William Brookes School is a caring, successful and improving school.  We want everyone associated with us to be welcomed, included, and to benefit from that association.  The school is a family with 950 students and over 120 staff.  We all try to live by the motto of “Be the best you can be through Courtesy, Enterprise and Endeavour”.

Our school is here to serve students with high quality learning and give the best possible life chances.  We believe learning is best when teachers, leaders and students work together to achieve challenging, stimulating and creative lessons, in a safe and happy environment. As parents we value your support in attaining the best academic and social standards, which demonstrate pride in our school.

Each month Mr Renwick publishes an article about William Brookes School in the community. Here is the latest version to appear in the Wenlock Herald.

There have been some major events organised by the Friends of William Brookes School recently. The Abba tribute night attracted well over 250 guests for an evening of light hearted fun and entertainment. Many new friends then joined us for the recent May Fayre – the biggest I can remember in my twelve years at the school.

We officially opened the Memory Lane Brick Pathway Project, which won the Central England Gold Star for Community Involvement. Congratulations to Tracy Weaver for her part in winning that PTA-UK Award, and dear thanks to all of the committee members, but especially Liz Wealthall and Helen Goldspink for their leading roles in organising these recent fundraisers.

The increasing demand for events at the school is a real pleasure: the Leisure Centre is flourishing and, as the summer months extend evening use of outdoor facilities, it is good to see the mixing of students from school with others across the locality, in the name of sport. This is something that needs to be developed further, and plans to improve facilities for clubs are on our agenda for the next year. These changes would improve life for school and the community, and ensure best value for money.

National Theatre Live is one initiative that has really taken off across Shropshire. We are lucky to be one of the host sites for these live feeds of top London stage shows and our expanding programme of live broadcasts will include Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, performed by the Mariinsky Ballet in June, and André Rieu’s Maastricht Concert in July.

The level of interest in these events is such that we are planning to extend our provision into the larger, aptly named, Penny Cooper Performing Arts Studio: 240 seats and an even bigger screen, providing our theatre audience with a much better viewing experience. The higher quality facilities will enhance our school productions too.
Exam season is upon us now and, to make best use of time in the school year, we are moving to a new timetable in June. Dedicated staff, focused on doing their best for our students, have worked long and hard to realise the new timetable, which should eliminate any slack time for students in Year 9, as they begin their GCSE option courses early. Other students benefiting include our new Year 7 and 12s, who can experience their real timetable rather than a special taster.

In September, we are hoping to have the biggest sixth form ever in the history of the school, matching the large intake we get into Year 7.

In years gone by it was a frightening experience transferring to Year 7 at the ‘Big School’, but many students see it as a second home, thanks to Annie Smith, who plays a really important role in smoothing the transition to our secondary school through primary sporting events.

In the next month, a Primary Sports Day, Kwik Cricket and Orienteering Competition will have taken place here at William Brookes. Weekly swimming and sports hall games are also scheduled alongside local group use during special sessions in the school day.

The school and Much Wenlock continually benefit from working together as a community and we are looking forward to hosting lots more events and activities in the near future, including the Wenlock Olympian Games, WBS Got Talent and the Primary Dance Festival to name but a few. 

Geoff Renwick, Head