Windsor High School, Halesowen


Windsor High School is a secondary school with academy status located on Richmond Street, Halesowen, in England.

The school

Windsor High School and Sixth Form is a comprehensive school in Halesowen, West Midlands. It is among the largest schools in the region, with capacity for 1,600 pupils aged 11 to 18 and is heavily over-subscribed. The number of admissions for the year commencing 1 September 2007 was 280, which became the approved admissions number. The school has been awarded Artsmark Gold and Sportsmark Gold as well as the National Achievement Award for Improvement in Examinations in recent years.
Windsor High School and Sixth Form is currently one of the top schools in Dudley LEA. It is currently ranked 3rd in Dudley, behind Old Swinford Hospital and Bishop Milner Catholic School. In 2005 65% of pupils at the school achieved 5 A*-C grades in their GCSEs. This was topped further by the following year of pupils in 2006/2007, where 90% of pupils achieved an A* grade, this is yet to be achieved by any other academic college, and boosts Windsor's positioning in the Midland school ranking into number 2.
The school was erected during the 1930s by Worcestershire County Council as Halesowen County Secondary Modern Boys' School - a secondary modern school. Girls living in the local area attended nearby Halesowen County Secondary Modern Girls' School.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s the school was known as the Halesowen County Secondary School for Boys or more colloquially simply as 'The Boys' School'. The school colours were maroon and yellow.
In September 1972, the schools became "Richmond Boys' School" and "Walton Girls' School", initially as secondary modern schools providing education for pupils aged 13–18 years following a reorganisation of education in Halesowen which saw a switch to three-tier schooling. A reorganisation in September 1982 saw both schools convert to 11–16 age range, with the sixth form being abolished in favour of a move to tertiary education which saw all of Halesowen's post 16 education facilities incorporated into an expanded Halesowen College.
In September 1983, the first "Windsor High School" pupils joined, co-existing with the pupils from last two years of Richmond High School for Boys. Windsor High School came into full existence in September 1985 when the two single-sex schools fully merged into one mixed comprehensive, after this period of dual-school name. This marked the end of single sex state schools in the Dudley borough; all the other remaining single sex schools had been axed in July 1975 to make way for mixed comprehensives from September of that year.
The new school existed entirely on the site of the boys' school, though with substantial extensions. In the early 1990s Windsor High became a Grant Maintained school. The Walton site on Bundle Hill was taken over by Halesowen College, who used it as an annexe until July 2003. It was demolished shortly afterwards and replaced by a housing estate.
A sixth form centre opened at Windsor High in September 2010 - marking a return of sixth form facilities in Halesowen secondary schools after an absence of nearly 30 years.
Recently, Windsor Academy Trust announced that Windsor High School and Sixth Form would receive some new unisex toilet facalities.