Castle Vale School and Specialist Performing Arts College is a secondary school located in Castle Vale, Birmingham, England. The school has been awarded specialist status as an Arts College.
The school opened in new premises in 1967. The buildings were completed and officially opened in 1969. It was built to serve the large new housing estate which was in the final stages of construction at this time, and now has Performing Arts specialist status.
At the time of its last OFSTED inspection in early-2007, there were a total of 876 students.
In 2012, NASUWT staff took strike action against management practices at the school. A one-day strike was held on March 7th, 2012 which stimulated action by the Local Authority to resolve the problems. However, further strikes were held as the School NASUWT representative was singled out by the Head for speaking to the media and another member was sent on gardening leave. In May, the Head resigned and the school started the procedure to become an academy.
The school has been subject to a furor regarding the new head teacher, Charlotte Blencowe, implementing "tinkle cards" permitting children to leave class a maximum of once per week to go to the toilet, a number of different hand signals to communicate in class and a strict policy over school uniform. Parents protested, and eggs were thrown at teachers.
The school suffered further uncertainty when AET arranged for Miss Blencowe to leave after only one term to move back to Yorkshire. Their reasons were contradictory, confusing and does not indicate particularly skillful or caring management. The school will be managed nominally by Mr Simon Turney and his team from another AET Academy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgrave_High_School) for at least one, possibly two, terms.
Now to be known as Greenwood Academy.
Famous quotes containing the words castle, vale, school, specialist, performing, arts and/or college:
“This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“In the vale of restless mind
I sought in mountain and in mead,
Trusting a true love for to find.”
—Unknown. Quia Amore Langueo (l. 1–3)
“By school age, many boys experience pressure to reveal inner feelings as humiliating. They think their mothers are saying to them, “You must be hiding something shameful.” And shucking clams is a snap compared to prying secrets out of a boy who’s decided to “clam up.””
—Ron Taffel (20th century)
“... to a specialist his specialty is the whole of everything and if his specialty is in good order and it generally is then everything must be succeeding.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“When performing an autopsy, even the most inveterate spiritualist would have to question where the soul is.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“One man cannot practice many arts with success.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“I tell you, you’re ruining that boy. You’re ruining him. Why can’t you do as much for me?”
—S.J. Perelman, U.S. screenwriter, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and Norman Z. McLeod. Groucho Marx, Horsefeathers, a wisecrack made as Huxley College president to Connie, the college widow (Thelma Todd)