Latest news with #KingEdwardVIHandsworthSchool
BBC News
30-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Birmingham school with vaulted hall granted rare listed status
A building described as one of Birmingham's "best kept secrets" has been granted a rare Grade II* listing. King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls has been given the legal protection awarded to buildings of particular national rare listing puts the school in the same category as some of the city's most significant historic buildings, including The Old Crown pub in Digbeth, Moseley Road Baths and the Council House in Victoria Square. The red brick building, built in a neoclassical style, contains some iconic columns and ornate plasterwork, including the coat of arms of King Edward VI, said Historic England. The school, home to 450 pupils, opened in 1911 and was formed by the merger of three schools - Aston, Summer Hill and Bath building originally cost £50,000 and was designed by Birmingham architect Philip Chatwin. During World War Two, the pupils and staff were evacuated to a grammar school in Worcester. It reopened to pupils in 1940 after air raid shelters had been built nearby, with many of the rooms on the ground floor and in the basement fitted with reinforced ceilings to make them bombproof. "From the outside King Edward VI is a very impressive building but inside it contains what might just be Birmingham's best kept secret with a breathtaking central hall," said Louise Brennan, regional director of Historic England. "The quality and craftsmanship on display in the hall and throughout the building are testament to the value that our ancestors placed on education, and the pride they had in civic buildings," she added.
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'Best' secondary schools in Midlands where 'brightest' pupils make exceptional progress
The best-performing secondary schools in the West Midlands where some of the 'brightest' pupils get almost perfect results have been named. Schools are ranked based on their Progress 8 scores, which shows how much progress pupils are making compared with average performance of kids who were at a similar level when leaving primary school. This essentially shows the secondary schools where children's results accelerate once they get there. READ MORE: Drivers told one thing they must have in their car from April Get all the latest motoring news sent to your inbox by signing up to our new newsletter here A score of between zero and one means schools are above average, while below zero is worse than average. A school can achieve a maximum of one and any that gets that score is among the best performing anywhere, as kids make rapid progress. A handful of Birmingham schools achieved scores of one in the latest results published by the Real Schools Guide. They were among the most prestigious schools in the region. They were: King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls King Edward VI Five Ways School King Edward VI Handsworth School Bishop Vesey's Grammar School Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls A number of other schools also posted impressive Progress scores, including state schools and academies. They included: King Edward VI Aston School - 0.993 Wolverhampton Girls' High School - 0.933 Queen Mary's High School, Walsall - 0.993 King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys - 0.967 St Paul's School for Girls - 0.92 Eden Boys' School - 0.892 Old Swinford Hospital, Stourbridge - 0.864 Q3 Academy Langley - 0.81 Barr Beacon School, Walsall - 0.806 Summerhill School, Dudley - 0.803 The Good Schools Guide explained: "Progress 8 is a type of 'value-added' measure that indicates how much a secondary school has helped pupils improve (or progress) over a five-year period when compared to a government-calculated expected level of improvement. "Confused? You may need a moment to get your head round it but essentially this measure takes a pupil's performance in relation to their peers at primary school level, compares it with their performance at GCSEs (their Attainment 8 score) and then, after some mental arithmetic, establishes whether the individual has progressed at, above or below the expected level."
