School open day to show off new image

Abbeydale Grange's new image goes on public show for the first time tomorrow at an open day for prospective parents and pupils - and anyone else who's interested.

From this term Abbeydale has become the city's first foundation school, moving out of local authority control.

The school is seeking to reinvent itself as a small 'niche' secondary proud of its multicultural nature, offering something different from the mainstream.

By becoming an independent foundation school with charitable status, Abbeydale hopes to avoid being targeted for closure by the council in any future moves to cut surplus places in the city.

To underline the transformation in its status, the school has introduced a uniform policy for the first time this term.

Pupils have been placed into four different 'houses' - Earth, Air, Fire and Water - with uniform polo shirts to tie in.

Earth pupils wear jade green, Air pupils sky blue, Water royal blue and Fire pupils maroon. There's also the option of wearing plain white shirts if the youngster wishes. The house system will be used to organise inter-school competitions in sport, quizzes and other areas. Another innovation is the introduction of eight form groups, which contain young people from each of the five academic years.

Headteacher Cate Bull said all staff - not just teachers - would be attached to a house as well, so they had a sense of belonging to a certain group of students.

"We wanted to divide the school into four houses so students feel they have a smaller unit they belong to," she said.

Staff are hoping the changes will attract more pupils for the 2008/9 academic year, above the current roll of around 700.

Tomorrow's open day runs from 3pm until 6.30pm and a second event will be held on Saturday from 10am until 12noon.

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