King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys is a highly selective Grammar School in Birmingham, United Kingdom. It is one of the academically most successful schools in the United Kingdom, currently ranked 4th among state schools. The name is retained from the previous location at Camp Hill in central Birmingham from where the school moved to the Vicarage Road in the suburb of Kings Heath in 1956, sharing a campus with its sister school, also formerly located in Camp Hill. It is a school which specializes in Science, Mathematics, and Applied Learning. In 2006 the school was assessed by The Sunday Times as state school of the year. A Year 9 student was 2011 winner of The Guardian Children's Fiction Page and the Gold Award in the British Physics Olympiad was won by a King Edward VI student in September 2011.
Ofsted inspections classify Camp Hill as an Outstanding Provider.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Admission
As with the other grammar schools in Birmingham, including those of the King Edwards Foundation, admission is selective based on performance in the Eleven plus exam, with around 1000 competing for around 120 places as of 2014 (the number of places available for Year 7 increased from ~90 following the many cuts of the coalition government of 2010-2015 that were made to schools). This number often changes or varies according to the number of candidates who originally sit the 11+ examination.
The school shares a campus with King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls and some major music events such as concerts, occasional drama activities, plays and musicals, are jointly held. A two-week timetable synchronises the two schools, allowing for shares lessons for A-level subjects of Music, German and Computer Science. The fields, tennis courts, schoolyards and the main school buildings are not shared. There is a shared swimming pool used separately by boys and girls. The sixth form block is a shared facility in which the top floor is occupied by girls, and the ground floor is used by the boys' school. A joint sports hall is used by both boys and girls with a separation barrier. The dining room has a folding dividing partition. A new food technology room is located between the Girls and Boys schools and is also shared.
Facilities
The school has computer rooms, a library, many science labs, and art and design rooms; it also features a lecture theatre, a large assembly hall, a sports hall, as well as specialised classrooms for subjects such as Mathematics, English, Modern Foreign Languages and the Humanities. The old gym has been redeveloped to create the school library, the wing where the English department is placed, and a Sixth Form study area.
Sports Hall
In October 2006, a new sports hall was officially opened, and is shared by students attending both schools. The hall includes two gyms, a dance/drama studio, a mini-cafeteria, two classrooms and a fitness room. The building includes a lift for the disabled, as does the library.
New Extension
In the new 2016/2017 term a new extension was opened, providing new classrooms and science laboratories. The extra classrooms were necessitated by the change from 3 forms per year to 4, resulting in approximately 30 extra students per year.
History
The school was founded in January 1883 and operated for two terms on the New Street site of King Edward's School. This was the school location which JRR Tolkien thoroughly disliked, after the idyllic country life in Sarehole Mill (now a Birmingham suburb). It opened at its intended site at Camp Hill in Birmingham, near the city centre in September 1883, and moved to its current location, adjacent to Kings Heath Park, in 1956. Camp Hill Boys celebrated its 50-year jubilee in 2007 with a concert at Symphony Hall and the burial of a time capsule to be opened in another 50 years' time. It celebrated its House Centenary in 2007-8, with special events throughout the year that are not normally part of the house competition e.g. 5-a-side football.
Specialist status
The school has been granted Specialist College status in three specialisms: Science (including Maths), Humanities and Applied Learning.
Subjects
Students follow a curriculum of traditional core subjects, rather than the modern curriculum.
KS3 (Years 7-9)
From years 7 to 9, all students study and take internal exams in Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, ICT, History, Geography, Design Technology, Music, Art, Religious Studies, PSHE and French or German in Year 7 followed by both French and German in Years 8 and 9. Students can choose to drop one of these languages for GCSE.
GCSE (Years 10 and 11)
In year 9, students must pick four options from History, Geography, RS, Art, Music, DT (Electronic Products or Resistant Materials), French and German, one of which must be a language. These four subjects are studied in addition to the school's core Maths, English, English Literature, Chemistry, Physics and Biology for GCSE, as well as non-exam PSHE, Careers and Philosophy and Ethics.
A-Level (Sixth Form Years 12 and 13)
If students achieve the school minimum requirements(A grades in subjects to be taken at A-Level, B in Maths and C in English), they may continue into Sixth Form. Students select three or four subjects to take from the ones they have done at GCSE, as well as Further Maths, Computing, Economics, and Business Studies. Further Maths can only be taken by students also studying Maths. Unlike most Sixth Form colleges, which teach Maths and Further Maths in parallel, students take 6 Maths modules for a full A Level in year 12, then 6 modules of Further Maths in year 13. General Studies is a compulsory A level for all sixth form students, and is taught for one hour a week, although these 1 hour sessions are sometimes used for other events such as careers afternoons.
Sports
The sports played at Camp Hill are seasonal: rugby and hockey in the Winter term and Spring term; in the Summer term: cricket and athletics are the main sports. Other sports include basketball, fitness, gymnastics, and tennis. Sixth form students may play football during games periods, and seniors (Years 11-13) especially the sixth form have the opportunity to play a wide variety of sports, including football, hockey, rugby, cricket, athletics, basketball, badminton, volleyball, table tennis, swimming, squash and tennis. All students are required to take part in certain house events (known as Standards) - cross-country, swimming and athletics. Other off-curriculum sports include fencing, swimming, and rugby and cricket training after school.
