Freman College is an
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 ...
with
academy status in
Buntingford
Buntingford is a market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It lies next to the River Rib and is located on the historic Roman road, Ermine Street. As a result of its location, it ...
,
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
, England.
It was established as Ward Freman School in either 1970 or 1971 and became Freman College in 1999. It is named after the late Elizabeth Freman and the Freman family, who currently own the grounds of the school.
Of the 788 students at the school in 2006, 198 were enrolled in the
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 ...
.
History
Ward Freman School was established in either 1970 or 1971,
replacing Buntingford Secondary Modern School.
It was named after Bishop
Seth Ward and Elizabeth Freman of the Freman family as both were benefactors of Buntingford's old grammar school that closed in 1900.
It had
comprehensive status and originally served students aged 11 to 16, however a lack of students in the lower years led to the decision to become an upper school and sixth form serving students aged 13 to 18. No students were admitted for the two years during the transition. The first headmaster was C. Patrick Nobes.
In 1975, Roger Harcourt was appointed headmaster, a position he would stay in until his retirement in 2004.
Harcourt introduced a yearly tradition where a
Shakespeare play
Shakespeare's plays are a canon of approximately 39 dramatic works written by English poet, playwright, and actor William Shakespeare. The exact number of plays—as well as their classifications as tragedy, history, comedy, or otherwise—is a ...
would be held each December. This tradition lasted until 2003. In 1995 the school received its first
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 ...
inspection
and on 1 September 1999 it was renamed to Freman College.
By February 2001 the school had attained
community status. At the same time the school was graded as satisfactory by Ofsted, however its sixth form was graded good.
In September 2004 Roger Harcourt retired and was succeeded as head by Helen Loughran.
A year later, the school was
jointly designated as a
specialist Humanities College
Humanities Colleges are a type of specialist school introduced in 2004 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary and primary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, humanities ...
with its two partner
middle schools
A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...
, Edwinstree C of E Middle School and Ralph Sadleir School.
The school's current chair, Jackie Martin, was appointed in 2005. In 2006, Freman College became a member of the
North East Herts School Sport Coordinator Partnership,
becoming the coordinator of a School Sports Partnership. The school and sixth form were both graded good by Ofsted, with the school making "significant improvements in the last two years" because of new management.
A curricular inspection was made in October 2007, focusing on the provision of
citizenship education. In 2009 the school retained its good Ofsted grade and converted from community to
foundation status
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 ...
. This was followed by
academy status in 2011, with the school being one of the first
academy converters.
Shortly after academy conversion, in January 2012, Freman yet again retained a good Ofsted grade, as did the sixth form. In March 2012 the school announced a decision to ban
skirts
A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards.
At its simplest, a skirt can be a draped garment made out of a single piece of fabric (such as pareos). However, most skirts are fi ...
because of concerns about skirt length. The ban was enforced from September 2013, potentially making the school the first to implement such a ban in Hertfordshire. As sixth formers do not need to wear school uniform, their dress code was unaffected. In 2015 and 2019 the school's good grade was reaffirmed by Ofsted.
Structure
Freman College follows the traditional
year group
Educational stages are subdivisions of formal learning, typically covering early childhood education, primary education, secondary education and tertiary education. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) rec ...
system found in most English schools and students are managed between these years based on their educational stage. Unlike most schools, these years are lettered A, I and E (years 9, 10 and 11). A Year stands for Admission Year, I Year for Intermediate Year and E Year for Examination Year. The sixth form is split between lower sixth and upper sixth (years 12 and 13). All students belong to one of four
houses
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
for the duration of their studies, each represented by a colour and named after a famous British sculptor. They are
Butler
A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...
(yellow),
Hepworth (red),
Mills
Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to:
As a name
* Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin
* Mills (given name)
*Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine
Places Uni ...
(blue) and
Moore (green). Each house is directed by a head of house and there are regular inter-house competitions in a multitude of subjects, with the overall winners each year being awarded the Sainsbury Cup (formerly the Sainsbury Trophy).
Campus
Freman College is located on Bowling Green Lane in the
rural
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...
town of Buntingford.
The school has a
car-park and there is a
bus stop
A bus stop is a place where buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelters, seating, and possibly electronic passenger ...
outside.
The school itself is moderately smaller than average
and has a
catchment area
In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...
serving the settlements of
Puckeridge
Puckeridge is a village in East Hertfordshire, England with a population of 3,561 ( 2011 Census). It is in the civil parish of Standon.
History
The earliest known settlement was founded by the Catuvellauni, Celts from northeastern France. The ...
, Buntingford,
Braughing
Braughing is a village and civil parish, between the rivers Quin and Rib, in the non-metropolitan district of East Hertfordshire, part of the English county of Hertfordshire. Braughing gave its name to a county division in Hertfordshire, kn ...
,
Anstey,
Hormead
Hormead is a civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. It comprises the villages of Great Hormead and Little Hormead and the hamlet of Hare Street and lies in the East Hertfordshire district. Hare Street House is located within Hare Street. In 2011 ...
and
Ardeley
Ardeley is a small village and civil parish in East Hertfordshire, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Cromer, as well as Wood End and Moor Green.
Ardeley is located east of Stevenage.
Description
Ardeley village has a number of that ...
