The Wordsley School is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

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) ...

, located in

Wordsley Wordsley is a suburban area of Stourbridge in the West Midlands, England. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and falls into the Stourbridge (DY8) postcode and address area, being just north of the River Stour. Wordsley is part of the ...

(near

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

) in 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 ...

of England.

History

It opened in September 1972 as Buckpool School to serve the community of Wordsley, replacing Audnam Secondary School. It was renamed The Wordsley School in September 2002, and has gained specialisms in business & enterprise and music. In 2008, a front-page article in the '' Stourbridge News'' newspaper was run, with headteacher Mike Lambert criticising

Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The post was created on 28 June 2007 afte ...

Ed Balls Edward Michael Balls (born 25 February 1967) is a British broadcaster, writer, economist, professor and former politician who served as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families from 2007 to 2010, and as Shadow Chancellor of the Exc ...

after Mr. Balls threatened the school with closure because it was not achieving the target of 30% A* to C

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 ...

s in Maths and English. However, the school comfortably exceeded this target in 2009 when 37% of the school's GCSE students gained 5 or more grades at this level, though it was still the fourth lowest ranking school in the borough. For every year after this initial percentage rise the percentage achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs (or equivalent) including English and maths GCSEs has increased. In 2010 this was at 46%, in 2011 this was at 50% and then in 2012 this number was 53%.

Notable former pupils

Carl Bridgewater The Bridgewater Four are four men who were tried and found guilty of killing 13-year-old paperboy Carl Bridgewater, who was shot in the head at close range near Stourbridge, England, in 1978. In February 1997, after almost two decades of imprisonm ...

, murder victim who was a third year (equivalent of today's Year 9) pupil at Buckpool School when he died on 19 September 1978 * S. J. Watson, writer whose most notable work is ''

Before I Go to Sleep ''Before I Go to Sleep'' is the first novel by S. J. Watson published in Spring 2011. It became both a ''Sunday Times'' and ''The New York Times'' bestseller and has been translated into over 40 languages, and has become a bestseller in France ...

'' which has been made into a film starring

Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...

References

External links

The Wordsley School official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wordsley School Secondary schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley Community schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley Educational institutions established in 1972