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)
“Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.”
—Thomas Gray (1716–1771)
“There is nothing intrinsically better about a child who happily bounces off to school the first day and a child who is wary, watchful, and takes a longer time to separate from his parents and join the group. Neither one nor the other is smarter, better adjusted, or destined for a better life.”
—Ellen Galinsky (20th century)
“For what Harley Street specialist has time to understand the body, let alone the mind or both in combination, when he is a slave to thirteen thousand a year?”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“Bottom. What is Pyramus? A lover or a tyrant?
Quince. A lover that kills himself, most gallant, for love.
Bottom. That will ask some tears in the true performing of it. If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“all the arts lose virtue
Against the essential reality
Of creatures going about their business among the equally
Earnest elements of nature.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“No girl who is going to marry need bother to win a college degree; she just naturally becomes a “Master of Arts” and a “Doctor of Philosophy” after catering to an ordinary man for a few years.”
—Helen Rowland (1875–1950)