Forest School, Walthamstow
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Forest School is a private school on the edge of Epping Forest, in Walthamstow in North East London, in the UK.
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[edit] History
From its initial twenty-two pupils in 1834, Forest has expanded and now has about twelve hundred boys and girls in equal numbers across the full age range of 4 - 18. It prides itself that it offers a first class education, with renowned facilities in music, drama, art and sports. It also offers school bus schemes to improve accessibility for those pupils who live a long distance from the school. Many school trips take place as well, usually about three a year not including individual department trips. These can be purely recreational, such as skiing, or educational such as the Fun and Philosophy trip, or arts-based trips.
[edit] Structure
Beginning at age 11, boys enter the first form and this is the main point of entry to the boy's school, with usually 20 boys entering from Forest's prep school, and being joined by 50 new pupils from a wide range of other schools. Participation in the wider life of the school is expected of all pupils.
The girls' school, also beginning at age 11, focuses on the development of well qualified, socially-confident young women ready to take up the opportunities of university and careers. The school places great emphasis on the development of each girl as an individual. This is promoted by a supportive pastoral system; each girl is a member of a House as well as a form. The House system allows each girl to feel loyalty to a smaller unit as well as providing opportunities for girls to take on roles of responsibility. There is a strong sense of community in the School.
Pupils are taught in single sex classes until the sixth form, where teaching becomes coeducational providing a transition to university or professional life.
The Prep school numbers just over two hundred boys and girls in all. Its aims are to offer an education of high quality and to encourage and develop each child academically, physically and spiritually. From the ages of 4 to 7 Pre-Prep pupils are taught in mixed classes of sixteen. In the main Prep from 7 to 11 boys and girls are taught in separate classes of twenty. Small classes enable the teachers to give each child a considerable amount of individual attention.
Forest's Sixth Form numbers some 250 pupils and is coeducational. The routine is designed to help pupils thrive in an academic environment and to be prepared for university; many lessons are more like seminars and self-motivation becomes increasingly important. Pupils can choose from a very wide range of combinations of AS and A2 courses and these are supplemented by General Studies and a programme of lectures and debates. Sixth Formers remain very much part of their respective schools, continuing to have a Housemaster/mistress as before and having the opportunity to shoulder responsibility in their Houses.
The school maintains its traditional values of academic excellence, and offers scholarships in both academic areas and that of the arts to pupils who show an outstanding talent in any particular subject.
[edit] House System
There are 8 Boys' School Houses, each with their own House Master. Younger boys wear a tie in their House colour. All boys are registered by House. With the exception of School House they are all named after previous Wardens:
- Bishop's (Light Green)
- Copeland's (Yellow)
- Doctor's (Red)
- Guy's (Black)
- Johnians (Dark Green)
- Miller's (Dark Blue)
- Poole's (Purple)
- School (Light Blue)
In the Girls' School six Houses have recently been formed in 2001 to replace the old four Houses named after areas of the school (Field, Glade, Manor, and Park). They each have a House Mistress. The new Houses are named after famous women:
- Astell
- Baylis
- Eliot
- Franklin
- Hepworth
- Kingsley
Common pupil appointments include Head of House, Deputy Head of House, Music, Drama and Sports Captains. Competitions between the Houses in both schools include House Music, House Drama, House Football (boys only), House Hockey, House Netball (girls only), Sports Day (House Athletics) etc.
[edit] Naming of Years
These follow the traditional names from the senior school:
- Year 7.......First Year
- Year 8.......Second Year
- Year 9.......Third Year
- Year 10......Fourth Year
- Year 11......Fifth Year
- Year 12......Lower Sixth
- Year 13......Upper Sixth
[edit] Prefects and Monitors
Twenty prefects (girls) and twenty monitors (boys) are decided by teachers, housemasters and mistresses at the end of Lower Sixth year. Four more prefects and four more monitors are decided after AS results come out in the summer. Thus all prefects and monitors are in the Upper Sixth. Of these four are chosen to be Head Boy, Deputy Head Boy, Head Girl and Deputy Head Girl. One further girl is chosen to be Games Captain.
Their duties include supervision of queues at lunchtime ("lunch duty"), and supervising their assigned class.
[edit] Gowns
Black gowns are worn by Heads of Schools, their Deputies and the Warden in assemblies.
Royal blue gowns are worn by monitors and prefects, which are returned at the end of the academic year. In addition, Prefects have white shield badges with "Prefect" written diagonally across in gold, while Monitors wear special ties striped in silver.
[edit] Commendations System
Commendations are awarded for good work. They consist of green slips of paper with carbon transfer to white slips, of which the green is kept by the student and the white is posted into a box on House boards. Certificates are awarded for number of commendations received (bronze 20, silver 40, gold 60, platinum 80). They are very rarely given out in sixth form.
Non-satis (not enough) are given for poor work or bad behaviour. They are pink slips kept by students, with the yellow carbon transfer kept by the teacher. Three non-satises lead to a dentention, three detentions result in a housemaster/mistress's detention, and three of these result in a warden's detention.
[edit] Curriculum and Results
The academic curriculum in the years leading to GCSE reflects the National Curriculum in its breadth and balance. However there are one or two distinguishing points of difference: Latin, for example, is compulsory in the 1st and 2nd Forms; and the majority take Physics, Chemistry and Biology as separate GCSE subjects. Computer literacy is a major focus in the early years.
Pupils consistently produce good examination results and most proceed to university, many girls taking up places for highly competitive subjects at top universities. The school achieves good exam results, with pupils largely achieving around 9-10 GCSE grades, as well as 4 AS grades and 3 A level grades.
[edit] School Motto
"In Pectore Robur", meaning Heart of Oak, or more poetically Strength in the Heart. This is referred to in the school song.
[edit] School Song
Eja felices, hodie vacandi
Cantico omnis, celebrator hora
Lausit in linguis, animo voluptas
Pectore robur, pectore robur.
Recently, a previous Master of Music, Stefan Reid, arranged this for orchestra and choir which premiered at the annual End of Year Concert (now traditionally held in the Dining Hall). It is sung at certain significant assemblies (eg. end of year) and at Comemmoration Day.
[edit] Warden
The headmaster is called the Warden and is currently Andrew Boggis, who is also the current chairman of the HMC. The three Heads of School (Boys, Girls and Prep) are the Deputy Wardens, although they are rarely called so. They are M. Cliff Hodges, Mrs P. A. Goodman and Mrs E. Garner.
[edit] Faith
The school is predominantly Christian and requires that all students attend Chapel services (held in the school chapel) up to twice a week.
[edit] Sporting achievements
In 2005 the school won the Essex Schools Cricket Cup, after beating Saffron Walden in the final by 15 runs. This can be seen on the cricket page of the Forest School website. Also in 2004 the U14 football team were runners up in the Essex Schools Cup, losing 1-0 to Highams Park School in the final. To this day Forest School remains the only school to have played in the FA Cup, beating Rochester 4-2 in the first round before losing to Clapham Rovers convincingly 10-1.[1]
[edit] Address
Due to the discrepancy between the school's academic results and Waltham Forest's academic reputation [2], the official address replaces "Walthamstow" with "Near Snaresbrook".
