St Edward's Church of England Academy 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 ...

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 ...

and

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

, located in the

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

area of the

London Borough of Havering The London Borough of Havering () in East London, England, forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 259,552 inhabitants; the principal town is Romford, while other communities include Hornchurch, Upminster, Collier Row and Rainham, Lo ...

, England. It specialises in languages and science, and was founded in 1710, making it the oldest school in the area. Following recent expansion from a six form to eight form entry and a larger sixth form, there are currently 1,288 students in the school, aged between 11 and 18. The school is located in London Road, Romford. The current Headteacher is Jodie Hassan.

History

The original St Edward's school was founded as a

charity school Charity schools, sometimes called blue coat schools, or simply the Blue School, were significant in the history of education in England. They were built and maintained in various parishes by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants to ...

in 1710. The vestry book for St Edwards Church in Romford records an entry on 5 September of that year "whereas a charity school is erecting or setting up with all possible speed to be set up and opened in this town of Romford... for the educating of poor children and teaching them to Read and Write and instructing them in the knowledge and practice of the Christian religion as professed and taught in the

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, ...

". For the first eighteen years the school was accommodated in two houses, but in 1728 it moved to a new building in the Market Place in Romford, where it remained until the mid 1960s when the primary and secondary classes separated and moved to their present sites. The primary school remained on its old site until 1975 when the new premises were completed. This site is now a shopping centre but was initially a leisure complex called the Dolphin Centre. St Edward's School and St Edward's Primary School are now run independently. Every year there is a production put on by the school's drama and music department.

Recent history

Approximately £2 million has been spent expanding the school by building a new block, which includes five science labs, a computer suite, two large drama studios and fifteen regular classrooms. The school was previously made into a

Language College Language Colleges were introduced in 1995 as part of the specialist schools programme (SSP) in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, modern foreign languages. Schools that successf ...

. This gave it access to further funding for courses in Spanish, French and German to up to

A level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

, as well as lessons in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

up to GCSE. The school gained a second specialism in science. The school underwent more building works in the lower block of the school. These created a new extended and modernized library, and a brand new 'Jack Petchey' suite (in honor of the grant money provided by the Jack Petchey Foundation) in the former Sixth Form library which is above the main library. The PE facilities have also been expanded giving a new PE office, store, changing rooms and fitness suite. A new sports pavilion on the edge of the 'Westlands' field was also completed. The school converted to academy status on 1 August 2011, but continues to have languages and science as specialisms. On 1 April 2018, the school joined the Samuel Ward Academy Trust, taking a new legal entity and name.

School newsletter

A monthly newsletter is published by the school. This is entitled "Reachout" and keeps students up to date on current affairs within the school and can mark out special activities or events, such as sporting events, "

rag week Rag, rags, RAG or The Rag may refer to: Common uses * Rag, a piece of old cloth * Rags, tattered clothes * Wash rag, a small cloth used for bathing * Rag (newspaper), a publication engaging in tabloid journalism * Rag paper, or cotton paper Arts ...

" and the end of year prom.

Sporting successes

The school competes in a number of sports, most notably in volleyball–the school's female under 17 team qualified for the World Schools Volleyball Championship in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, where they represented the whole of England. The school also has teams athletics and football as well as handball. As of February 2010, the school is also the training ground for the Chelmsford Clippers baseball club.

School links

The School has links within the local area and internationally. It works alongside two local churches, St Edward's and St Andrew's, and with St Edward's Primary School. Internationally, it runs exchanges with a school in Paris in France and

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

in Spain. It also has developed links with a school in Beijing to support the teaching of Mandarin as a

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

course. They also have links with a school in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

trips are now held annually for year 8 students to visit. In Easter 2008 five year 10 pupils, a few sixth formers and teachers travelled to

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

to develop further links. It also has strong links to its partnership school in the Gambia with teachers occasionally visiting.

Notable former pupils

* Steve Williams, former Southampton, Arsenal and England professional footballer *

Katy Hill Katy Hill (born 15 April 1971) is an English television presenter who has worked in television and radio in the UK since 1995. She presented the long-running children's programme ''Blue Peter'' from 1995 to 2000 and the flagship Saturday mornin ...

, former ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...

'' and children's TV presenter *

Christine Ohuruogu Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu (born 17 May 1984) is a British former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres, the event for which she is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion. The Olympic champion in 2008, and silver medali ...

, Olympic 400m gold medallist *

Joe Widdowson Joseph Widdowson (born 28 March 1989) is an English former professional footballer who plays as a defender. He began his career with Premier League side West Ham United, spending time on loan with Rotherham United. He later signed a permanent ...

, Footballer * Joe Martin, Footballer * David Martin, Footballer * Guvna B, Christian MC *

Nick Brewer Nick Brewer (born 1989) is an English rapper. His 2015 song, "Talk To Me", charted at #19 on the UK Singles Chart. Background Brewer was born in East London in 1989 but lived in Essex during his time at the University of Essex, where he studied ...

, Rapper * SugarComa, former

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, with a metal umlaut) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop music, hip hop, funk, industrial music, industrial, and grunge. Nu ...

band * David Holmes, actor and stuntman

References

External links

St Edward's Church of England Academy
* – Ofsted website
Entry in Department for Education ''Edubase'' register
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Edwards Church of England Academy Educational institutions established in 1710 Academies in the London Borough of Havering 1710 establishments in England Church of England secondary schools in the Diocese of Chelmsford Secondary schools in the London Borough of Havering Romford