West Leeds High School

West Leeds High School: Specialist Technology College
Motto Non sibi sed ludo (Not for self but for the game)
Established September 1907
Closed August 2009
Type Comprehensive
Location Congress Mount
Armley
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS12 3DT
England
Coordinates: 53°47′41″N 1°36′23″W / 53.7946°N 1.6064°W / 53.7946; -1.6064
Local authority City of Leeds
Students 1,119
Gender Mixed
Ages 11–18
Website West Leeds High School (closed down)

West Leeds High School Specialist Technology College was a mixed comprehensive school located in Armley in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The school had around 1,200 students on roll from ages 11 to 18. The school was replaced with Swallow Hill Community College in 2009, following the merger between two local schools. After 102 years West Leeds High School closed and replaced by swallow Hill.

History

The school served the Armley, Bramley and Wortley areas of Leeds for 100 years.

Grammar school

The West Leeds High School opened on 7 September 1907 to improve standards in the city. The school was effectively two schools in one as both Girls and Boys were kept completely separate from each other. In September 1930, following a knock on the knee in the gymnasium on a vaulting horse, Oswald Harland, the 10-year-old son of a master, died of pyaemia in Leeds General Infirmary.

By the 1950s the schools were known as West Leeds High School for Boys, with 500 boys, and West Leeds High School for Girls, with 450 girls. They were administered by the City of Leeds Education Committee. In 1959 the Girls School moved to a new campus and formed West Leeds Girls' High School on the Congress Mount Campus, with 550 girls. The Boys' school remained at the Tong Road Campus and formed West Leeds Boys' High School on Whingate, with 550 boys.

Comprehensive

The schools retained their name as 13–18 ages comprehensives. In 1993 the two schools merged to form West Leeds High School. The Congress Mount Campus was expanded in 1999 to become the size it is today. The boys' campus was sold off and converted to 66 apartments by North British Houseing and renamed as 'Old School Lofts'. The School also merged with Benjamin Gott High School, as that school had failing results and a falling pupil roll.

In 2004 the School successfully applied for Technology Status and became West Leeds High School Specialist Technology College. The School renovated some classrooms and fitted new SmartBoard software.

Performance

The school increased its A*-C GCSE examination results from 19% in 2000 to 39% in 2006.

Closure

School Buildings Being Demolished

In 2006 the school was informed that it would be merging with another local school, Wortley High School, to form a new school because of the falling birth rate in the local area. Both schools opposed the merger saying that this would create more disadvantages than benefits. The merger was approved and construction of the new school began in 2008 on the West Leeds High School site, named, in May 2008, Swallow Hill Community College. In September 2009, After the new school was completed, the West Leeds buildings were closed. In October 2009 the school buildings began to be demolished to be replaced with sports fields for the new school. However the original 1907 school still stands, a listed building on Whingate where it was converted into apartments.

Former teachers

John Wishart (statistician), known for the Wishart distribution, taught mathematics from 1922–4.

Alumni

Boys' grammar school

Girls' grammar school

References

  1. ↑ "Commander in Chief" by Basil Watson published in 2005 by the RN submarine Museum

Media

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