Landau Forte Academy QEMS (Formerly "Queen Elizabeth's Mercian School", until 1 September 2011) is an 11-16

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) ...

with academy status located to the north of Tamworth, a market town in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

in the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

north of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

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

Specialist status

As a state school, it was awarded

specialist Specialist may refer to: Occupations * Specialist (rank), a military rank ** Specialist (Singapore) * Specialist (arena football) * Specialist degree, in academia * Specialty (medicine) * Designated market maker, in the American stock market * ...

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 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= , ye ...

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

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 Chase Terrace Academy (formerly Chase Terrace Technology College and Chase Terrace High School before that) is a Mixed-sex education, mixed secondary school and sixth form located in the Chase Terrace area of Burntwood in the English county of St ...

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, Professor of English Language and Literature from 1946-68 at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

(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 Glen ...

, 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 * Sir John Floyer, physician who introduced the practice of measuring a pulse rate * The Most Reverend Alan Harper,

Archbishop of Armagh In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...

(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 second ...

) 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 1897 ...

, and President from 1963-64 of the Electronic Engineering Association * Prof Sir

Ernest Titterton Sir Ernest William Titterton (4 March 1916 – 8 February 1990) was a British nuclear physicist. A graduate of the University of Birmingham, Titterton worked in a research position under Mark Oliphant, who recruited him to work on radar ...

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 and ...

, 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 Terence Richard Wyatt (born 29 June 1957) is a Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester, UK. Education Wyatt was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Tamworth, Imperial College London (Bachelor ...

FRS, Particle Physicist *

Patience Wheatcroft, Baroness Wheatcroft Patience Jane Wheatcroft, Baroness Wheatcroft (born 28 September 1951) is a British journalist and life peeress, who was editor-in-chief of ''The Wall Street Journal Europe.'' She left this role upon becoming a peer. She previously served as ed ...

, 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