Welcome to our new website. We hope that there is something here for anyone with an interest in our school.
What makes us different?What makes us different?
As the city's only boys' school, it has a proud heritage, built on good discipline and excellent relationships between staff and students.
In particular, over the past five years, the school has made tremendous progress. We have been awarded Investors in People, Artsmark and Sportsmark status, refurbished parts of the school, installed and then refurbished four new computer suites and opened newly-designed Performing Arts areas, including a recording studio. The West Coventry Sixth Form has been established with Tile Hill Wood Girls' School comprising more than 260 students.
Sports College status has brought improved facilities with our excellent £5 million Sports Complex. This includes ten 5-a-side all-weather football pitches, a gymnasium hall, a fitness suite and a fitness lab.
Of course, our students do not have to be sportsmen to come to The Woodlands School. For example, our reputation is already established in the Performing and Visual Arts, particularly in terms of the quality of examination results. There is a huge range of non-sporting extra curricular activities and over 70 boys learn musical instruments.
If you live over three miles away, you automatically qualify for free transport on the single sex criteria. We have a large number of boys on role from areas such as Coundon, Radford, Cheylesmore, Earlsdon and Bell Green areas. Some boys even travel from Longford, Alderman's Green, Bedworth and Birmingham. We now have designated buses from the school to cover all areas of the city and make travelling easier.
Our FacilitiesOur Facilities
As with most secondary schools, we have designated areas for all core and foundation subjects, all of which are due to be refurbished or re-built in the first phase of Coventry’s Building Schools for the Future 2008 programme (BSF). In addition, such is the importance we place on our pastoral system to support the curriculum, we have dedicated single-storey House blocks for students and their House staff. Furthermore, there is a Post-16 suite for students of the West Coventry Sixth Form and their staff (on both sites). Our improved sports facilities were outline above.
Our Unique House SystemOur Unique House System
The aims and objectives of our unique House system are to ensure that all students are well cared for, educationally challenged, given equality of opportunity and provided with a safe, encouraging and stimulating environment with the emphasis being on inclusion and participation.
On transition from primary school, each student is allocated a place in one of seven Houses (Cresswell, Ellis, McLachlan, Sparkes, Stringer, Thompson and West) and he becomes one of the Year 7 tutor group within that House which also contains a group in Years 8, 9, 10 and 11 in our vertically-structured Houses. The House is staffed by a House Head/Learning Manager, his/her deputy, five House Tutors and other support staff. The House blocks contain a large House Hall for assembly, lunch and House games, as well as a staffroom, offices, store-rooms, WCs and lockers for students. Houses are accessible to students before and after school, at Break and at lunchtime.
From the moment a student arrives at the school, they are encouraged to get involved in as many different activities as they can, including after-school sessions in many subject departments (e.g. History Club) as well as sporting opportunities.
Activities and EventsActivities and Events
The following events are key points in the annual school calendar:
Parents’ Evenings (all year groups), Governors’ Prizegiving, visits and trips (locally, nationally and internationally), School Council Meetings, Gifted &Talented Clubs and Celebration Evening, Work Experience, six dedicated PSHE days each year, school performance productions, Battle of the Bands (music), Woodlands Unplugged (music), GCSE and Advanced Level Art Exhibitions, UK Maths Challenge, Enterprise Week and charity fundraising.
Student SuccessesStudent Successes
Unlike almost every other school, our entire Key Stage 4 cohort sits GCSE’s a full year earlier, i.e. at the end of Year 10.
Recently, Year 10 students have already got close to and, in some cases, exceeded the performance of Year 11 students on the traditional Key Stage 4 curriculum model.
These students in particular have achieved results which are exceptional for their age group.
Having done so well so early, they are now following a unique newly designed Year 11 curriculum which has built-in progression routes and enrichment for all dimensions of our student body in this cohort. |