Brockenhurst College is a large

tertiary college In England and Wales, a tertiary college is a type of further education (FE) college that offers both academic and vocational courses to both youngsters and adults, combining the main functions of an FE college and a sixth form college. Unlike a si ...

situated in Brockenhurst, Hampshire. Co-educational since the 1920s, Brockenhurst College accepts students over the age of 16 or year 12 students, whichever occurs first due to safeguarding policies. The college has over 2,700 full-time students and over 8,000 part-time adult learners from as far and wide as The New Forest,

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the English ...

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

, East Dorset, the Waterside area of

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, South

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, and the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...

. Brockenhurst College has been an accredited

Investors in People Investors in People is a standard for people management, offering accreditation to organisations that adhere to the Investors in People Standard. From 1991 to January 2017, Investors in People was owned by the UK government. As of 1 February 20 ...

since 1996, and in 2004 was awarded by the AoC Beacon Award and is also rated 'Good' by

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, incl ...

. The types of courses the college provides are professional, vocational and AS/A Level courses,

Foundation Degree A foundation degree is a combined academic and vocational qualification in higher education in the United Kingdom, equivalent to two-thirds of an honours bachelor's degree, introduced by the Department for Education and Employment in 2000. Fou ...

s and Apprenticeships.

Campus

The College, with its many different buildings and uses, is divided up into A, B, E, M, S and T blocks. In addition to the Main Hall and Foyer, there are also other blocks given full names, such as the Sports Centre, the Hard Brock Café, the Learning Care Centre, and the LRC (Learning Resources Centre). There is also Highwood Nursery located between the sports centre and the car park. The college has adult learning centres in Brockenhurst,

Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...

and

New Milton New Milton is a market town in southwest Hampshire, England. To the north is in the New Forest and to the south the coast at Barton-on-Sea. The town is equidistant between Lymington and Christchurch, 6 miles (10 km) away. History ...

along with the

Hengistbury Head Hengistbury Head (), formerly also called Christchurch Head, is a headland jutting into the English Channel between Bournemouth and Mudeford in the English county of Dorset. It is a site of international importance in terms of its archaeology ...

Outdoor Activity Centre and the Marchwood Marine and Construction Centre. M Block M Block, standing for Main Building, is the oldest section of the college which includes the original hall, now called the SEC, used as a secondary room for exams and enrichment programmes. Also within the block, besides the main reception area, are much of the non-teaching staff at Brock as well as the main division offices and the Principal's offices. The offices are also used by Connexions and EMA (

Education Maintenance Allowance Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) ( cy, Lwfans Cynhaliaeth Addysg; LCA) is a financial scheme applicable to students and those undertaking unpaid work-based learning in the United Kingdom (except England) and aged between sixteen and nineteen ...

) attendants located at Student Services. Based also in this block are a highly skilled team of IT professionals who are in charge of the college network system and maintenance of all college's IT equipment. Many of the lessons held in this block are

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

courses with their own sound rooms and recording studios,

Performing Arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perfo ...

and

Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

with their own Performing Arts Centre,

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

which also have sound rooms and digital editing suites, Philosophy,

Politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

Archeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts ...

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

, and

Business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." Having a business name does not separ ...

which has over five computer suits for its study. A and S Block A Block contains the Specialist Art Centre, and S is the Sciences Centre complete with three-story building of

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...

and

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

laboratories A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physi ...

on the ground, first and second floor respectively. Both Chemistry and Biology have student accessible prep rooms frequented by staff. Alongside Physics, a GCSE in

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

is also offered. On the bottom floor is the staff room used for morning meetings with the Principal and division heads. B Block The Beacon Technology Block, named after the college's Beacon Status, contains recording studios, media suites and a photo development lab. All top floor classrooms in the block are fitted with flat screens attached to PCs, and some classrooms are fitted with Apple Mac computers. On the ground floor of the building are the Training Kitchens and MJ's Restaurant, which is open to the public. Engineering technology facilities and workshops are based in the block, as well as the

Graphic Design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscip ...

rooms. E Block The Errington Block, which was named after an ex-governor of the college, holds additional classrooms for

Language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

Psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

Business Studies Business studies, often simply called business, is a field of study that deals with the principles of business, management, and economics. It combines elements of accountancy, finance, marketing, organizational studies, human resource management, ...

, Early Childhood, Health & Higher Education,

Key Skills The Key Skills Qualification is a frequently required component of 14-20 education in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The aim of Key Skills is to encourage learners to develop and demonstrate their skills as well as learn how to select and ap ...

and

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 ...

courses. Each room is fitted with digital projectors and computers. Sports Centre The sports centre holds all main functions regarding sports, and also contains a Fitness Suite which is opened to the public and college staff during the day and after college hours. The sports centre is also home to the National Volleyball League's New Forest Volleyball Club The Hard Brock Café The Hard Brock Café is a main social attraction for many college students and also holds the offices of the Students' Union. The café provides hot and cold meals, quick snacks, drinks and ice creams. LRC (Learning Resources Centre) The LRC was originally the college main hall and is now the main study area for students at Brock. The LRC has a small library containing a wide selection of course books and relevant course DVDs and CDs, as well as a wide selection of magazines from the NME to

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

. As well as this on the top floor is an ILT Suite. In this building there is also reprographics and private study rooms. STEM Centre / T Block The STEM Centre was constructed from 2015–2016 and replaced most of the

portable classrooms A portable classroom (also known as a demountable or relocatable classroom, portables, bungalows), is a type of portable building installed at a school to temporarily and quickly provide additional classroom space where there is a shortage of c ...

which formed H Block. Funding partly came from the M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). The centre contains computer suites, study and social space, plus the Mathematics department on the first floor.

