Queens Park Community School
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| Queens Park Community School | |
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 Quality, Progress, Creativity and Success |
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| Established | 1989 |
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| School type | Mixed sex State school and Sixth form. |
| HeadTeacher | Mr Mike Hulme |
| Location | Brent, London, England |
| Website | www.qpcs.brent.sch.uk  |
Queens Park Community School (commonly abbreviated to QPCS) is a specialist Business and Enterprise inner city comprehensive secondary school and Sixth Form in Queen's Park, North West London, in the borough of Brent, UK. There are, as of January 2006, 1204 pupils aged between 11 and 19 on roll who come from a range of backgrounds.
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[edit] History
[edit] Background
Opened in 1989, Queens Park Community School is the result of an amalgamation of three small schools during the 1980s. The merging schools consisted of South Kilburn Community School (formally Percy Road School), Aylestone Community School and Brondesbury and Kilburn High (commonly abbreviated to B&K, formally Kilburn Grammar school). The new school's logo, an image of three trees, represents this union of the three schools. The headteacher chosen to head the new school was Ms Mary Norton. Ms Norton headed the school from its roots through to her retirement from education in 2002. Her stated reason for retirement was to make way for someone who could continue the school's success.
The school is located in a middle class area of Brent, but includes many less affluent communities within its catchment area. Initially many parents held back from sending their children to the school. Once the school began to achieve credible results, parents began to apply to QPCS in such numbers that it is heavily oversubscribed annually.
In 2000 the school benefited from a brand new block funded through millennium National Lottery funding at an estimated cost of around £6 million. The building of this block involved demolishing one of the two existing buildings. The new building was officially opened by Ken Livingstone with a plaque commemorating his visit. Recently the school been granted specialist school status in
Business and Enterprise and was also chosen to host a CLC, City Learning Centre which contains state of the art ICT and music facilities. Queens Park has secured additional funding through the government's Excellence in Cities programme, which provides resources for schools to provide extended work with gifted and talented pupils.
[edit] The City Learning Centre
The QPCS City Learning Centre (CLC), as one of many CLCs built throughout the country, is a separate centre built in the grounds of Queens Park Community School. It was completed in 2003. The CLC is equipped with a network intentionally independent from the school, a 'cyber centre' including ICT equipment and computer suite, a sound studio and a performance space. The centre was designed to enable students of QPCS and other schools in the area as well as for adults wishing to use the facilities to support independent learning.
Currently, the CLC is undergoing an extension, with classrooms for Adult Learning being built on the site of the current music studio and the building being extended to accommodate extra classrooms and a new music recording studio. This is scheduled for completion around Christmas 2006.
[edit] Uniform
Before the school opened, there was a consultation with parents about whether a uniform should be introduced or not. The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of a school uniform. The Queens Park Community School uniform was featured in the local press for its unconventional uniform, consisting of a black tracksuit bottom, with a red or black T-shirt featuring the school three trees logo, and a black jumper with a red collar. The design of the uniform was intended to be comfortable, attractive, practical, economical and one that students would enjoy wearing. The design has since gone somewhat out of fashion and faces criticism from students for being hot in the summer, as well as expensive for parents to buy.
 Side view of QPCS |
 Front view of CLC |
[edit] Awards
Two members of the QPCS teaching staff have received recognition in the National Teaching Awards.
- Sue Wales winner of the Lifetime Achievement Teaching Award for London and the Southeast of England in 2001
- Alison Hook came second for the prestigious Teacher of the Year Award for London for 2003.
[edit] Notable Visits
At time of visit, Member of Parliament for Brent East.
- Shaun Wallace, 2004
Master Mind Champion, visiting as former student.
- Shortman, 2005
- Yolande Beckles, 2006
Self-defined education Guru.
British politician, visited twice as a speaker to students.
[edit] Notable Alumni
- Promise Cambell
Serious Desert, 2003 finalist.
- Shaun Wallace
Barrister and Champion of Mastermind, 2004.
Professional R&B singer and The X Factor (TV series)X-Factor, 2004 finalist.
- Nathanael Baring
Professional actor, starring in 2007 film 10,000 BC
[edit] QPCS in Media
[edit] This morning with Richard and Judy
QPCS was featured on This Morning with Richard and Judy for its uniform which was seen as an 'original' idea for a uniform.
[edit] Robert Symons
QPCS was featured in the media in 2004 as the school in which Robert Symons, who quit his high paid job to give back to his community, taught as a newly qualified teacher. Robert Symons was murdered in his home, defending his family by Yousef Bouhaddaou when Yousef attempted to rob his house in October 2004.
[edit] Classroom Chaos
QPCS was also one of the six schools featured on the controversial 2005 Channel 5 programme Classroom Chaos in which a retired teacher under the pseudonym 'Sylvia Thomas' returned undercover as a supply teacher after 30 years. Her supposed objective was to show the 'chaos' which teachers must deal with in the modern classroom, although it is widely agreed that the main aim was simply to make a controversial and high rating television programme. With the use of hidden cameras, she filmed chairs being thrown, pupils fighting in class and swearing at teachers and other such behaviour. It should be noted that the majority of incidents filmed occurred at other schools, with only minor disobedience being filmed at QPCS. The programme was strongly criticised by teaching unions and other educational bodies. Many argue that she deliberately allowed the children to get out of control in order to film staged action footage for the show.
[edit] Trivia
- QPCS appeared in the background shot of an episode of Smack the pony.
- QPCS appeared in the 2006 film Stormbreaker during a cut scene of British schools.
