Cornelius Vermuyden School is 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) ...

with academy status for boys and girls ages 11–16. Located on

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office ...

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 ...

, the school is named after the Dutch land engineer Sir

Cornelius Vermuyden Sir Cornelius Vermuyden (Sint-Maartensdijk, 1595 – London, 11 October 1677) was a Dutch engineer who introduced Dutch land reclamation methods to England. Vermuyden was commissioned by the Crown to drain Hatfield Chase in the Isle of Axholme, ...

(1595-1683) who reclaimed large areas of fenland in England, and supervised the construction of the sea walls around Canvey in 1623. The school is a specialist

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

and

maths and computing college Mathematics and Computing Colleges were introduced in England in 2002 and Northern Ireland in 2006 as part of the Government's Specialist Schools programme which was designed to raise standards in secondary education. Specialist schools focus on ...

History

The original school was planned in the 1960s as Cornelius Vermuyden Comprehensive School by

Essex County Council Essex County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Essex in England. It has 75 councillors, elected from 70 divisions, and is currently controlled by the Conservative Party. The council meets at County Hall ...

and in 1970 a tender was awarded to

Higgins Construction __NOTOC__ Higgins may refer to: People * Higgins (surname), including list of people with the surname (see also Ó hUiginn) Places * Higgins, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Higgins, North Caroli ...

for £320,000 to build the new establishment. The new school situated in Dinant Avenue opened in September 1972 and was set in 38 acres of ground. The school was granted Arts College status and pupils from the school were involved in the creation of a large mosaic on Canvey seafront in 2007. The project was funded by Essex County Council and the BP petrol company, and the results earned the praise of the chairman of Castle Point Council's environment committee. The school holds the

Sportsmark Sportsmark is Sport England's accreditation scheme for secondary schools. The scheme recognises a school's out of hours sports provision.

award and the Specialist Schools Trust have recognised the school in their 'Most Improved Schools Club'. As part of the Essex County Council education review for secondary education on Canvey Island, Cornelius Vermuyden School was chosen along with

Castle View School Castle View School is a comprehensive school for ages 11–16, located on Canvey Island in Essex, England, sited on the old Furtherwick School site in the Centre of Canvey town centre. As of 2006, it has some 900 pupils and 200 staff. Castl ...

to stay open and were rebuilt as part of the

Building Schools for the Future Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was the name given to the British government's investment programme in secondary school buildings in England in the 2000s. The programme was ambitious in its costs, timescales and objectives, with politicia ...

programme. Designed by Nicholas Hare Architects, the new buildings were built in between 2010 and 2012 and constructed by a consortium led by

Skanska Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world according to ''Construction Global'' magazine. Notable Skanska projects include renovation of t ...

. The design was nominated for an award by RIBA in 2012. The school became 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 ...

in November 2013.

Notable pupils

Billy Knott Billy Steven Knott (born 28 November 1992) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Margate. He has represented England at under-16, under-17 and under-20 level. He joined Sunderland after being released from the Che ...

- English footballer

References

External links

Essex BSF (Building Schools for the Future)

Specialist Schools Trust

BBC stats page for school

Architectural images of Cornelius Vermuyden School
Secondary schools in Essex Canvey Island Academies in Essex Specialist arts colleges in England Specialist maths and computing colleges in England {{Essex-school-stub