History

Pupil teachers' centre 1909–1921 Brockenhurst College began its existence in 1909 as a

pupil-teacher Pupil teacher was a training program in wide use before the twentieth century, as an apprentice system for teachers. With the emergence in the beginning of the nineteenth century of education for the masses, demand for teachers increased. By 1840, ...

s' centre – a school where girls from age 13 learned to be teachers. The classes were held in the

Wesleyan Church The Wesleyan Church, also known as the Wesleyan Methodist Church and Wesleyan Holiness Church depending on the region, is a Methodist Christian denomination in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Namibia, Sierra Leone, L ...

Sunday School A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. ...

, with only 18 children attending under the head mistress, Miss Moore. Although classes were first held in the church Sunday school, Brockenhurst never had any religious affiliation or received any funding from ecclesiastical authorities. It was always funded by the Hampshire Education Authority, and the Sunday school room was used simply because it offered suitable accommodation. Between 1913 and 1935 the school moved location twice and changed head mistress to Miss Emma Clara Ward. During this time the school increased further with more problems continuing for teaching space. County school 1921–1939 Taking in both boys and girls, the school was still expanding further with more pupils joining, by now numbering 150. Along with this the education board granted more funding and further building work; this was followed by a new hall, kitchen and a woodwork room. Miss Ward died in October 1935 to be replaced by the former head of Farnborough Grammar School, Mr R H May. County High School 1939–1950 The school by this time had grown even further to a

high 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 '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

enrolling 400 students and as young as eleven. Grammar school 1950–1953 In 1950 the

headmaster A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...

decided that the school should be turned into a

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 ...

and students would therefore have to pass the

11-plus The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academi ...

to join. At this stage the school was still accepting both sexes. The motto in the early 50s was "Manners Makyth Man", borrowed from Winchester College (the school song "Forty Years On" was borrowed from Harrow). The new motto "Inter Silvas Quaerere Verum" (Seek Truth r LearningAmongst the Trees), an adaptation from Horace's Epistles, refers to the school's location in the New Forest. County High School (again) 1953–1960 In 1953 the headmaster changed the name back to High School. The name remained for seven years until the Hampshire Education Authority sanctioned the change to a grammar school. Grammar School 1960–1970 Finally the name of grammar school remained for the following ten years after being reinstated by the Education Authority. College 1970– The school was converted into a

sixth form college A sixth form college is an educational institution, where students aged 16 to 19 typically study for advanced school-level qualifications, such as A Levels, Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) and the International Baccalaureate ...

in 1969, leaving all the surrounding schools to continue lower school education in the area, and became a

in 1985.

Head masters/mistresses and principals

* Miss Moore 1909–1913 (Head Mistress)History
at archive of avocaberks.ndonet.com * Miss Emma Clara Ward 1913–1935 (Head Mistress) * Mr Green 1935 (Acting Head Master) * Mr R. H. May 1935 – 1949 (Head Master) * Dr L. R. Wood 1949–1970 (Head Master to 1969, then Principal) * Mr A. J. Baker CBE 1970–1989 (Principal) * Mike J. Snell CBE 1989–2006 (Principal) * Di Roberts CBE 2006–2020 (Principal) * Polly Perkins CBE 2021–2022 (Principal) * Interim Principal : Dr Kate Webb 2022 May-September * Interim Principal : Steve Wain September 2022-present

Notable former pupils

* Birdy (born 1996), singer, songwriter, and musician * Sir Raymond Carr (1919–2015), historian * John Darwin, historian * Tom Friend (born 1991), cricketer * Dame Heather Hallett (born 1949), judge of the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...

* Patrick Harverson (born 1962), personal assistant to

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

* Guy Henry (born 1960), actor *

Danny Ings Daniel William John Ings (born 23 July 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Aston Villa. Ings started his career in the youth team of Southampton but was released as a schoolboy. He subsequently joined ...

(born 1992), footballer * Sir Derek Plumbly (born 1948), Diplomat Foreign Office, specialist in Middle East, former Ambassador to

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

Jonathan Raban Jonathan Raban (born 14 June 1942, Hempton, Norfolk, England) is a British travel writer, critic, and novelist. He has received several awards, such as the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award, t ...

(born 1942), travel writer and novelist * Kate Royal (born 1979), opera singer *

Ian Wooldridge Ian Edmund Wooldridge, OBE (14 January 1932 – 4 March 2007) was a British sports journalist. He was with the ''Daily Mail'' for nearly 50 years. Biography Born in New Milton, Hampshire, Wooldridge left Brockenhurst Grammar School with two sc ...

(1932–2007), ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

sports journalist Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

* Justin Young (born 1987) of

The Vaccines The Vaccines are an English indie rock band, formed in West London in 2010. Band members Justin Hayward-Young (lead vocals, guitar), Freddie Cowan (lead guitar, vocals), Árni Árnason (bass, vocals), Timothy Lanham (guitars, keys, vocals) and ...

Sam Vokes Samuel Michael Vokes (born 21 October 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a striker for EFL League One club Wycombe Wanderers and the Wales national team. Vokes began his professional career at AFC Bournemouth in League One, makin ...

(born 1989), footballer * Christopher Scott (born 1967), space and atmospheric scientist

External links

College website
* MJ's

Brockenhurst College Ofsted report

References

archived in 2004
www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/Brockenhurst
*https://web.archive.org/web/20061010213259/http://www.beaconstatus.org/opencms/opencms/www/about/abou02_1.html?activityId=1611&letter=b *http://www.rm.com/FE/CaseStudies/Article.asp?cref=MCASE627035 {{authority control Further education colleges in Hampshire Educational institutions established in 1909 Learning and Skills Beacons International Baccalaureate schools in England 1909 establishments in England