Frank Montgomery School
Frank Montgomery Secondary Modern School | |
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Address | |
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Bredlands Lane , , CT2 0HD England | |
Coordinates | 51°18′42″N 1°08′54″E / 51.3116895°N 1.1483164999999644°E |
Information | |
Type | Secondary Modern |
Motto | "Strive for the Right" |
Local authority | Kent |
Department for Education URN | 118925 Tables |
Head teacher | Closed 2007 |
Gender | Mixed |
Age | 11 to 16 |
Enrolment | Closed 2007 |
Colour(s) | Bottle green |
The Frank Montgomery School was a mixed-gender secondary modern school in the village of Sturry near Canterbury in east Kent. It was founded in 1935 and closed in 2007, when the site and school roll was taken over by Spires Academy.
Foundation as Central School
Frank Montgomery School was founded in 1935. The school mainly took in children from the senior classes of existing schools in the nearby farming villages of Sturry and Westbere, and the coal mining village of Hersden.[1] It was originally named Sturry Central School. Mr G.E. Draper-Hunt was the first headmaster, remaining in post until his retirement in 1958.[2] Until its replacement by Spires Academy school in 2007, the school's uniform of bottle green, and shield showing the white horse of the county of Kent, a coal mine tower and wheat sheaves, with the motto Strive for the Right, remained the same.
When it opened in 1935 the school was hailed as a model for future school building design being the first in the local school district to be built entirely on one level.[3] The building cost was £12,548 and was officially opened by Walter James, 4th Baron Northbourne, an admirer of Rudolf Steiner and a sportsman who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics.[4] The stated aim of the school on opening was to specialise in 'practical education, such as cookery, laundry, gardening, woodwork, metalwork and practical geography'. The initial school roll was 200 pupils, taught by the headmaster and six other teachers, with an initial maximum capacity for up to 280 pupils.[3]
Secondary modern school
With the enactment of the
Local community
After it opened the school soon became a focus for local community life, being the location for numerous community events, including the Seventh Annual Kent Collieries Ambulance Challenge in 1938,
Progressive innovations and controversies
One of the innovations put in place by the school upon its name change to Frank Montgomery School was an attempt to end the division of pupils into streamed classes, each defined by the presumed educational ability of pupils. Consequently, the school ceased to stream the pupils by ability and also abolished the six letter system previously designating each class, A to F, in which A had been the highest ability stream, and F the lowest ability stream. Instead year groups were designated by the first six letters of the school's name, F, R, A, N, K and M, and each class was officially assigned as being of equal ability. In 1987 Frank Montgomery School also featured on a controversial episode of the BBC television documentary series
Special measures and closure
Frank Montgomery School was placed in special measures in 1998 due to poor Ofsted inspection reports, although it left special measures five years later following intervention by the Local Education Authority and Ofsted. However, in 2004 the BBC reported that the school was still bottom in the national school league tables for GCSE examination results in England and Wales, with just 4% of pupils on the school roll achieving any GCSEs at grade C or above.[13] Three years later, at the point of its closure, the school had risen from bottom place to thirteenth from bottom with 7% of pupils achieving the official requirement of five or more GCSE results at grade C or above, and 43% of pupils gaining at least one GCSE at grade C or above.[14]
The school returned to special measures in 2005 and remained there until its closure in 2007, at which point a new academy school, Spires Academy, was formed on the same campus, taking in the former pupils of Frank Montgomery.
Exam results
Year | % Gaining Any Grades A* to C |
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1997 | 13% |
1998 | 21% |
1999 | 9% |
2000 | 14% |
2001 | 10% |
2002 | 19% |
2003 | 7% |
2004 | 4% |
2005 | 26% |
2006 | 43% |
Source: Ofsted
Headmasters and headmistresses
- G. E. Draper-Hunt (first headmaster) (1935-1958)
- G.A.D. Davies (1958-
- Betty Chapman
- Rodney Freakes (c. 1990-2001)
- Ian McGinn (2001-2007)
Notable former pupils
- Rusty Goffe, actor
- Michael Paraskos, novelist and art historian
References
- ^ 'Book charts the history of local schools', in The Kentish Gazette (UK newspaper), 16 September 2010
- ^ Gerry Warren, 'Pupils Leave a Bit of Past Behind at New School' in The Kentish Gazette (UK newspaper), 21 June 2012
- ^ a b Dover Express (UK newspaper), 5 July 1935
- ^ Dover Express (UK newspaper), 10 January 1936
- ^ "FRANK MONTGOMERY SCHOOL".
- ^ Sampson, A. Anatomy of Britain Today, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1965, p.195
- ^ Dover Express (UK newspaper), 12 August 1938
- ^ Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald (UK newspaper), 8 July 1944
- ^ Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald (UK newspaper) 4 July 1942
- ^ Radio Times, 8 February 1960, p.34
- ^ Radio Times, 1 March 1961, p.44
- ^ BBC (1987) Panorama, 'Is Your Child Fit For Life?', broadcast 9 March 1987. For comment on the controversial nature of this BBC programme see J. Evans, 'Defining a Subject: The Rise and Rise of the New PE?', in The British Journal of the Sociology of Education, vol. 11, no. 2, 1990, p.30f
- ^ "BBC NEWS - UK - England - Kent - School comes bottom in GCSE class".
- ^ "BBC NEWS - UK - Education - The worst GCSE-level results".