HITCHIN GIRLS' SCHOOL in Hertfordshire, Hitchin

Education Centre Information: Hitchin Girls' School:

Establishment Type:Community School
Phase of Education: Secondary
Status: Closed
Local Authority: Hertfordshire
Reason Establishment Closed: Academy Converter
Establishment Close Date: 16/08/2011
Boarders: No Boarders
Sixth Form: Has a sixth form
Urban/Rural Description: Urban > 10k - less sparse
Special Classes: No Special Classes
Religious Character: Does not apply
Total Pupils: 1059
Number of girls: 1059
Admissions: Comprehensive
Age Range: 11-18
Gender: Girls
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Background:

Hitchin Girls' school is a single sex, all ability community school with specialist science college status. It moved from Bancroft in the town centre to its present site in Highbury road in 1908. The school occupies a pleasant site on the top of Windmill Hill with its own playing fields and woods. The general classrooms in the upper and lower school buildings and there are also specialist areas for art and design, food, textiles, graphics and resistant materials, business technology, drama, mathematics, music and science. It has seven classrooms are fitted with interactive white boards and in addition there are eight digital projectors which are in use. The school has physical education and sporting facilities include a gymnasium, five hard and four glass tennis courts and two pitches. The curriculum offers by the school provides every student with a rigorous intellectual challenge and a liberal education appropriate to their age and ability. The excellence and richness of schools curriculum has been recognised by the award of Sportsmark Gold, Artsmark Gold and the NAACE mark of information and communication technology. The school has also been awarded healthy schools status. It has a strong tradition of offering a wide range of physical activities to all its pupils and has twice received the coveted Sportsmark award and is now a Sportsmark Gold school. It has a variety of clubs and offers specialist coaching for those students interested in athletics, badminton, swimming, tennis and trampolining. The school teams are entered for local, district, county, regional and national tournaments. It also offers a variety of opportunities for every girl to develop individual and group musical skills. It also arranges outings to the theatre, opera and ballet, concerts, art galleries, museums, places of worship, stately homes and castles, sporting events, residential study centres, lectures demonstrations, conferences and exhibitions. The school'seeks to maintain traditional values in work and behaviour and encourage their students to develop those qualities of character, which help them to make a worthwhile contribution to society. It believes that this can best be achieved within a firm yet flexible, caring environment with frequent contact and close cooperation between parents and the school.