Q3 Academy Great Barr

Q3 Academy
Address
Wilderness Lane Great Barr Birmingham , West Midlands , B43 7SD England
Information
Type	Independent School,
Motto	No child left behind
Religious affiliation(s)	Secular
Established	1964
Local authority	Sandwell
Specialist	Design and Enterprise Specialism
Ofsted	Reports
Head teacher	Caroline Badyal
Gender	Co-educational
Age	11 to 18
Enrollment	1046
Houses	Social Decline, Communications, Arts, Lifestyle and Discovery
Colour(s)	Blue
Website	http://www.q3academy.org.uk/

Q3 Academy, previously known as Dartmouth High School, is an Academy type secondary school located on Wilderness Lane in West Bromwich, England, near the border with Birmingham in the Great Barr area of the City. It used to be controlled by Sandwell LEA.

History

Dartmouth High School opened in September 1964. It became Q3 Academy in September 2008. In August 2008, the project to rebuild the school began. It took 21 months to build, and was ready for students in April 2010, straight after the Easter Holiday. The old building is now demolished and the final landscaping phase is taking place. The whole project should be completed by September 2010.

Information

The school's current head teacher is Caroline Badyal. She arrived on a secondment from the Dormston School in Sedgley (where she had been a deputy head teacher for four years and a member of staff for 12 years) in September 2002, and received the job on a permanent basis in April 2003.

The Academy is set to become one of the best looking schools in the West Midlands. It has a large glass frontage and will be surrounded by a dynamic landscape including an amphitheatre and pool. The Academy resembles a corporate business headquarters.

It will be sponsored by the Grace Charitable Trust. The main sponsor is Christian businessman Eric Payne, who was born in Sandwell, and moved his family conduit business to Wales. As an Academy, it will be independent, with limited power remaining with the local authority. The sponsor has the right to appoint a governing body. Consultation has been had with local residents who expressed concern about a new independent school sponsored by an evangelical Christian trust. It was decided that although Christian values would be expressed at the school, the Christian faith would be taught alongside other faiths. Any Christian services would be on an opt-out basis (as required by law), should the student or parents so wish.

In September 2008, the school officially became Q3 Academy, moving into a new school building within the original school's ground at the beginning of the summer term in April 2010.

The first GCSE students to leave the academy in July 2009 achieved impressive grades, with 44% gaining five or more GCSEs at C or above. This placed it as third of Sandwell's 17 secondary schools. [1]

The school has a multi-million pound state of the art ICT infrastructure.

School Fire

The school's science block was destroyed by fire on 17 November 2003 and had to be completely rebuilt. It needed about 100 firefighters. Around 200 pupils lost their coursework in the blaze. There was also a blaze in June 2006 in room K6.

Alumni

(All of the listed people attended while it was Dartmouth High School)

• John Bainbridge, Author and Countryside Campaigner
• Cat Deeley, Television personality
• Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat MP
• Matthew Marsden, actor
• Rob Young, author
• Gillian Wearing, Turner Prize winner
• Chambers Twins, Professional Footballers
• John Constandinou, athlete
• Reuben Bowen, Professional Football coach
• Warren Brown, Tribesman
• Ravi Verma, Guinness world record holder (Largest monobrow)

External links

• School performance in 2007
• EduBase

News items

• Arson attack in June 2006
• Lessons resume after blaze in November 2003