Tendring Technology College


Tendring Technology College is a secondary school Sixth Form College located in England, Essex. The college officially became an Academy in September 2011. The academy has two campuses, the Thorpe Campus in Thorpe-le-Soken, and Frinton Campus situated in Frinton-on-Sea. This is the largest distance between two campuses of the same secondary school in the United Kingdom. Key Stage 3 are located in Thorpe-le-Soken, and Key Stage 4 and Sixth Form are at the Frinton Campus. Tendring Technology College currently has over 1900 pupils on roll, split between the two sites. The school is sponsored by the Academies Enterprise Trust.
The Academy was previously led by Mike Watson, however in 2004, he went into early retirement after twenty years at the school, and was replaced by Caroline Hayes. Caroline Hayes remained Principal of Tendring Technology College for 12 Years before stepping down in 2016, to be replaced by the current Principal, Michael Muldoon.
The Academy saw extensive building work at its Frinton Campus in 2003 when new departmental buildings were erected. One of these new buildings, the Watson building, was named after former Principal Michael Watson and is currently occupied by the performing arts department. After a long battle the Academy secured the funding for a £2.8 million state-of-the-art Sixth Form Centre, which is based at the Frinton Campus site and reached completion in September 2011. The new building features facilities such as a media suite and social area, as well as extra teaching space. Tendring Technology College was one of only several schools to receive such finding from the Learning Schools Council. This follows previous upgrades to the Frinton Campus, which created new teaching space, a new Resources Centre and exterior improvements.
Much like the Smoot at MIT the school has developed its own unit of length. The 'Mbrown' it is named after ex-student Mitchell Brown and is equivalent to 1.78meters. The unit came to be after Mitchell Brown was used by his friends to mark out a football pitch on the school field. A football pitch is 58.9 Mbrown's by 38.2 Mbrown's.
The Academy's Business Studies department is part of the Young Enterprise scheme, and for this, there are several academy productions put on every year such as talent shows and karaokes. The Sixth Form also have their annual Sixth Form Revue, which is a collection of sketches shown live on projected video. There is also a tradition that a student band performs at each show. The Revue is typically held on the last day before the academy closes for Christmas. The Young Enterprise scheme has been praised as a success and regularly reach the finals of the competition.
The Academy's performing arts department has also put on several productions in recent years, such as Little Shop of Horrors, The Tempest, The Lion Witch and Wardrobe, Macbeth, Jerry Springer The Opera, and the most recent Rock of Ages.

Notable former pupils

Notable former pupils of the school include:
Christopher Collins-
Christopher is Assistant Vice Principal and is responsible for standards at KS4.
He is also responsible for the Learning Teams and works closely with the Directors of Learning and Faculty Leaders to improve student learning and outcomes.
Christopher also has responsibility for the provision of the more able students. He works closely with April Ablett to provide a challenging education for students in Year 7 through to Year 13.
Tim Paternoster-
Tim, the schools assistant principle, is based at Frinton Campus and is responsible for the curriculum offering within the college for all students and subjects. He also has the responsibility for the college timetable and assisting the Principal with the creation and implementation of the College Development Plan.