview
A dance studio normally includes a smooth floor covering or, if used fo ...
*Second
restaurant
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
*Entrance/reception block with
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...
offices plus
atrium
Atrium may refer to:
Anatomy
* Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart
* Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods
* Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain
* Pulmona ...
The administration centre and atrium were opened on 7 November 2006, by retired
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
and former
Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire,
Jimmy Armfield
James Christopher Armfield, (21 September 1935 – 22 January 2018) was an English professional football player and manager who latterly worked as a football pundit for BBC Radio Five Live. He played the whole of his Football League career at B ...
OBE.
*Upgrade of classrooms, new car parks, more disabled facilities etc.
*The school now has eleven computer suites.
Notable pupils
*Ex ''
Emmerdale
''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British soap opera that is broadcast on ITV1. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, '' ...
'' actress,
Kelsey-Beth Crossley
Kelsey-Beth Crossley (born 8 July 1992) is a British actress from Fleetwood, England, who played the part of Scarlett Nicholls, the secret teenage daughter of deceased millionaire Tom King and Carrie Nicholls on the ITV (TV network), ITV soap ...
.
*Musician
Karima Francis
Karima Francis (born Karima Antoinette Francis Cunliffe, 28 April 1987 in Blackpool, England) is an English singer-songwriter.
Karima was named by ''The Observer'' the number one act to watch in 2009. After performing at In The City in Manches ...
.
*Actor Daniel Rogers (''
In with the Flynns
''In with the Flynns'' is a British sitcom created by Caryn Mandabach, produced by Caryn Mandabach Productions, and broadcast by the BBC. The first series began broadcast on 8 June 2011 for six episodes on BBC One and in high definition on BBC On ...
'').
*Ex Bispham student Chris Maughan, in 2011, became one of Blackpool's youngest ever councillors, representing Labour.
*Actress
Jacqueline Leonard
Jacqueline Jackie Leonard is a Scottish actress. She is known for playing Sarah Preston in the ITV drama ''Peak Practice'' from 1993 to 1996, Lorraine Wicks in the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'' from 1996 to 1997, Dr. Caroline Powers in the BB ...
was a pupil of Greenlands.
*Athlete
Kirsty Mackay
Kirsty MacKay (16 November 1986) is a goalkeeper for England national women's field hockey team. She plays club hockey in the Investec Women's Hockey League for Bowdon Hightown.
Mackay also played for East Grinstead
East Grinstead is a ...
GB & England Hockey Player, part of the Gold medal squad in Rio 2016 Olympics.
Performing Arts Projects
The school worked with the
Royal Ballet School
The Royal Ballet School is a British school of classical ballet training founded in 1926 by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographer Ninette de Valois. The school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers, especially ...
, London and possessed an
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 ...
Artsmark Gold. It was regarded as a centre of excellence for Dance and was widely acclaimed for its high grades in the subject and work within the community. Mrs Deborah Hanlon-Catlow (Head of the Arts College and Acting Deputy Headteacher) took second place in School and Community Involvement at The Teachers Awards 2004.
The school also had a successful
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
, ''Bispham High School Gospel Choir'', under the direction of Margaret Adereti (
Conductor), Neill Oldham-Campbell (
Accompanist
Accompaniment is the part (music), musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmony (music), harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in ...
) and Sarah Bagot (
Vocal Support).
In March 2007, the choir recorded a cover version of ''Crazy'' by
Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley are an American soul duo, composed of singer-songwriter CeeLo Green and producer Danger Mouse. They released their debut studio album, '' St. Elsewhere'', in 2006. It contained their hit single "Crazy", which peaked at number two ...
for the
BBC 6 Music Hardchoral competition in which they reached the top ten.
The choir made its national debut when the song was played on the BBC 6 Music Breakfast Show over the
Easter Weekend
Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, wh ...
in April 2007.
On 17 April 2007 the choir sang their version of ''Crazy'' on BBC 6 Music during a live broadcast from the school hall, as part of the Hardchoral competition.
The choir released two successful CDs (recorded by the school's performing arts technician, Mr Richard Moore, who also recorded various other CD and DVD releases for the school in the school's own recording studio), with performances and contributions from current and former students of Bispham. They also completed two tours in Europe (Germany and France). The French tour involved several performances around the capital city, including an exclusive concert in the
Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origin ...
resort.
Notes
External links
Bispham High School website
{{Use British English, date=September 2010
Defunct schools in Blackpool