Welcome to George Stephenson High School

A Level results will be available in the Sixth Form Study Area from 10am on Thursday 19th August

 GCSE results for Year 11 will be available in the Sixth Form Study Area from 10am on Tuesday 24th August.

 Year 10 GCSE unit results will be posted home from Friday 27th August.

 The new academic year begins for all students on Tuesday 7^th September 2010 at 8.40 a.m.

 Our New Telephone Number is ..0191 216 1115

I would like to take this opportunity to offer you a very warm welcome to George Stephenson High School.

I am thoroughly enjoying the role of Headteacher of George Stephenson High School in my first year here. The students, staff, parents and the wider community have made me very welcome indeed. It is a wonderful school with great students and a very positive, committed and hard-working staff. As you will be aware over the last decade the school has improved significantly, building up a reputation as a lively, caring school and an exciting place for students to learn. Importantly, examination results at all key stages have improved significantly over the last few years.

Our students achieved the school’s best ever GCSE results in 2009 with 82% getting at least 5 Grade A*-C GCSEs, and 53% getting at least 5 GCSE Grade A*-C including English & Maths. The performance in the very important core subjects is most pleasing – 73% of our students passed English at A*-C, 59% passed Maths, 91% passed Core Science and 71% gained two Science passes (a figure that was only bettered by one other school in North Tyneside). Equally for students making at least expected progress in English we were also 2^nd best in North Tyneside.

The league tables for secondary schools were published last month and they make very good reading indeed! In North Tyneside our CVA (Contextual Value Added) score of 1014.3 (which put us in the top 21% nationally) made us the fourth best school in North Tyneside and put us in the top ten of all the schools North of the Tyne.

There were also very encouraging AS results with 51% of grades being A, B or C grades and the A2 results were excellent with 67% of grades being A, B, or C grades. It is indeed a privilege to be joining the school at this exciting time.

Our school has a really positive ethos, with very strong pastoral and academic guidance and a real emphasis on learning in everything we do. This school is and will always be a fully inclusive school which puts the students at the very centre of all that it does. We want it to be a school that is always a happy, safe and enjoyable place to be. Further to that we want the school to be at the very heart of the local community and to become the school of choice of all who live here.

We all should be proud of the school. We are constantly striving to both improve our academic results and thus enhance the reputation of the school. I genuinely feel we will achieve this by working together, taking a team approach, consistently having high expectations of all, sticking to our values and sense of purpose and remembering that everything we do is only worth doing if it has a positive impact on our learners. This will help us become a community of successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens.

I hope you will take the opportunity to visit the school in the very near future and I look forward to meeting you soon.

Ian D Wilkinson

Headteacher

New Brand and New School Uniform

We have been working with an external Design Company to re-brand our school and give us a new image for September 2010. This has been an interesting and exciting process and has involved working with groups of students, staff, parents and Governors.  The new school logo, which will form the basis of our new brand identity, is a modern version of a traditional school crest and is designed to represent both academic excellence and the proud industrial heritage of George Stephenson and this area. George Stephenson himself had a passion for education and self-improvement and the new logo evokes this as well as being symbolic of the light of education and the bright futures of our young people.  It has also been designed to incorporate an image which symbolises both George Stephenson’s Safety Lamp and a lesser-known Stephenson locomotive, the North Star.  You can see more details if you click here

Following this process we have also decided to change the school uniform so that next year the students will wear a V-neck sweater, plain white school shirt and a tie in place of the current sweatshirt and polo shirt. The overall cost of the uniform will work out to be cheaper for parents as it will allow them to buy plain white school shirts from anywhere and the only items of clothing specific to the school will be the sweater and the tie (as well as the PE polo shirt and sweatshirt). The students have voted on the design of the tie, which will now be produced for us. See the results here..   The tie will also be available in a clip-on version.  We have also decided to change our uniform supplier and are changing to one which will offer you more flexibility in after-school and weekend opening hours and will offer online ordering.  We will provide you with further details on how to purchase uniform in the next few weeks.  We are very hopeful that the new uniform will be able to be ordered by mid-July.  

We will be expecting all students new to the school to be wearing the new uniform from September 2010 (indeed the old is no longer available) and we hope most of our students will also be keen to wear the new uniform from September.  There will however be a “changeover” period for the first term where students will still be allowed to wear the old uniform. We will therefore expect all students to be wearing the new uniform from January 2011.

NEW SCHOOL UNIFORM

 On sale at Emblematic from Wed 21^st July 2010.

Click Here for Price List

Emblematic Ltd, Unit 26, North Tyne Industrial Estate, Benton, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE12 9SZ

Telephone: 0191 270 1449

Email: sales@emblematic.co.uk

Website: www.emblematic.co.uk

Opening Times:       Monday - Friday, 8.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. 

(also open on Saturday mornings during July, August and September)

Open Day

We feel very strongly that this is a very good school with a lot to celebrate and share and we really want our local community find out what the school is really like. We will continue to actively promote our school in the community and would like to give you advance notice of one such opportunity which you may be interested in. We will be holding an Open Day on Tuesday 20^th July 2010, where anyone can come for a tour of the school and get the chance to talk to some of our staff and students and see the school in action. You will experience a tour of the school conducted by the Headteacher or senior staff, observe a range of activities showing students engaged in school life including live performances, artists and sport activities and meet Student Council and Student Voice representatives.  Refreshments will be provided courtesy of our excellent catering team in the school’s Italian-themed cafe, Giorgio’s.

Trust Status

The Governing Body agreed at a meeting before half-term to move to the final and formal round of consultation about becoming a Trust school, within a Learning Trust. The proposal is that we will join with all secondary and special schools and a number of first, primary and middle schools, to form a North Tyneside Learning Trust, with high profile external partners. The proposed alteration is to change our school category from Community to Foundation and acquire a Foundation established otherwise than under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 from 3^rd September 2010. The proposal is to establish a Foundation called “The North Tyneside Learning Trust”. The establishment of this Foundation will support our approach to school improvement and the improvement of the lives and life chances of children, young people and their families that is focused on raising standards and improving wellbeing.

The statutory consultation period began on 9^th June 2010 and the documentation is available to you if you click here.  You will be able to comment until 6^th July 2010.  All comments must be received by 5.00 p.m. on Tuesday 6^th July 2010.  Comments may be addressed directly to enquiries@ntlearningtrust.org.uk stating clearly the school you are referring to or you could send comments directly to the school Governing Body at the school address. The Governing Body will meet again at the end of July and consider its position, taking into account information gathered during the consultation.

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Routes into Languages Roadshow 2010 - Click Here

Charity Events Slide Show - Click Here

Future Friendly team in the News - Click Here to read the Article reproduced by permission of The Evening Chronicle, Written by Amy Hunt - Environmental reporter. 

George Stephenson High School in the News..... (more)