Codsall Community High School is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

upper school Upper schools in the UK are usually schools within secondary education. Outside England, the term normally refers to a section of a larger school. England The three-tier model Upper schools are a type of secondary school found in a minority of ...

and

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

located in

Codsall Codsall is a large village in the South Staffordshire district of Staffordshire, England. It is situated 4.5 miles northwest of the city of Wolverhampton and 13 miles east-southeast of Telford. It forms part of the boundary of the Staffordshire ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England. It is located in a large village in South Staffordshire, near

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

. A total of 1017 pupils (including more than 300 sixth formers) attend the school.

History

Codsall High School was opened in May 1940, taking 126 pupils aged 11 and over from the village's school by St Nicholas Church. The school also took pupils from the neighbouring village of Bilbrook. After the war, the school expanded; by 1954, there were 728 children on the roll. An extension was opened in 1957, including the school's present Main Hall. A small swimming pool was constructed in the school's quadrangle in 1964, a roof was added in the 1970s. The school became an 11-18 Comprehensive in 1969; at the same time, headteacher George Gibbs retired and was replaced by Ron Mitson. A further extension was built in the early 1970s, and the school's catchment area expanded to include the village of

Pattingham Pattingham is a village in the civil parish of Pattingham and Patshull, South Staffordshire, near the county boundary with Shropshire. Pattingham is seven miles west of Wolverhampton and seven and a half miles east of Bridgnorth. Description P ...

. Geoff Bate succeeded as headmaster in September 1972, at the same time that the school's capacity was reduced due to the entry age being increased from 11 to 13 as part of the introduction of three-tier education in the area. Original plans for a high school in

Perton Perton is a large village and civil parish located in the South Staffordshire District, Staffordshire, England. It lies 3 miles to the south of Codsall and 4 miles west of Wolverhampton, where part of the village is almost contiguous with th ...

were cancelled, and pupils travelled to

upon completing middle school, leading to a growth in pupil numbers. A community sports centre opened during the mid-1970s, refurbished using National Lottery money from 2003. Mr Bate retired in 1994, replaced by Mr E. Liddy. A further extension was built around this time. The school's current head until the end of the 2014-2015 academic year was Mrs Tunnicliffe, appointed in 2005. The current head, Mr Harding, was appointed in 2015. The school is joined up with two local middle schools ( Bilbrook and

) making it part of a federation of schools. In September 2004 it became the first to achieve

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 in Maths and Computing and in 2013 was rated good 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 2006, the school was found to contain asbestos in some classrooms. In 2014, the school’s minibus was involved in a crash that resulted in four children injured and three adults were hurt. In 2018, the yearly cost for

students travelling by bus trebled to more than £600 resulting in protests.

Curriculum

Following the recognition of the school as a specialist in mathematics and computing, the school's focus shifted in the 2000s to the delivery of more

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 ...

and computing courses, as well as vocational qualifications. However, Codsall Community High School offers a wide range of courses, and was the last comprehensive school in

South Staffordshire South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. The district lies to the north and west of the West Midlands county, bordering Shropshire to the west and Worcestershire to the south. It contains notable settlements ...

still to offer classical subjects, including Classical Civilisation and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, however, these stopped being taught after the year of 2010. Academic attainment peaked in 2008 when the school achieved record results in

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 ...

exams with 72% of candidates receiving the top four grades, A*-C. Since then results have fallen steadily, In 2012, 62% of all pupils attained five GCSEs grade A* to C including English and mathematics. This is a decrease of six percentage points since 2011. A room for the Sixth Form was opened by

Sir Patrick Cormack Patrick Thomas Cormack, Baron Cormack, (born 18 May 1939) is a British politician, historian, journalist and author. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 40 years, from 1970 to 2010. Cormack is a member of the Conservative Party and is ...

in September 2008, named in memory of former headmaster Geoff Bate. Rock band

The Hoosiers ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

visited the community project in October 2008 to support the students and the hard work that they had undertaken.Pupils Go Crazy for Hoosiers Special Gig
Express and Star, 22 October 2008 In 2009, Codsall Community High School extended their curriculum provision by becoming the first state school in the country to run a post-16 Football Academy. The scheme offers students, aged 16–18 years, the opportunity to study for nationally recognised qualifications whilst receiving high quality football coaching daily.

