Landau Forte Academy QEMS (Formerly "Queen Elizabeth's Mercian School", until 1 September 2011) is an 11-16 secondary school with academy status located to the north of Tamworth, a market town in Staffordshire in the Midlands north of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

. It is often known simply as QEMS (pronounced "quems"). Since 1 September 2011, the school has been owned and operated by the Landau Forte Charitable Trust, after being transferred from the Staffordshire LA control. It is situated in Perrycrofts, on the eastern side of the A513, at the junction with the B5493 (former

A453 The A453 road was formerly the main trunk road connecting the English cities of Nottingham and Birmingham. However, the middle section of this mainly single-carriageway road has largely been downgraded to B roads or unclassified roads follo ...

), around a half-mile north of Tamworth town centre.

Specialist status

As a state school, it was awarded specialist status to teach as a

Music College A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

. QEMS gained status as a Specialist Music College, under the UK Government's

Specialist Schools 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 ...

scheme, in 2005. This specialist status also gives funding to other departments, most notably ICT.

History

Grammar school

It was the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School on ''Ashby Road'', a co-educational

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

Comprehensive

It became a comprehensive in 1979, merging with Mercian Boys' School, a

secondary modern school A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usuall ...

which moved from ''Hospital Street'' in 1960. The school was renamed Queen Elizabeth's Mercian School, a combination of the two schools' names. The "Mercian" in the school name refers to the fact that Tamworth was the headquarters of the Anglo-Saxon province of

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era= Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ...

. In April 2008, two teachers and seven pupils were injured by a bottle of

silicon tetrachloride Silicon tetrachloride or tetrachlorosilane is the inorganic compound with the formula SiCl4. It is a colourless volatile liquid that fumes in air. It is used to produce high purity silicon and silica for commercial applications. Preparation Silic ...

Arson

In November 2004, a 16-year boy was convicted of arson and sentenced for four years at Stafford Crown Court. He started a fire at the school on Sunday 13 April 2003, causing £1.73 million in damage. Petrol had been poured through a window of room 353 to start the fire. Chase Terrace Technology College had been burnt down the year before, costing £8 million. Six fire engines were in attendance, from

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service responsible for fire protection, prevention, intervention and emergency rescue in the county of Staffordshire and unitary authority of Stoke-on-Trent. The county ha ...

and

Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service serving the county of Warwickshire in the West Midlands region of England. The service covers an area of and a population of around 546,600 people. It employs 550 st ...

, with fifty firemen. Six classrooms and an assembly hall were destroyed.

Former teachers

* Prof

Geoffrey Bullough Geoffrey Bullough, FBA, FKC (27 January 1901 – 12 February 1982) was an English literary scholar. Life Bullough was born in Prestwich on 27 January 1901 and attended the Stand Grammar School before reading English at the University of Mancheste ...

, Professor of English Language and Literature from 1946-68 at King's College London (taught English from 1924-6)

Campus

QEMS is based in several buildings across the school. Overall, there are six buildings (Main Block, DT, RE, Middle Block, Elizabeth Block, Girls' Gym) and mostly each department is based in one of the buildings.

Building Schools for the Future (BSF)

Along with all of the other secondary schools in Tamworth, QEMS was due to be rebuilt under the Government's BSF scheme. The addition of a Sixth-Form Academy meant that the size of the QEMS site would have been reduced, and centralised. The first stage of building work was due to begin by March 2010, but was scrapped in July 2010. Nonetheless, the school was transferred to the Landau Forte Charitable Trust's control, effective 1 September 2011, as part of a bid to receive investment from the Government to replace the lost BSF money.

Alumni

Donald Ross Skinner Donald Skinner is a guitarist, songwriter and producer primarily known for his work with Julian Cope. Skinner is commonly known by the name Donald Ross Skinner with the addition of the middle name of ''Ross'' attributed to him by Cope after Gle ...

, songwriter

The Queen Elizabeth Grammar School

Phil Bennion Phillip Bennion (born 7 October 1954) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands from 2012 to 2014, and then from 2019 to 2020. Early life and education Bennion was bo ...

, Lib Dem MEP from 2012–14 and 2019-20 for the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

* Dr Reginald Brain,

dermatologist Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin.''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.'' Random House, Inc. 2001. Page 537. . It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist is a specialist medica ...

* Sir John Floyer, physician who introduced the practice of measuring a

pulse In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the n ...

rate * The Most Reverend Alan Harper, Archbishop of Armagh (Head of the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the secon ...

) from 2007–12 * Si
Robert Telford
CBE, Managing Director from 1965–81 and Chairman from 1981-84 of the

Marconi Company The Marconi Company was a British telecommunications and engineering company that did business under that name from 1963 to 1987. Its roots were in the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company founded by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi in 189 ...

, and President from 1963-64 of the Electronic Engineering Association * Prof Sir Ernest Titterton CMG FRS, Professor of Nuclear Physics from 1950-81 at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

, involved in the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

* Prof Terry Wyatt FRS, Particle Physicist * Patience Wheatcroft, Baroness Wheatcroft, journalist

References

External links

EduBase

News items

Sixth form centre in March 2009

Closure plan in January 2009

Silicon tetrachloride in April 2008

Arsonists in April 2003

Arson in April 2003

{{authority control 1588 establishments in England Educational institutions established in the 1580s Secondary schools in Staffordshire Academies in Staffordshire School buildings in the United Kingdom destroyed by arson Schools in Tamworth, Staffordshire Specialist music colleges in England