Swanlea School is a coeducational

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) ...

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

with approximately 1300 students on roll and a further 210 at Key Stage 5. It is situated in the heart of the historic

east end The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and less than a mile away from the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

; it serves the local community. Swanlea was one of the first schools in the country to be awarded Business and Enterprise specialist status by the DCFS in 2002, and in its recent inspection by OFSTED (2013) Swanlea was judged to be outstanding in all areas. The school holds the Healthy Schools Award, Investors in People Award, Artsmark Silver Award, are Stonewall School Champions and is a UCL Beacon School in Holocaust Education. There are over 60 permanent teaching staff and more than 100 support/administrative staff working here. Swanlea has only had two Headteachers, Linda Austin and currently, Brenda Landers. Linda Austin retired in January 2011 after 18 years of service, and was awarded an OBE for services to Education in the Queen's birthday honours list in 2011. Swanlea School was designed by

Percy Thomas Partnership Percy Thomas Partnership was the trading name of the award-winning British architectural practice established some time between 1965 and 1973 as the successor to a series of earlier partnerships originally set up by Percy Thomas (1883–1969) in Car ...

with

Hampshire County Architects Hampshire County Architects is the old name for Hampshire County Council Architecture, the in-house architecture and design department of HCC Property Services in Hampshire, UK. Over the years the multi-disciplinary team has developed a particular ...

. It opened in 1993 and was the first secondary school built in London for over 10 years.Hardingham, S.
Around a new world in a day: One of the publishing hits of 1993 was 'London: a Guide to Recent Architecture', a pocket picture book...
' ''The Independent'', 10 July 1994. Retrieved 2011-10-26. The school was built around a central covered 'street' with a dramatic curved glass roof and was passively heated and ventilated.

References

External links

Swanlea School official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swanlea School Whitechapel Secondary schools in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Percy Thomas buildings Community schools in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets