Foxwood School, Seacroft
Foxwood School | |
---|---|
Address | |
Brooklands View , , LS14 England | |
Coordinates | 53°49′05″N 1°28′31″W / 53.818070°N 1.475200°W |
Information | |
Type | Comprehensive |
Motto | Many Minds One Heart |
Established | 1956 |
Closed | 1992 (name changed to East Leeds High School) |
Local authority | City of Leeds |
Gender | Coeducational (male-only until 1971) |
Age | 11 to 19 |
Enrolment | 1500 |
Demolished | 2009 |
Foxwood School was a Comprehensive school in Seacroft, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1956 and closed 40 years later in 1996.
History
Summary
Foxwood School was the first comprehensive school in Leeds and opened on 4 September 1956 under the Headship of Mr M R Rowlands. It was built as part of the development of the
Foxwood continued to grow and by 1962 a sixth form had been established and in 1963 the target of 1500 pupils had been reached. The comprehensive system always had its critics but during the 1960s the school demonstrated considerable academic, sporting and artistic success. Pupils gained places at Oxford and Cambridge and other leading Universities,[4] the school produced international football and rugby league players and many of the boys played in local bands. In addition to the usual academic subjects "technical, engineering and commercial courses and advanced courses in music and art" were also provided.[2]
Foxwood changed from an all boys’ school to a mixed one in 1971, during the Headship of Bob Spooner but " unfortunately the intake of boys was always going to be in excess of girls due to the close proximity of Parklands Girls School which was situated within Foxwood’s catchment area".[1] In 1973 Leeds undertook a massive reorganisation of the education system by establishing a first, middle and high school pattern of education which came into force the following year. Foxwood became a high school.
The school had difficult challenges in the 1970s in addition to restructuring. Many of the children came from deprived backgrounds and Foxwood was described in a brief biography of one of its teachers, the future MP, Colin Burgon, as “a deprived secondary school in the Seacroft area of East Leeds.”[5] Bob Spooner was a leading light in the world of education and was known for appointing radical teachers who used innovative teaching methods. He recognised the need to experiment and engage with the children. According to Colin Richardson, another teacher at the time, these methods "worked because we got really good results with the pupils."[6]
During the 1980s falling pupil numbers across the city meant that all Leeds high schools developed surplus places, so in 1986 another plan of major restructuring was launched, middle schools were due to be eliminated with the organisation reverting to the old style pattern of primary and secondary system of education. Under this plan Foxwood was to become a tertiary college for higher education.[1] In 1989 the overall development plan was rejected by the
Head teachers
Two heads dominated the foundation and development of Foxwood and ran the school for more than thirty years.
- Matthew Rowlands (1956 -1967). He was appointed head teacher when the school opened. He had previously been deputy head of Caludon Castle School in Coventry and helped establish the ethos and organisation of the school in its early years.
- Bob Spooner (1967–1988). He helped develop the school through the 1970s, and 1980s, and introduced many of the innovations detailed below. After his retirement he wrote several books about his teaching experiences including Lay Stone on Stone: Story of a Comprehensive School which is a history of Foxwood School.[7]
Innovation at Foxwood
Foxwood was an innovative school throughout its history. These innovations included:[8] –
- 1956 First comprehensive school in Leeds.
- 1965 First school in Leeds to set up its own outdoor centre.
- 1969 First comprehensive school to abolish corporal punishment.
- 1968 Staged the first amateur production of Oliver!
- 1973 One of the first comprehensive schools to abandon school uniform and invite pupils "to dress suitably according to their personal taste."
- 1978 Mounted its own adventure expedition to remote parts of the Atlas Mountains.
- 1978 One of the first schools to establish BEC (British Educational Council) (later BTEC) courses.
- 1981 Set up the Foxwood Steel Band.
Sport at Foxwood
The school was built with comprehensive facilities for sport – extensive playing fields, cross country and cycling courses, many tennis courts and 3 gyms.
As well as the traditional school team sports, Foxwood introduced pupils to a wide variety of other sports. These included Basketball, Badminton, Boxing, Cyclo-cross, Rock Climbing and Table Tennis. The Basketball teams had considerable success with, on one occasion, supplying all the players for the Leeds Schools’ Team and in 1970 providing the winning U13 Cup team from a single class. The school formed a cycling club in 1962 and took up Cyclo-cross in 1965. By the following year Foxwood riders were winning area and national titles and competing internationally. This success continued for many years.[8]
Foxwood Farm
In 1965 the school established a residential centre for outdoor education with the purchase, by the
The farm was renamed Foxwood Farm and was used for groups of pupils and staff to take up short residences there.In 1970 the Golden Lion Inn, only a mile from the farm, was purchased to provide accommodation for mixed groups. The centres operated successfully and by 1980 over 10,000 pupils had attended residential courses there.[8] The Golden Lion was sold in 1988 and when the school closed in 1996 the "farm was donated to an independent charity, the Friends of Foxwood Farm."[10]
Foxwood Steel Band
Foxwood Steel Band was established in 1981 when Bob Spooner bought a set of
The Beiderbecke Trilogy
The School was used as the location for ‘’San Quentin High’’ in the three TV series which comprise
Further history and closure
After a reasonable
On 3 March 1998 the Leeds Second Chance School was opened in the old Foxwood buildings to accommodate 300 young persons between 16–25 years old. The announcement at the time stated “The second chance schools are designed to combat the inability of traditional education to meet the needs of certain disadvantaged groups in society”.[15] The school closed in 2005.
In 2009 the local council decided that the buildings were unfit for purpose and uneconomic to repair and in December 2009 the school was demolished.
Notable former staff members
- Elmet Constituency between 1997 and 2010.[16]
- . He died from a suspected heart attack while playing for Dewsbury in 1969, aged 28.
- Victoria Jaquiss taught English initially and then Music; she was later appointed Head of Music. She helped set up the Foxwood Steel Band in 1981 and has run the band ever since. When the school closed in 1996 she became Steel Pan Development Officer for Leeds.[11]
- Rugby League Hall of Fame.
- Frederick A Miles taught Biology during the 1960s. He then completed a PhD at the University of Sussex. Afterwards he emigrated to the United States where he worked as a Neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).[17]
Notable former pupils
Music and the arts
- Charlie Chuck (the stage name of David Kear) is a comedian and musician.
- Andrew Edge is a musician who has been in several bands including Thompson Twins, Uropa Lula and Savage Progress.
- Barry Ryan was a singer and photographer.
- Paul Ryan was a singer, songwriter and record producer.
- Jon Rennard was a folksinger.
Sport
- Leeds United. He was also a coach and manager.
- Leeds United.
- York City.
- Clive Freeman played football for Swansea City.
- Roy Greenwood played football for several clubs including Hull City and Sunderland.
- Golden Boot. In 2007 he was voted as the greatest British rugby league player of all time.
- Leeds United and played for them nearly 350 times over a period of twenty years. He also played for Scotland and took part in the 1974 World Cup.
- Steve Pitchford played rugby league for Leeds and Great Britain. He won the Lance Todd Trophy in the 1977 Challenge Cup Final win over Widnes.
- Peter Wakefield was a boxer: Leeds’ first schoolboy champion, the first junior ABA champion and the first senior ABA champion.[18]
- Geoff Wraith played rugby league for Wakefield Trinity and Castleford.
Further reading
- Spooner, Bob (1988). Lay Stone on Stone: Story of a Comprehensive School. London: Gerbil Books. ISBN 978-1871331004.
References
- ^ a b c "History of Foxwood School". foxwoodhighschool.co.uk. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
- ^ a b The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, 4 September 1956
- ^ "Foxwood School Official Opening", 5 February 1959
- ^ Yorkshire Evening Post, 14 February 2015, p. 14
- ^ "Colin Burgon Biography". anotherworldreal.wordpress.com. 20 November 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
- ^ "Colin Richardson's retirement". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
- ^ Frankland, Garth (18 May 2006). "Bob Spooner obituary". The Guardian. theguardian.com. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Foxwood School’s Jubilee Brochure, 1980
- better source needed]
- ^ a b "Foxwood in the Dales". foxwoodhighschool.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
- ^ a b c "Foxwood Steel". foxwoodsteel.com. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
- ^ "The Beiderbecke Affair". imdb.com. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ "School performance". education.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ "History of Foxwood School". foxwoodhighschool.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
- ^ "Second Chance School opens". cordis.europa.eu. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^ "Colin Burgon". colinburgon.co.uk. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
- ^ "Frederick A Miles". sfn.org. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
- ^ "Peter Wakefield". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 18 March 2016.