Notable alumni

Paul Tucker (banker) Sir Paul Tucker (born 24 March 1958) is a British economist, central banker, and author. He was formerly the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, with responsibility for financial stability, and served on the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee ...

, Former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England * Jim Lea - member of

Slade Slade are an English rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British Hit Singles ...

, perfected his electronic violin skills under the tutelage of Ron Williams *

Emma Reynolds Emma Elizabeth Reynolds (born 2 November 1977) is a British Labour politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton North East from 2010 to 2019, and the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in ...

Labour Member of Parliament for

Wolverhampton North East Wolverhampton North East is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is currently represented b ...

& Shadow Junior Foreign Office Minister *

William Regal Darren Kenneth Matthews (born 10 May 1968), better known by the ring name William Regal, is an English retired professional wrestler. He is known for his over 20 years spent in WWE, as both a performer and an on-screen authority, and for his ti ...

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

Wrestler * Gareth Morgan -

Daily Star Sunday The ''Daily Star Sunday'' is a weekly tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom. It was launched as a sister title to the ''Daily Star (United Kingdom), Daily Star'' on 15 September 2002. The ''Daily Star Sunday'' is published by Expres ...

editor *

Christopher Sadler Christopher Sadler (born 1970) is a British animator, director and writer. He is primarily known for his work on ''Wallace and Gromit'', ''Chicken Run'', ''Rex the Runt'', ''Cracking Contraptions'', ''Creature Comforts'' and ''Shaun the Sheep''. ...

- award-winning Animator Director for

Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited (also known as Aardman Studios, simply Aardman or Aardman Animation and stylised as AARDMAN as of 2022) is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films made using stop-motion and clay an ...

who has worked on

Wallace and Gromit ''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series c ...

Chicken Run ''Chicken Run'' is a 2000 stop-motion animated comedy film produced by Pathé and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Aardman’s first feature-length film and DreamWorks Animation's fourth film, it was directed by Pe ...

Cracking Contraptions ''Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraptions'' is a British series of ten Wallace and Gromit stop-motion animations varying in length from 1 to 3 minutes. Each episode features one of Wallace's new inventions and Gromit's skeptical reaction to i ...

Creature Comforts ''Creature Comforts'' is a British adult stop-motion comedy mockumentary franchise originating in a 1989 British humorous animated short film of the same name. The film matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about th ...

and

Shaun the Sheep ''Shaun the Sheep'' is a British stop-motion television series and a spin-off of the ''Wallace and Gromit'' franchise. The title character is Shaun (previously featured as the sheep named "Shaun" in the 1995 short film ''A Close Shave'' and t ...

* Peter Baker - Golfer, and member of 1993

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

team. * Professor David Leigh FRS - Scientist and

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, currently

Sir Samuel Hall Chair of Chemistry The Sir Samuel Hall Chair of Chemistry is the named Chair of Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Manchester, established through an endowment of £36,000 in 1913 by the Hall family.Portrait of a University, 1851-1951: To Comm ...

at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

Bernard O'Mahoney Bernard O'Mahoney (born 15 March 1960, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England) is an English author, security detail, and former soldier. After taking control of security at a nightclub he became associated with Tony Tucker, a drug dealer who was shot ...

- Author * Vanessa McKeown - Photographer

Sources

* ''The Story of Codsall and Bilbrook Schools'', Codsall and Bilbrook History Society, 1993

References

External links

CCHS Football Academy website

Official website
{{authority control South Staffordshire District Community schools in Staffordshire Upper schools in Staffordshire Educational institutions established in 1940 1940 establishments in England