The Winston Churchill School is a comprehensive, secondary school in

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The school was established in 1967. It is near Knaphill, Bisley, West End, Brookwood and

Pirbright Pirbright () is a village in Surrey, England. Pirbright is in the Guildford (borough), borough of Guildford and has a civil parish council covering the traditional boundaries of the area. Pirbright contains one buffered sub-locality, Stanford ...

. The school holds Specialist

Sports College Sports Colleges are senior secondary schools which promote sports alongside secondary education. United Kingdom Sports Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The programme enabled sec ...

status.

Academics

The Winston Churchill School received a score of "good" from

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's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

in April 2018, with

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 ...

results above the national average. "The curriculum is a strength of the school...teaching is good with aspects that are outstanding...students behaviour both in and out of classrooms is good" and "students feel safe & secure". The most recent short inspection by

on 14 and 15 November 2023 found that "This is an inclusive school, with high expectations for pupils' conduct and achievement." and that "Behaviour around the school site is generally calm and respectful and the significant majority of pupils meet the school's high expectations for conduct well".

Organisation

Teaching occurs during one-hour lessons with

Physical Education Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing Primary education, primary, Secondary education, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United Stat ...

(P.E.) lessons twice a week (more frequently for P.E.

students). After school clubs provide extra sports and P.E., and other extra-curricular activities.

Planetarium

The Winston Churchill School is the first state school in the UK to have its own permanent

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

on campus. It was opened on 10 December 2019 by the fifth incarnation of

The Doctor The Doctor, sometimes known as Doctor Who, is the protagonist of the long-running BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. An extraterrestrial Time Lord, the Doctor travels the universe in a time travelling spaceship called th ...

and former Winston Churchill School student

Peter Davison Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett (born 13 April 1951), known professionally as Peter Davison, is an English actor. He made his television acting debut in 1975 and became famous in 1978 as Tristan Farnon in the BBC's television adaptation of Jame ...

. The planetarium is also open to the public out of school times, showing films on astronomy and holding lectures and space talks.

Radio Woking

Radio Woking is a UK community radio station owned and operated by the school, broadcasting on DAB in the boroughs of

and

Rushmoor Rushmoor is a local government district with borough status in Hampshire, England. It covers the towns of Farnborough and Aldershot, the former of which is the location of the council. The neighbouring districts are Hart, Surrey Heath, Guil ...

and throughout the world online. Students at the school are trained and get the opportunity to broadcast regularly on the station. Presenters on the station are volunteers and the station broadcasts a wide range of programmes featuring local guests, sports clubs and specialist music shows.

Notable alumni and faculty

* Graham Willmott, better known as bestselling author Albert Jack * Jonathan Cole, Director of Information at Army Command *

Sam Underwood Sam Lewis Underwood (born 4 August 1987) is an English actor who portrayed the twins Luke and Mark Gray in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox thriller drama ''The Following'', Jake Otto in the AMC (TV channel), AMC series ''Fear the Walking Dead'' ...

, actor (''

Dexter Dexter may refer to: People * Dexter (given name) * Dexter (surname) * Dexter (singer), Brazilian rapper Marcos Fernandes de Omena (born 1973) * Famous Dex, also known as Dexter, American rapper Dexter Tiewon Gore Jr. (born 1993) Places United ...

'', ''

Homeland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

'', ''

The Following ''The Following'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Kevin Williamson (screenwriter), Kevin Williamson, and jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television. The The Following (season 1), first s ...

'') *

, actor * Philip Gould, Baron Gould of Brookwood, architect of

New Labour New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-late 1990s to 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the ...

* Robert Atkinson, footballer * Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London * Dame Deborah James, journalist * Pamela Motley Verrall, composer

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winston Churchill School Woking Educational institutions established in 1967 Secondary schools in Surrey Foundation schools in Surrey