. The school often admits students from towns beyond the catchment area, including
Ware
Ware may refer to:
People
* Ware (surname)
* William of Ware (), English Franciscan theologian
Places Canada
* Fort Ware, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* Ware, Devon
*Ware, Hertfordshire
* Ware, Kent
United States
* Ware, Elmore County ...
,
Royston and
Stevenage
Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...
. The land of which the school is situated on is owned by the Freman family.
The school site contains a four-court sports hall, outdoor courts and pitches,
a gym and a main hall. There is also a field outside the school. Most of these facilities can be hired outside the school day. The sports hall is named after long-time teacher Janette Wood, and cost £1.2 million to build. Outside the sports hall is a playground named in honour of the late David Lewis, who also taught at the school.
A nearby tree has also been planted in his honour. Food is served at three locations in the school: the playground catering trailer outside the sports hall and two canteens, one school-wide and one sixth form. The Ward Freman Pool is located on the school site and is co-managed by
East Hertfordshire District Council
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
and Everyone Active. Swimming lessons are offered to people of all ages.
Many of these facilities are part of the school's various buildings and areas, some of which are named after relating locations or notable individuals in the school's history. They are the principal block, science block,
Porthmeor
Porthmeor (from kw, Porth Meur, meaning "large cove") is a hamlet that consists of two farms, Higher and Lower Porthmeor, in the parish of Zennor in Cornwall, England. It should not be confused with Porthmeor beach at St Ives. Higher Porthmeor ...
art studio,
West End performing arts centre, "
Fort William" geography suite, Seth Ward centre, Roger Harcourt centre, Howard Carter centre and
pavilion
In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings:
* It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...
(sixth form only). Since 2005, most of these areas have been disability friendly.
Awards and recognition
On 22 March 2010, the school's sixth form
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
group broke the
Guinness World Record
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
for ''Most Demonstrations in 24 Hours.'' The group held 23 protests throughout
Central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...
, beating the previous record of 21 set in 2006 by comedian and journalist
Mark Thomas
Mark Clifford Thomas (born 11 April 1963) is an English comedian, presenter, political satirist, and journalist. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'' in the late 1980s. He is ...
. Subjects included in the protests included
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
,
maternal death
Maternal death or maternal mortality is defined in slightly different ways by several different health organizations. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines maternal death as the death of a pregnant mother due to complications related to pre ...
and multiple
violations of human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
in countries such as Iran. The group's final protest was outside
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street in London, also known colloquially in the United Kingdom as Number 10, is the official residence and executive office of the first lord of the treasury, usually, by convention, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Along wi ...
, the official residence of the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...
.
In 2015 the school was acknowledged as being one of the top 3% comprehensive state schools in England. This was due to the school's GCSE results remaining high each year.
Teaching awards
In
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
English and PE teacher Janette Wood was awarded an
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
for educational service. Wood has been teaching at Freman College since 1976 and also leads the
North East Herts School Sport Coordinator Partnership, of which the school is a member.
Long-time headteacher Roger Harcourt was one of two co-recipients of the
British Shakespeare Association's 2018
honorary fellowship
Honorary titles (professor, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as well as in m ...
. He was granted the fellowship alongside actress and activist Dame
Vanessa Redgrave
Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, two ...
.
Partnerships
Beginning in 1971,
J Sainsbury's donated £500 per annum to Ward Freman School. The donation was made because of the large amount of parents working for the company. Originally the donation was to fund environmental studies, however Headmaster Harcourt expanded its use to school trips, courses and buying a tent. The donation funded the annual Sainsbury Trophy, a trophy gifted to the best performing house every year. The trophy has since been renamed to the Sainsbury Cup, but is still awarded to the best house at the end of each
academic year
An academic year or school year is a period of time which schools, colleges and universities use to measure a quantity of study.
School holiday
School holidays (also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess) are the periods during which sch ...
.
Freman College is closely affiliated with two nearby middle schools, Edwinstree C of E Middle School and Ralph Sadleir School. Students from these schools are prioritised when applying for a place at Freman. The three schools were jointly designated with specialist Humanities College status, forming strong links between each other and other local schools.
Although the joint specialism appears to have been abandoned,
links between the three schools have remained strong. As a result, the three schools have set up an educational "pyramid" where the two middle schools admit students from their feeder
lower schools and direct them to Freman once their middle school education is complete.
This pyramid is known as the Rib Valley pyramid and has combined the three schools' senior leadership teams.
Inset days are held jointly between schools in the pyramid, during which teaching staff are shared.
Notable former pupils
*
Sam Gyimah
Samuel Phillip Gyimah (; born 10 August 1976) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Surrey from 2010 to 2019. First elected as a Conservative, Gyimah rebelled against the government to block a no-deal Bre ...
,
Liberal Democrat
Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology.
Active parties
Former parties
See also
*Liberal democracy
*Lib ...
politician.
*
Anna Williamson, television presenter.
*
Nathan Tella, professional footballer.
Headteachers
* Walter Baldwin (1960s)
* C. Patrick Nobes (1970–1975)
* Roger Harcourt (1975–2004)
* Helen Loughran (2004–present)
Notes
References
{{authority control
Upper schools in Hertfordshire
Academies in Hertfordshire
Educational institutions established in 1970
Buntingford
1970 establishments in England