East Leeds Family Learning Centre was a large

Adult Education Centre Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralp ...

Seacroft Seacroft is an outer-city suburb/township consisting mainly of council estate housing covering an extensive area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It lies in the LS14 Leeds postcode area, around east of Leeds city centre. It sits in th ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The buildings were originally used as a secondary school, Foxwood School. The school is notable for its use for filming ''

The Beiderbecke Trilogy ''The Beiderbecke Trilogy'' refers to three television serials written by Alan Plater and made by ITV Yorkshire, Yorkshire Television for the ITV (TV network), ITV network in the United Kingdom between 1984 and 1988. Each serial centres on schoolt ...

'' between 1984 and 1988. Demolition of the buildings began in December 2009 and was completed early in 2010.

History

The centre was in the buildings of the former

Foxwood School Foxwood School was a Comprehensive school in Seacroft, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1956 and closed 40 years later in 1996. History Summary Foxwood School was the first comprehensive school in Leeds and opened on 4 September 195 ...

, later East Leeds High School. The school originally opened as an all-boys school, but changed in September 1971 to a mixed gender school. The

David Young Academy Bishop Young Church of England Academy (formerly known as David Young Community Academy) is a state-funded Academy (English school), academy sponsored by the Church of England John Smeaton Academy John Smeaton Academy is a co-educational secondary school located in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The school educates children aged 11–18 from across Leeds and its surrounding villages including Scholes, Cross Gates, Barwick-in-Elmet, Pe ...

Wetherby High School Wetherby High School (formerly Wetherby Secondary Modern School) is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in the Hallfield area of Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England. The school is run by the City of Leeds Local Education Au ...

Boston Spa School Boston Spa Academy (formerly Boston Spa Comprehensive School) is a coeducational secondary school for pupils aged 11–19 years old on Clifford Moor Road in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, England. It is larger than other secondary schools in ...

and

Garforth Community College Garforth Academy (formerly known as Garforth Comprehensive School until September 1992 and Garforth Community College until November 2010) is a secondary school and sixth form for pupils aged 11–18 and is located on Lidgett Lane (B6137) ...

the latter three which are served by school bus routes operated by

West Yorkshire Metro Metro is the passenger information brand used by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE) at the same time as the metropolitan county of West Yor ...

Use in Television

The buildings were most notable for their use as 'San Quentin High', in the

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

programmes ''

The Beiderbecke Affair ''The Beiderbecke Affair'' is a television series produced in the United Kingdom by ITV during 1985, written by the prolific Alan Plater, whose lengthy credits in British television since the 1960s included the four-part mini series '' Get Lost!' ...

'', ''

The Beiderbecke Tapes ''The Beiderbecke Tapes'' is a two-part British television drama serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1987. It is the second serial in ''The Beiderbecke Trilogy'' and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor Chapli ...

'' and ''

The Beiderbecke Connection ''The Beiderbecke Connection'' is a four-part British television serial written by Alan Plater and broadcast in 1988. It is the third and final part of ''The Beiderbecke Trilogy'' and stars James Bolam and Barbara Flynn as schoolteachers Trevor ...

''. The shots used of the staff room and hall in the ''Beiderbecke Tapes'' were in fact that of

Moor Grange County Secondary School Moor Grange County Secondary School was an all-boys school located in the Leeds postal district of Leeds 16 at the junction of Parkstone Avenue and the West Park, Leeds, West Park section of the Leeds Outer Ring Road. Although it was named Moo ...

Ireland Wood Ireland Wood is a small residential area in north-west Leeds, West Yorkshire, England named after the Woodland Trust wood which it contains. It is approximately to the north-west of Leeds city centre. It was planned by Leeds Housing Director R ...

. In the series, references were made to the fictional inner-city school being run-down in the later decades of its use. The internal buildings and school grounds were used for filming in the CITV series "

Adam's Family Tree ''Adam's Family Tree'' is a children's television comedy programme that was first broadcast in January 1997 and ran until February 1999. The show was broadcast on CITV, the children's segment of ITV. The show which was filmed in Yorkshire ran ...

" which aired between 1997 and 1999.

Demolition

The buildings were in a somewhat derelict state, built six storeys high at their tallest and set around a central courtyard. Much of the building surfaces were glazed, providing natural light throughout the corridors, which largely ran along the edge of buildings, a feature

exploited for filming. Demolition began on the northern sections of the building in December 2009, following a decision by Leeds City Council that the building was unfit for purpose and uneconomic to repair. No plans have as yet being put forward for the redevelopment of the site. Many prefabricated 'Cedarwood' houses in the area are abandoned and likely to be demolished in the near future raising the possibility that the site may be redeveloped as part of a wider scheme.

Former staff

Former

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Colin Burgon Colin Burgon (born 22 April 1948) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Elmet from 1997 to 2010. Early life Colin Burgon was born in Leeds to Catholic, Labour-supporting parents. His mother, Winnie, wa ...

(for neighbouring

Elmet Constituency Elmet was a county constituency in West Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. From 1997 the MP was Colin B ...

between 1997 and 2010) was a history teacher at the school and grew up in neighbouring

Gipton Gipton is a suburb of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between the A58 to the north and the A64 to the south. It is in the Gipton and Harehills ward of Leeds City Council and the Leeds East parliamentary constituency. The separate area a ...

References

External links

* http://www.foxwoodhighschool.co.uk/History.htm {{Coord, 53.818070, -1.475200, type:edu_region:GB, display=title Education in Leeds Seacroft