Coordinates: 53°24′04″N 2°39′43″W / 53.401°N 2.662°W / 53.401; -2.662

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Great Sankey High School
Established	1970s
Type	Comprehensive School
Religion	Non-denominational
Headteacher	Alan Yates[1]
Specialism	Engineering College[2]
Location	Barrowhall Lane Warrington Cheshire WA5 3AA
LEA	Warrington Borough Council
Ofsted number	111434
Staff	c. 200
Students	c. 2000
Gender	Mixed
Ages	11 to 18
Houses	Austen, Newton, Parks, Bannister, Stephenson, Thompson
Colours	Dark Green, Gold
Publication	Contact Magazine
Website	http://www.greatsankey.org

Great Sankey High School (GSHS) is a high school located in Warrington, Cheshire. The school is a state school and was built in the 1970s. Extensions have included a mathematics and humanities block. The school also has a linking leisure centre and arts theatre. GSHS has been awarded, and retained, an Artsmark Gold award, the highest award for the Arts. The school also has a sixth-form college, Barrow Hall College. This has recently had extensions and the common room has been upgraded. GSHS is partnered with South Peninsula High School in South Africa.

[edit] Specialisms

In 2004, the school was awarded specialist schools status in the field of Engineering and has since increased the provision of Engineering within the curriculum. GSHS is now one of the many schools in the United Kingdom with this status. The school also operates a Young Apprentice sceme, where Year 10 students have the opportunity to start a two year course and earn an NVQ level 2 with the school.

Several netball courts were falling into disrepair and the school decided to demolish them and, in a partnership with the RAC, build an RAC centre. This allows students studying engineering, but most specifically automotive engineering, access to facilities that few other engineering colleges possess.

[edit] College

The school also has a linked college but not much information is currently available about the college due to there being no website for the past 3 years.

[edit] Sport

The school has many teams participating in sports such as football, rugby league, hockey, netball, basketball, cricket, badminton and athletics.[1] [2] ^[3]

The 2003-2008 Rugby League Team retained the Warrington cup all years. In Year 10 they won the Regional Final and Progressed to the national where they lost by one point to St John Fisher of Wigan. In Year 11 they again won the regional final and progressed to the national final where this time they beat St Wilfreds from Wakefield 16-14 to claim the national title. The 2004-2009 team were also successful as they reached the regional final in both year 10 and 11, winning it the second time round. They also reached the national final both years but were beaten on both attempts.

[edit] Music

The school has two bands that perform very regularly in the local area and abroad, in places such as London (Covent Garden), Warrington train station (where they played for the Duke of Edinburgh), Italy, France, Spain and Germany. In the past, the Concert Band has achieved a silver medal at international level competing against some of the best school and college bands from all around the world. More recently, the Concert Band has achieved a gold award at the regional seris of the National Concert Band Festival (2008), held at GSHS, and were invited to play at the 2009 national finals in Cardiff where they achieved a highly commended bronze award. The Swing Band competed in Warwick at the national finals last year after gaining a gold medal at the regional seris in 2007. Both bands performed on the Walt Disney Resort Paris Fantasy Festival Stage by formal invitation in summer 2008. GSHS also has 2 choirs (Sankey Singers & Show Choir). Sankey Singers will be performing at the national festival, competing for a place in the next round, to be held in London. The music department also hold an open music event, The Great 'S' Factor, and several smaller casual bands, performing a wide variety of music.

[edit] House system

The school implemented a house system in the academic year beginning september 2007 to ease the strain on the heads of years, who previously had been allocated one year of students and had to manage all these students throughout their 5 year attendance at Great Sankey High School. It was decided that each house would have two forms from each year, and there would be twelve forms for each year group. Each head of house would then only have to manage 10 forms instead of 12, and each would only have to manage two year 11 forms at one time, instead of a head of year looking after all year 11 forms. Learners gain House Points for attending extra-curricular activities and going above and beyond the call of duty in lessons.

Members of each house can be indentified by their ties, featuring their house colours. The new ties, which have been designed by learners, are being implemented from September 2009. Students are issued with house coloured planners and attend "House Assemblies". Sports day and other interhouse competitions are regularly organised each term, and at the end of the year, the house with the most House Points wins a trip to Alton Towers.

The school has six houses, each with their own colours, named after people who have been influential and excelled at what they have done:

- (Jane) AUSTEN, Light Blue

- (Roger) BANNISTER, Dark Blue

- (Sir Isaac) NEWTON, Red

- (Rosa) PARKS, Purple

- (George) STEPHENSON, Yellow

- (Tanni Grey) THOMPSON, Orange

Each year, a male and female year eleven student become House Captains and help in the running and organization of their house.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Great Sankey High School
• Great Sankey High School DFES information and data