Ellowes Hall Sports College (formerly Ellowes Hall School) is a comprehensive secondary school 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 ...

situated on Stickley Lane in

Lower Gornal Gornal is a suburban area and electoral ward of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, in the West Midlands county in England. It encompasses three historic villages: Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal, and Gornal Wood. Gornal was formerly part of Staffordshi ...

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

, West Midlands, England. It provides education for pupils aged 11 to 18 years.

History

It was built as a secondary modern school by

Sedgley Urban District Sedgley urban district was a local government district within Staffordshire, which was created in 1894 from the western half of the manor of Sedgley (the other half of which became the Coseley Urban District). The Urban District, formed in ...

Council in 1964 near the

Ellowes Hall Ellowes Hall was a stately home located in Sedgley, Staffordshire (now West Midlands). It was built in 1821 in parkland near Lower Gornal village as the home of wealthy local ironmonger John Fereday and his family. Over the next 100 years or more ...

stately home (which was demolished that year), to replace a smaller secondary school at nearby Redhall, but since 1966 has existed within the

Metropolitan Borough of Dudley The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley is a metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England. It was created in 1974 following the Local Government Act 1972, through a merger of the existing Dudley County Borough with the municipal boroughs of Stour ...

. In September 1972, the age of pupils starting the school was increased to 12 in order to comply with the LEA's decision to increase the secondary school starting age. In September 1975, the school's status changed to comprehensive and a sixth form was added, making it a 12–18 school. However, the school was reorganised to an 11–16 comprehensive in September 1990 as most of the remaining sixth forms in the Dudley borough were replaced with expanded facilities at further education colleges. In September 1993, the school became grant-maintained, only to return to Dudley LEA's control in 1998. By this date, a new classroom block and library had been constructed, and the main hall had been refurbished. A performing arts block was opened in 1999. Just after the school became grant maintained, the governors seized the opportunity to restore sixth form facilities to the school and the new sixth form opened in September 1995

In 2004, the school gained specialist sports status. In 2008, Ellowes became the highest ranking of the three Sedgley secondary schools 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 ...

examinations for the very first time when an impressive 63% of pupils finished their compulsory education with five or more grades at C or above including English and Mathematics. This placed Ellowes as the fifth highest of the Dudley Borough's 21 secondary schools

Its success continued in 2010 with 90% of students gaining five or more grades at C and above with 66% including English and Mathematics. Previously a

foundation school In England and Wales, a foundation school is a state-funded school in which the governing body has greater freedom in the running of the school than in community schools. Foundation schools were set up under the School Standards and Framework A ...

administered by

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority for Dudley metropolitan borough. It is more commonly known as Dudley Council or Dudley MBC. The present authority was formed as a result of further reorganisation of local government ...

, Ellowes Hall Sports College converted to academy status in March 2015. However the school continues to co-ordinate with Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council for admissions.

Location

The school serves the villages of

and Gornal Wood, where the majority of the school's pupils live. A lesser number of pupils are from the

Upper Gornal Gornal is a suburban area and electoral ward of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, in the West Midlands county in England. It encompasses three historic villages: Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal, and Gornal Wood. Gornal was formerly part of Staffordshi ...

area, while some are from over the border in

on the Milking Bank housing estate that was mostly developed during the 1980s. Ellowes Hall is located on the Stickley Estate, which is predominantly made up of pre-war council housing built by Sedgley UDC, though many homes have been bought off the council under the

right to buy scheme The Right to Buy scheme is a policy in the United Kingdom, with the exception of Scotland since 1 August 2016 and Wales from 26 January 2019, which gives secure tenants of councils and some housing associations the legal right to buy, at a large ...

. The estate is situated just to the north-west of Lower Gornal village centre, and is approximately two miles from the centres of nearby towns

Sedgley Sedgley is a town in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, Sedgley is on the A459 road between Wolverhampt ...

and

. The majority of pupils starting at Ellowes are former pupils of Roberts Primary School, Redhall Primary School, Straits Primary School and Milking Bank Primary School, though a handful of pupils have been taken in from schools including

Cotwall End Primary School Sedgley is a town in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, Sedgley is on the A459 road between Wolverhampton and Dudley, and was formerly the seat of an anci ...

and – until its closure in 2006 – Sycamore Green Primary School.

Ofsted

The latest

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 ...

report in November 2019 graded the school as 'Requires Improvement', following a period of decline under the headship of Alan Jasper.

Invictus Education Trust

The "Invictus Education Trust" is the academy to which Ellowes Hall, Leasowes High School, Ounsdale High School, The Crestwood School and Kinver High School belong.http://www.invictus.education

Drama productions

The school produces plays, such as '' Fiddler on the Roof'',

miss Saigon ''Miss Saigon'' is a stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera ''Madame Butterfly'', and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed rom ...

, ''

Billy Elliot ''Billy Elliot'' is a 2000 British coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall. Set in County Durham in North East England during the 1984–1985 miners' strike, the film is about a working-class boy wh ...

, ''

Oliver! ''Oliver!'' is a coming-of-age stage musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the 1838 novel '' Oliver Twist'' by Charles Dickens. It premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre, southwest London in 1960 before op ...

'', ''

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. S ...

'', ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

'', and most recently ''

The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical) ''The Phantom of the Opera'' is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe. Based on the 1910 French novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux, it tells the story ...

''. Drama productions take place in the performing arts suite, which was built in 1999 at a cost of £200,000.

References

External links

School website
{{authority control Schools in Dudley Educational institutions established in 1964 Secondary schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley 1964 establishments in England Academies in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley