The Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School (BHBS) is a mixed comprehensive

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

in the Tupsley district of

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

, England. It is a

voluntary aided school A voluntary aided school (VA school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation) contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In m ...

, which takes children from the age of 11 through to the age of 16. It is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

school and is administered by the Hereford Diocese. The current Headteacher of the school is Tom Williams. The immediate past Headteacher was Martin Henton, who retired in 2024. He succeeded Sara Catlow-Hawkins. Catlow-Hawkins had led the school for 6 years. The school is divided into four houses, which are named after Christian campaigners. The houses are Ashley,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, Livingstone and

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury and north-northeast of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hi ...

History

The school was formed in 1973, which was the year that

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

switched from the

tripartite system The Tripartite System was the selective school system of State school#United Kingdom, state-funded secondary education between 1945 and the 1970s in England and Wales, and from 1947 onwards in Northern Ireland. It was an administrative implementa ...

to a comprehensive education system. The new comprehensive school was formed by the merger of two

secondary modern schools; the Bishop's School, founded in 1958, and the Bluecoat foundation, which dated back to 1710. In 1983 BHBS joined the Woodard Corporation group of Church of England schools. In September 1997 the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) awarded the school

specialist school 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 ...

status as a

Technology College In the United Kingdom, a Technology College is a specialist school that specialises in design and technology, mathematics and science. Beginning in 1994, they were the first specialist schools that were not CTC colleges. In 2008, there were 598 ...

. The school was also awarded a further specialism in

Languages Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is ch ...

and was among the first schools to receive training school status in 2000.

Headteachers

*Peter Baker 1958–1978 (Bishop's School 1958–1973) *John Chapman 1978–1986 *Andrew Marson 1986–2007 *Sara Catlow-Hawkins 2007–2018 *Martin Henton 2018–2024 *Tom Williams 2024-present

Notable former pupils

* Scott Bemand, rugby union player * Angela Tooby, Olympic athlete * Susan Tooby, Olympic athlete * Rose Ellen Dix, Youtuber

Music

The school has achieved four

Artsmark Artsmark is the quality standard for culture and creativity in schools and education settings, awarded by Arts Council England. The Artsmark award provides a clear framework for teachers and education professionals to plan, develop and evaluat ...

Gold Awards for its Arts provision. It employs twenty-four peripatetic instrumental staff who teach nearly 300 pupils who are regularly entered for National Music Grades (213 pupils have passed a grade, with a quarter of pupils achieving grade 4 – diploma standard) Specialist professional instrumentalists lead 24 instrumental ensembles which include a Concert Band, Brass Band, Sax Choir, Guitar Group, Orchestra, Viol Consort, Steel Pans, String Ensembles, Ceilidh Band, Flutes Ensembles, Boys Woodwind Quartet, Keyboard Group, guitar group, boys choir, girls choir, a chamber choir, a Parent Staff Choir, a soul band and a Japanese Koto Group. The school's concert programme has included recent performances by its

Chamber Choir A chamber choir is a small or medium-sized choir of roughly 8 to 40 singers (occasionally called "chamber singers"), typically singing classical or religious music in a concert setting.Riemann, Hugo. Dictionary of Music'. Trans. J.A. Shedlock. A ...

in Morocco, instrumentalists and singers performing in Symphony Hall and the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

as well as in

Lichfield Lichfield () is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated south-east of the county town of Stafford, north-east of Walsall, north-west of ...

and Worcester Cathedrals. It performs in the BBC Herefordshire Musicians showcase and achieves numerous accolades from Herefordshire Festival each year. The school is also an Arts Award Centre, which runs the bronze and silver award as part of its fast track music provision as well as early entry at AS-level.

Sport

The school's most notable sport is

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

. Teams between Under 12 and Under 16 are fielded most weeks during the winter and spring terms. The school has achieved a high standard in the Under 15 Daily Mail Cup. Recently reaching the last 32 of the competition three times in five years. The school's best result in the competition was in 2007, when they reached the semi-finals, where they lost to eventual runners-up St Paul's School. The school organises regular tours, and have toured South Africa,

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, France and Canada. In 2011 the Hereford Times reported that

Herefordshire Council Herefordshire Council is the local authority for the county of Herefordshire in England. It is a unitary authority, combining the powers of a district and county council. History Herefordshire was one of the historic counties of England. Elec ...

were in discussions with developers who wanted to purchase the school's sports field to build 100 houses.

Technology

The school provides one SMART board and/or projector for every classroom which allows teachers to display a computer feed to the students and interact with it using the SMART board pens. (In classrooms that also have SMART Boards) The school also have specific areas, such as the recently built 'Learning Hub', which contains around 100 computers that students can use during both break-time and lesson time. The school also provide laptops which can be used in lessons per teacher request, so that students can use Internet resources to complete research tasks. On 10 November 2022 the school was the target of a cyber attack that led to pupils' information being published online.

References

* *

External links

School websiteOfsted ReportsDepartment for Children, Schools and Families Performance Tables (GCSE and equivalent)
{{authority control Schools in Hereford Educational institutions established in 1973 Woodard Schools Secondary schools in Herefordshire Hereford Bluecoat School 1973 establishments in England Church of England secondary schools in the Diocese of Hereford Voluntary aided schools in England Training schools in England Specialist technology colleges in England Specialist language colleges in England