Thurston Community College

Community school in Thurston, Suffolk, England

Blue, Gold, RedWebsitehttp://www.thurstoncollege.org/

Thurston Community College is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form located in Thurston, Suffolk, England. As of 2018, it has 1,733 students aged 11–18 drawn from the local village and surrounding rural communities.^[1]

History

The Community College was founded in 1973, and was originally known as Thurston Upper School.^[2]

In 2023, the school was one of those identified as having buildings that could be structurally unsound because reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete had been used in their construction.^[3]

Transition to two-tier education structure

In September 2014, the school underwent a large transition in order to become a secondary school and follow the two-tier education structure. Because of this, the Thurston Sixth Form Centre was relocated to Beyton, on the site of the former Beyton Middle School, and is now known as Thurston Sixth: Beyton Campus. This also meant that the most junior year group was lowered from Year 9 to Year 7. The old Sixth Form Centre, now a humanities department, was opened in 2002 by Rt Hon David Puttnam.

The college today

The school's facilities include a community library, a large sixth form centre (based in Beyton) and an Air Training Corps building. It has a total staff of around 170. In its most recent Ofsted inspection report in 2018, the school was rated Good.^[4] The school has been rated Good every inspection except for in 2010 when the school was rated outstanding.^[5]

A new external building was constructed in 2023, containing 3 social sciences classrooms and 2 science labs.^[6]

Houses

Until 2020, the school was divided into five houses, named after famous British people with Suffolk connections. The school has changed these houses into year group blocks.^[7]

Gainsborough
Rendell
Anderson
Penrose
Wolsey

New houses are to be implemented from 2024, however, they are still unannounced.

Principals

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (January 2022)

? - 2005 | Chris Bowler

2005 - 2021 | Helen Wilson

2021 - 2023 | Nicki Mattin (Formerly head teacher of Spires Academy, Canterbury).^[8]

2023 - Present | Maeve Taylor^[9] (Interim principal from Claydon High School).

Notable former pupils

Joanne Jennings, represented Great Britain and England at high jump
Kate Quilton, television presenter and journalist
James Scowcroft, footballer for Ipswich Town FC
Adrian Simpson, Principal of St Mary's College and founding Principal of Josephine Butler College at Durham University
Kate Smurthwaite, comedian
Gary Stevens, footballer for Tottenham Hotspur FC
Daniel Wakelin, Jeremy Griffiths Professor of Medieval English Palaeography since 2011 at St Hilda's College, Oxford^[10]

References

^ "Thurston Community College". Retrieved 23 December 2018.
^ "History" (PDF). Thurston Community College. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
^ Duncan, Pamela; García, Carmen Aguilar (6 September 2023). "Schools in England affected by Raac: the full government list". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
^ "Thurston Community College". Ofsted. May 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
^ "Thurston Community College". Ofsted. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
^ "First look inside college's new building after £1.7m funding". East Anglian Daily Times. 19 September 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
^ "Thurston College - Leadership Team". 6 May 2016. Archived from the original on 6 May 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
^ Ghaemi, Mariam (16 July 2021). "Retiring headteacher says she 'pretty much loved every minute'". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
^ Thurston Community College & Thurston Sixth | Facebook, retrieved 2 January 2024
^ Daniel Wakelin