School Song
At the end of each school term the school song (similar to the song at King Edward's School) is sung. It is also not unusual for the rugby teams to sing this song after a rugby match victory, especially if the win is over a rival school.
Houses
Four houses are named after families who fought in the Wars of the Roses, Beaufort (Red), Howard (Blue), Seymour (Yellow), and Tudor (Green). Students wear different ties corresponding to the house in which they are in. All students are required to be members of a house and a member of staff is head of a house. Events such as House Rugby, House Football, and others, enable students to earn points for their house.
House events are played in four age groups; juniors (years 7 and 8) play in individual years, and intermediates (years 9 and 10) and seniors (years 11-13) play as two groups. The house events begin in the Autumn with house rugby for all ages, rugby 7's for seniors, 11-a-side football for seniors, and house indoor 5-a-side football for all age groups. The house quiz also takes place over the course of the year, again split into junior, intermediate and senior. In early November, the house table tennis championship is held for all years, whilst cross country standards are run by boys from years 7 to 10. The house cross country finals are then held in December, along with house badminton for the seniors. Traditionally, house swimming standards are held in January, with the swimming finals after the winter A-Level exams. House chess is generally held in early spring, and house tennis at the end of spring. Both house cricket and house athletics are held in the summer, with Sports Day generally being held the week before the end of term.
In 2008, the school celebrated 100 years of the house system by hosting a day of house competitions in all subjects and extracurricular activities as well as additional competitions including scrabble, darts and film-making. The House Festival is celebrated every 4 years, to enable all students to take part in at least one during their attendance at the school. The second House Festival occurred on 3 October 2012, and the third in October 2016.
Student Volunteering
Students have many opportunities to help the school through many positions, and these require students to give up some of their in-school free time.
Prefects
Every year, 40-55 new Year 12 prefects are voted in by teachers and the Year 12 students (a large proportion of the year nominate themselves). Students that gain 20 or more votes become prefects, however they may be vetoed by teachers as was seen in the 2017 elections. If you are voted in as a prefect, you may then nominate yourself to be a head boy (one available position) or deputy head boy (2-4 available positions), to go through a selection process that includes interviews for the final candidates.
The duties of a prefect include controlling the lunch queue, patrolling the library and enforcing basic rules such as uniform regulations in the corridor.
Temporary prefects are also assigned through a random selection process (everyone who signs up has the same chance to become a prefect) in Year 11 while the Year 12s and 13s are on exam leave.
Librarians
The school's librarian makes positions available for those in Years 8-13, to help manage functions of the library including shelving books and manning the main desk to scan books to be borrowed by students.
Notable alumni
- Stanley Barnes, neurologist, former Dean from 1931-42 of the University of Birmingham Medical School, and fourth President from 1931-2 of the Association of British Neurologists
- Mark Billingham, author, crime fiction
- Keith Campbell member of the team that cloned Dolly the sheep
- Fintan Coyle, co-creator of TV gameshow "Weakest Link"
- Roger Cotterrell, Anniversary Professor of Legal Theory since 2005 at Queen Mary, University of London
- Arthur Cox, Professor of Geology from 1918-49 at University College, Cardiff
- Andrew Crawford, Professor of Neurophysiology since 1992 at the University of Cambridge
- Keith Dobson OBE
- Alan Dedicoat, BBC announcer and newsreader
- Reginald Eyre, Conservative MP for Birmingham Hall Green from 1965-87 and Chairman of the Birmingham Heartlands Development Corporation from 1987-98
- Clifford Grey (real name Percival Davis), composer who wrote If You Were the Only Girl (In the World), and won Olympic gold medals in 1928 and 1932 for the USA bobsleigh team
- Nicholas Green (judge) QC, High Court Judge, Queen's Bench Division 2013, UK Permanent Representative to the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe from 2000-2 and Vice-Chairman of the Bar Council of England and Wales 2009
- Frank Heaven
- Richard Hobbs, Professor of Primary Care Clinical Sciences since 1992 at the University of Birmingham
- Harry Jephcott, President of the Royal Institute of Chemistry from 1953-5, and Chairman of Glaxo Group from 1950-64y
- John Light, actor.
- Richard Mottram GCB, former Permanent Secretary in the UK civil service, and Chairman of Amey plc since 2008
- Charles Talbut Onions CBE, lexicographer, contributed to the history of the Oxford English Dictionary
- Ronald Pearsall, author
- Robert Pickard, Vice-Chancellor of the University of London from 1937-9, Director of the British Cotton Industry Research Association from 1927-43, and President of the Royal Institute of Chemistry from 1936-9
- Edward William Salt, Conservative MP for Birmingham Yardley from 1931-45
- Dave Wakeling, singer and songwriter, founder of ska band The Beat
- David Wheeler, helped invent the subroutine and some encryption algorithms, and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Cambridge from 1978-94
- Frank Wilson, Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford from 1947-57, President of the Malone Society from 1960-3 and the Bibliographical Society from 1950-2
- Conor Woodman, broadcaster and author.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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