Mill Hill County High School
| File:MHCHS crest.jpg | |
| Motto | Altiora Peto ("Aiming High")[1] |
|---|---|
| Type | Partially selective academy |
| Headteacher | Mr Geoffrey Thompson |
| Chair of Governors | Mr M Dannell |
| Location | Worcester Crescent Mill Hill London NW7 4LL England Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| DfE number | 302/5402 |
| DfE URN | 137386 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports Pre-academy reports |
| Staff | 150 + |
| Students | 1706 |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Apollo, Gemini, Saturn, Mariner, Capricorn |
| Website | MHCHS |
Mill Hill County High School is a large secondary school with academy status located in Mill Hill, London, England. It was the first comprehensive school in the United Kingdom to have had a student taken on the prestigious Morehead-Cain merit scholarship program in the United States and is an official Morehead-Cain nominating school.[2]
Contents
Admissions
It is for students aged 11 to 18. The school has 1,700 pupils as of 2009.[3] The current headmaster of the school is Geoffrey Thompson.
It is currently running well above its designed capacity. It is situated just east of the A1, next to Mill Hill Golf Course and south of Nut Wood. It is north of Marsh Lane (A5109), and one mile north-east of Apex Corner. The London Gateway services are just under a mile to the west. Moat Mount, the area where it was built, is one of the highest points in London.
History
The Orange Hill Grammar School (separate boys' and girls' schools) was on Abbots Road (next to Orange Hill Road) in Burnt Oak (Edgware), and next to the former Burnt Oak site of St James' Catholic High School. The Orange Hill school became Orange Hill Senior High School in the early 1970s, and was a mixed comprehensive. It merged with the Moat Mount School, which was where the current school is, in the 1980s. The Moat Mount School had around 900 boys and girls and a sixth form.
In the early 1990s, it became a grant-maintained school, opting out of the borough of Barnet. It became a technology college in 1994. In 1995 it applied to become a selective school, becoming selective in 1996 and can select up to 25% of its intake. By 1999 it had 1,000 applications for its 200 places.
Orange Hill school was split between two sites, the first three years were at Hammonde Close, Broadfields in Edgware with the upper school at Abbotts Road. When the school merged with Moat Mount, the higher years were initially at the old Moat Mount site and then the lower years joined later. The Hammonde Close site then closed and was knocked down for a housing development and the Abbotts Road site became a college.
Headteachers
- Alan Davison 1997-2003 (head of Dame Alice Owen's School since 2005, and of Notley High School from 1993-7)
- Geoffrey Thompson 2004- (head of The Duchess's Community High School in Alnwick from 1997–2003)
Traditions
The school uniform includes a striped maroon and navy blue blazer. As of the academic year 2015-2016, students in years 7-11 wear ties of different colours in order to distinguish students in different year groups. The current colours of ties are:
Other traditions include the Christmas Pantomime which usually puts a humorous twist on a piece of popular culture from the year and is performed solely by the school staff who take the opportunity to get more involved in school life. The Pantomime is then usually followed by a performance by the staff band and occasionally one of the student bands and serves as a showcase for the vocal talent.
Curriculum
The school offers a compulsory education in Maths, English, Science, Geography or History, Religious Studies, Physical Education, a modern foreign language and I.C.T during Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4.
In Key Stage 3, students must also learn History, Geography, Art, Music, Latin, German, French, Dance and Drama. The students may choose two of these subjects as GCSE subjects. They can also choose from Business Studies, Economics as well as Computer Science, which are not taught at KS3 level.
All students are offered an extra language (either German, Spanish or Latin) in Year 8 with (As of 2013) no exception of sets 5 and 10. The school requires all students to learn a modern foreign language in GCSE. If someone chooses Latin for GCSE, they would still have to take French as Latin is not a modern foreign language.
Transport
The bus route 605 serves the school, with access to Mill Hill County, Totteridge and Whetstone station and Totteridge Academy in the morning and Mill Hill Broadway, Burnt Oak and Edgware Stations for students in the afternoon. The 605 does not stop all the way at the school but there is a Hail and Ride section on Marsh Lane (A5109). At Mill Hill Broadway there is access to routes 113, 114, 186, 221, 240, 251, 302 and 303. Mill Hill Broadway railway station is a thirty-minute walk away. Routes 292 and 614 are also nearby.
Intake
In accordance with the school's specialism in technology, the school selects 10% of its intake through a test of abstract reasoning. A further 15% are selected via auditions for musical and dance ability. The remaining places are allocated to applicants who have a sibling at the school, or who live near to the school.[4]
The class system
In the school for key stage 3 to 4, the sets of classes, grouped according to ability, are in numbers. As of September 2013, the set numbers will be changed to allow greater clarity for parents. The new names are X1, Y1, Z1, Y2, X2, Y3, X3, Y4, X4. Previously there was no Z1 but a Y5. There are two groups of numbers at the moment:
| Set | Ability Level |
|---|---|
| X1 & Z1 | Top ability |
| Y1 & X2 & Y2 | Above average |
| X3 & Y3 | Average |
| X4 & Y4 | Support |
Not all classes are grouped according to ability, particularly in KS3. For example, dance and drama, music, design and technology and art classes are all grouped randomly. PE is grouped in sets 1 - 3 for each side of Year 7. For Year 8 and Year 9, it is grouped according to what importance you give to PE.
Both groups have separate subjects at separate times. In Year 9, each group has humanities, mathematics, languages and art, dance & drama and music.
Mill Hill County High School also has a support department which comes to the need of those students who may have learning difficulties and those who need an extra 'Push' to catch up with the rest of their set. Support teachers are often referred to as Learning Support Assistants (LSA's).
Notable former pupils
- Ben Strevens, professional footballer currently playing for Brentford F.C.
Orange Hill Grammar School (boys' and girls')
- Gillian Chan novelist
- Air Vice-Marshal Paul Clark CB, former GEC-Marconi then BAE Systems North America executive, and Commandant of the RAF Signals Engineering Establishment (RAFSEE) at RAF Henlow (now home of the RAF Signals Museum) from 1990-1
- Ronald Cohen, venture capitalist, and Chairman since 2005 of the Portland Trust
- David Dein, former Arsenal FC vice-chairman[5]
- Robert Elms, writer and lunchtime broadcaster on BBC London 94.9
- Graham Minter LVO, Ambassador to Bolivia from 1998–2001
- Prof Charles Oppenheim, Professor of Information Science since 1998 at Loughborough University
- Stephen Pankhurst, software developer and founder (in 2000) of Friends Reunited (with his wife Julie Pankhurst)
- Jean Simmons OBE, Hollywood actress
- Jon Smith, Chief Executive since 2001 of First Artist Corporation
- Jeffrey Taylor, Film, Television & Stage producer (Stagescreen Productions)
- Roger Wilson CBE - cancer patient advocate and founder of charity Sarcoma UK http://www.sarcoma.org.uk
Orange Hill Senior High School
- Angus Fraser MBE, former England cricketer and Managing Director since 2009 of Middlesex County Cricket Club
See also
- Mill Hill School, nearby independent school
References
- ↑ literally "I make for/seek/aim for higher things". Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ [1], Morehead-Cain British Nominating Schools.
- ↑ Head's Introduction, Mill Hill County High School.
- ↑ Prospectus, Mill Hill County High School.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
