Woodlands School, Basildon


Woodlands School is a secondary school in Basildon, Essex. The school currently educates more than 1600 students from Basildon and South East Essex.

Overview

The school is on a single site and is made up of one main building.
Woodlands School offers English, Maths, Science, Languages, Geography, History, Personal and Social Education, ICT, Performing Arts, Media Studies, Design Technology, Art and Physical Education.
Previously a community school administered by Essex County Council, Woodlands School converted to academy status on 1 April 2015. However the school continues to coordinate with Essex County Council for admissions.

School life

Traditionally, a month after Year 11 students begin study leave and a month before their exam results are revealed, a prom is held for the students.
Every academic year, Woodlands School appoints 90 Year 11 students as prefects. Each prefect is given a department to work within. From these prefects, 15 head prefects are chosen, these are also known as Senior Prefects. There is a head boy and head girl. The school has recently introduced deputy head boy and deputy head girl.

Performing Arts

Since 2005, the school has been working to expand its specialism in performing arts into the local community. Community youth organisations are now working in partnership to use funding from Essex County Council's Youth Opportunities Fund and Youth Capital Fund to complete the construction of the Theatre.
In 2006, Woodlands School was working with Creative Partnerships, The Basildon Arts Trust, Support Through Art, Loco Motion and many other organisations to host an arts festival flagshipped by the surreal performance spectacular 'Einsteins Dreams.' The producers - Greg Klerkx and Sam Holdsworth - formed a new company called Nimble Fish after the success of 'Einsteins Dreams'.

Notable former pupils

On 16 Oct 2013 an OFSTED inspection took place which was officially released on 6 Dec 2013, which gave the school an Inadequate rating. Woodlands have since had a second ofsted inspection in 2014 and were brought out of special measures. Simon Cox was appointed Head Teacher for September 2014.
The report from July 2014 came back as followed:
Achievement of pupilsRequires improvement
Quality of teachingRequires improvement
Behaviour and safety of pupilsRequires improvement
Leadership and managementrequires improvement