Dormston School

Dormston School is a secondary school in Sedgley, West Midlands, England. The school has specialist status as a Mathematics and Computing college.[2] As at 2020, the school has approximately 1,100 pupils aged 11 to 16 on the roll,[1] and approximately 80 members of staff (including non-teaching staff). In 2016 some pupils of The Coseley School, which had closed, transferred to Dormston School.[3]

The Dormston School
Address
Mill Bank, Sedgley

Dudley
,
DY3 1SN

England
Information
TypeCommunity school
Local authorityDudley Metropolitan Borough Council
Department for Education URN103855 Tables
OfstedReports
HeadteacherSteve Dixon[1]
GenderMixed[1]
Age range11–16[1]
Enrolment1127[1]
Capacity1120[1]
WebsiteSchool website

History

Dormston School was established in 1935. The original site consisted of a single two-storey building that contained 19 classrooms as well as a dining hall, gymnasium, assembly hall and library. This building remains in existence to this day, although substantial alterations have taken place since the mid 1990s and several completely new buildings have been added since the late 1960s. The school was built by Sedgley Urban District council, but since 1966 has existed within the Borough of Dudley[2]

In July 1996, the National Lottery granted the Dormston School £4 million to build the Arts and Sports Center, which was completed nearly four years later.[4] It includes a theatre, sports hall, art gallery and gymnasium.

In 2000, Dormston School was credited with the Charter Mark in recognition of its services to the pupils and the local community.

The school's current head teacher is Stephen Dixon, who was appointed in September 2018.

Head teachers
  • Barbara O'Connor - Head Teacher from September 1983 to December 2000.
  • Stephanie Sherwood - Head Teacher from January 2001 to July 2013.
  • Ben Stitchman - Head Teacher from September 2013 to July 2018.
  • Steve Dixon - Head Teacher since September 2018.[2]

Timeline
  • July 1996 - the National Lottery awards a £4 million grant to Dormston School, and contributes towards the cost of a £5.5 million sports/arts centre which is anticipated to be open by the end of the decade, having first been proposed in 1989 but its development has been delayed until now due to a shortage of funding.[4]
  • March 1999 - The school excludes or removes 41 girls from lessons for wearing short skirts which were more than 2 inches (51 mm) above the knee.[4][5]
  • September 2007 - A new blue and purple school uniform is launched, signalling the end for the red, white and black uniform which had been in place for more than 20 years.[2]

School buildings

The school had originally been housed in what is now A Block. This held classrooms, offices, a library, assembly hall and gymnasium.

Art, Science (B Block) and Technology (C Block) blocks were added in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These were expanded in the early 1990s. A fourth block, housing music, drama, dance and English classrooms (D Block) was built in 1990/91, followed shortly afterwards by three Modern Languages classrooms, two mobile classrooms (removed by 2015) and two Art rooms.

These expansions took place to accommodate the extra pupils following the local authority's decision to lower the secondary school starting age from 12 to 11, as well as an increase in the school's capacity to hold more than 1,100 pupils. It had provided capacity for some 700 pupils during its days as a 12-16 school. That figure had risen to more than 900 when the age of admissions was reduced, but high demand for places saw it increased beyond 1,000 by the mid 1990s.

Two science laboratories were opened in the autumn of 2003, as was a Sixth Form Centre (owned by Dudley College) in September 1996. The sixth form block was demolished in about 2007 and transferred to the mobile classrooms which had been erected more than a decade earlier.

An additional block was completed in 2017 and originally housed 5 new Modern Foreign Languages classrooms (Block F). These have now been moved to Block A and F block houses history and Religious education classrooms.

Dormston Centre

The Dormston Centre includes a sports hall, fitness centre, art gallery, theatre and cafe.[2] It cost nearly £6 million to build, £4 million of which was provided by a grant from the National Lottery. Around a decade after it was first planned, the go-ahead for the centre was finally given in July 1996 when the Lottery grant was given, and the facilities were in use by March 2000 - six months behind schedule. The official opening took place on 1 December 2000.[4] Two years later, the Dudley News criticised the project as a "failure" as few people in the local area were making use of it.

The school has put on pupil productions of plays and musical theatre at the theatre in the Dormston Centre.

On 5 March 2009 the Dormston Centre hosted an edition of the BBC's Question Time.

Pupils suspended over short skirts

In March 1999, the school made the headlines when 41 girls were either sent home, made to put on baggy trousers or isolated from lessons for wearing excessively short skirts as part of a local crackdown on 'sexily dressed' school pupils.[4][5] 21 female pupils aged from 11 to 16 were suspended and the rest segregated away from the other pupils.[4][5]

Notable former pupils

References
  1. "The Dormston School". Get information about schools. Gov.UK. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 March 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) ["-05". Archived from the original on 18 March 2010./]. Retrieved on 5 March 2010.
  3. "Coseley pupils to join Dormston School in September". Dudley News. 19 July 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  4. "Pupils suspended over short skirts". BBC. 16 March 1999. Retrieved 24 July 2019..
  5. http://www.highbeam.com Archived 2002-03-31 at the Wayback Machine .Retrieved on 10 March 2010.
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