Aylestone School is a

co-educational 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 ...

secondary school in

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...

, England. The school has an enrolment of 419, and caters for the Key Stage 3 and

Key Stage 4 Key Stage 4 (KS4) is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs, and other examinations, in maintained schools in England normally known as Year 10 and Year 11, when pupils are aged between 14 and 16 by August 31 ...

education of students aged 11–16.

History

The school was established as the comprehensive Aylestone School following the merger of Hereford High School for Girls and Hereford High School for Boys in 1976. The school was known as Aylestone High School before it was renamed Aylestone Business and Enterprise College in the 2000s following the introduction of Business and Enterprise Colleges as part of the

specialist schools programme The specialist schools programme (SSP), first launched as the Technology Colleges programme and also known as the specialist schools initiative, specialist schools policy and specialist schools scheme, was a government programme in the United ...

. In 2017, the school's name reverted to Aylestone School. The school's administration building is Broadlands House, a 19th-century Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Governance

Along with Broadlands Primary School and Withington Primary School, Aylestone School forms a federation with a single governing body. The school is led by an executive headteacher, Simon Robertson, and a team of twelve

governors A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. A student council consists of a representative from each

tutor group A tutor group is a term used in schools in the United Kingdom to denote a group of students whose pastoral and academic needs are looked after by one tutor. This will happen either through regular tutorials, or on a more casual basis. A group of s ...

School structure

Admissions

The school has an enrolment of 419 students. It is

; approximately 53% of students are female and 47% male. Entrance is non-selective. The school's

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 ...

lies primarily to the north of Hereford in the Lugg valley, and covers the outlying settlements of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

to the north west,

Withington Withington is a suburb of Manchester, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it lies from Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Withington has a population of just ...

to the east, and Hereford city centre to the south.

Academic

The Key Stage 3 (KS3) curriculum includes English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities (History, Geography, Religious Education, and Empowerment), Modern Foreign Languages (MFL), Art and Design, Computing, Music, Physical Education, and Design and Technology. At

(KS4), the curriculum is widened to cover the mandatory subjects of both English Language and English Literature, the specific science disciplines of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, and Issues and Ethics subjects including PSHE, Sex Education, Citizenship and Careers. Optional courses introduced at KS4 include Business Studies, specific technology disciplines such as Food Technology and Resistant Materials, Psychology, as well as BTEC qualifications in Music and Sport and Leisure. During the 2019–2020 academic year, the school employed 59 full- and part-time staff, including 33 teachers, 13

teaching assistant A teaching assistant or teacher's aide (TA) or education assistant (EA) or team teacher (TT) is an individual who assists a teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate stude ...

s, and 13 members of non-classroom support staff. The pupil–teacher ratio at this time was 12.8:1.

Attainment

The school's 2016 and 2018 Ofsted inspections showed that it "requires improvement". Monitoring inspections in 2019 and 2021 found that the senior leaders and governors were taking "effective action" for improvement. The school's

Progress 8 benchmark The Progress 8 benchmark is an accountability measure used by the government of the United Kingdom to measure the effectiveness of secondary schools in England. It bands pupils into groups based on their scores in English and mathematics during t ...

score is deemed to be "well below average" and is in the lowest 12% of schools in England. The school's

Attainment 8 The Progress 8 benchmark is an accountability measure used by the government of the United Kingdom to measure the effectiveness of secondary schools in England. It bands pupils into groups based on their scores in English and mathematics during t ...

and

EBacc The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is a school performance indicator in England linked to the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) results. It measures students' attainment by calculating an average score from specified subject grades. ...

scores are also below the national average. At GCSE level, 16% of student attain Grade 5 or above compared to the national average of 43%. In previous Ofsted inspections, the school was described as "good" or "satisfactory".

Pastoral

The school uses a house system, comprising four houses: * Mortimer * Clare * Delacy * Coningsby The houses compete in events throughout the academic year, including cookery, poetry, and language competitions, as well as

sports day Sports days (British English) or field days (American English) are events staged by many schools and offices in which people participate in competitive sporting activities, often with the aim of winning trophies or prizes. Though they are often h ...

Notable alumni

Paul Keetch Paul Stuart Keetch (21 May 1961 – 24 May 2017) was a Liberal Democrat politician and lobbyist who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hereford from 1997 to 2010. Early life He went to Hereford High School for Boys (now Aylestone Busines ...

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 ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Hereford (1997–2010) * Susan Powell, broadcast meteorologist (

BBC Weather BBC Weather is the department of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) responsible for both the preparation and the broadcasting of weather forecasts. On 6 February 2018, BBC Weather changed supplier from the government Met Office to Me ...

) *

Jo Stone-Fewings Jonathan Stone-Fewings (born 1967) is an English actor. He studied at Hereford College of Arts and at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, and began his career in 1989. He has been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) since 1994. H ...

, actor ( Royal Shakespeare Company) *

Josh McNally Joshua James McNally (born 21 August 1990) is an English rugby union lock (rugby union), lock for Bath Rugby in the Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby union. He is also a Royal Air Force weapons technician and has been in the RA ...

, rugby union player (

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, Bath)

Former headteachers and notable staff

At least five people have held the post of headteacher since the school's establishment in 1976. Deputy headteachers have assumed the role of interim headteacher when the role has been vacant. *Bob Howe *Tony Wray (1989–2003) *Steve Byatt (2004–2007) *Sue Woodrow (2008–2015) For a time in the 1970s, the school employed

conman A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have d ...

and

bigamist In cultures where monogamy is mandated, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter their marital status as married persons. I ...

Robert Peters as its head of Religious Education. Peters, who used his birthname (Robert Parkins) to take the role, formed a relationship with the Head of the Lower School and they married. Peters left the school when his falsified qualifications were discovered.

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{authority control Secondary schools in Herefordshire 1976 establishments in England Educational institutions established in 1976 Schools in Hereford Community schools in Herefordshire