Tile Cross Academy
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Tile Cross Academy is a
coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...
secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
located in the Tile Cross area of
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, West Midlands, England.


Admissions

The school is ethnically diverse and contains around 700 pupils spread over three major buildings. The school is situated on ''Gressel Lane'' and is roughly one mile from Lea Hall railway station, operated by
London Midland London Midland was a train operating company in England which operated the West Midlands franchise between 11 November 2007 and 10 December 2017. It was owned by the British transport group Govia. London Midland was created as a result of Gov ...
. It is close to the eastern boundary of Birmingham, close to the Solihull boundary.


History


Former schools

The genesis of the school was three schools being built next to each other in Tile Cross, East Birmingham in the late 1950s. The famous Central Grammar School for Boys was founded in 1897 on Suffolk Street and relocated to ''Gressel Lane'' in September 1957. It was a three-form entry school with around 550 boys. During the Second World War half of the school was evacuated and shared with The West Monmouth High School for Boys at Pontypool under the Headship of Leslie Bradley, who had been appointed Headmaster in 1934. They returned in 1942 and reunited with the other half to a location in Bordesley Green. The City then created two new schools named Byng Kenrick Girls' Grammar School and Sir Wilfrid Martineau School (named after Wilfred Byng Kenrick and Wilfrid Martineau respectively, two men who had each been prominent local politicians and
Lord Mayors of Birmingham This is a list of the Mayors in England, mayors and lord mayors of Birmingham in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Birmingham has had a mayor (and elected council) since 1838. The office was raised to the dignity of lord ma ...
). The two schools combined would not only cater for pupils who would have gained a place in a grammar school (See
Grammar schools debate The grammar schools debate is a debate about the advantages and disadvantages of the existence of grammar schools in the United Kingdom. Grammar schools are state schools which select their pupils on the basis of academic ability, with pupils sitti ...
) and as well for local Birmingham children wanting the best in education. Its first headmaster, however, declared that it was his intention to compete and announced it was a bilateral rather than a
secondary modern school A secondary modern school () is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Secondary modern schools accommodated the majority (70–75%) of pupil ...
(in contemporary parlance) and the school competed with its neighbours. Central Grammar School moved from Cherrywood Road to adjoin Byng Kenrick school for Girls and Sir Wilfrid Martineau. Byng Kenrick then almagamated with Central Grammar School and became Byng Kenrick Central.


The International School and Community College East Birmingham

When the City abolished some grammar schools in 1974, Central and Byng Kenrick merged to create Byng Kenrick Central School (BKC), a co-educational comprehensive on ''Gressel Lane''.
Sir Wilfrid Martineau, which had merged with 'Sticland Green Mixed Secondary Modern School', had a better reputation than BKC at the time However, by 2000 Sir Wilfrid Martineau School was failing badly and so in an attempt to 'save it' the City hastily decided that the adjacent Byng Kenrick Central School would 'take it over' and be renamed. This was NOT a merger. *The school was called CAL (CENTRE FOR ACCELERATED LEARNING) for 1 year between 2000 and 2001.* The 'new school' named: The International School and Community College East Birmingham was opened in September 2001. It has since been awarded specialist
Business and Enterprise College Business and Enterprise Colleges (BECs) were introduced in 2002 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in England. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields. Schools that successfully applied to the Specialist Sch ...
status. A rocky beginning was brought about by the 9% pass rate for
GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...
s in the July 2003 examinations, which resulted in the instant dismissal of the then-Principal, Sarah Harris.
The school struggled through September 2003, and after negotiations and an unfavourable contract with Ninestiles-Waverly Federation, the ISCCEB was accepted as the third member to "The Federation", an organisation set up by Sir Dexter Hutt, to assist failing schools to recover. After three years in the Federation, and many major changes in school policy, ISCCEB managed to gain independence from "The Federation", and became a specialist business school, with Microsoft Platinum membership.


The International School

The school had been chosen by the Labour government along with 82 other Birmingham schools for refurbishment or an entire re-build. However, after the 2010 elections all plans had been scrapped by the new Conservative government in an attempt to reduce spending. After months of negotiations and changes to the original plan, it was finally agreed 9 schools would be put forward for refurbishment by contractor
Lend Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (),
. Refurbishment began mid-2011 and was completed on 27 February 2012. The school faced a series of changes, most of them to its advantage. However, the historic Martineau tower and the Central building were knocked down and the off-site Sheldon building given to the council.


Tile Cross Academy

Previously a community school administered by
Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local authority for the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. Birmingham has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been reformed several times. Since 1974 the council has been a metropo ...
, in May 2017 The International School converted to academy status. The school is now sponsored by the Washwood Heath Academy Trust. During the process of converting the school to an academy, a name change was proposed "We do propose changing the name of the school from The International School to Tile Cross Academy and would welcome your thoughts on this proposed name change" - this resulted in the school changing its name to "Tile Cross Academy". Way back in 2015 many found it ''offensive to suggest that only academy schools are qualified to help others'' and the debate is there. Existing money (promised but with no worthy governance) to hard-working pupils & staff or as a means of driving up educational standards in disadvantaged areas (Se
What are academies?


Former teachers

In the late 60's both Colin McFadyean and Sam Doble taught P.E. at Central Grammar School and played rugby union for Moseley. Colin captained England whilst teaching at Central and Sam got his England caps in the early '70's. John Wakeley and Steve Walker had a very happy time in the English department in the same period. Schleft originated from students from Byng Kenrick Central who studied there from 1997-2002.


Academic performance

The July 2007 examination results were that 50.5% of pupils passed with 5 (or more) A*-C grades at GCSE, an increase of 41% in 5 years. In the 2010 GCSE examination results : * Every student in Year 11 achieved a nationally recognised qualification. * 84% of the year group achieved 5 or more GCSE A*-C grades or equivalent. * 41% of students achieved 5 or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths. Double the figures of the 2008 results. * 92% achieved 5 or more A*-G grades. * Significant improvements were seen in the core subjects of English, Maths, Science and ICT.


Notable former pupils


Central Grammar School for Boys

* Ron Ball, PCC since 2012 for
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...
*Joseph Biddulph, linguist, author and publisher. * Bob Catley, lead singer of Magnum. * George Chandler (librarian), Director General from 1974-80 of the
National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
. *
Tony Garnett Anthony Garnett (3 April 1936 – 12 January 2020) was a British film and television producer, and actor. Best known for his thirteen-year association with director Ken Loach, his work as a producer continued into the 21st century. Early life ...
, television and film producer, produced '' This Life''.
Cathy Come Home "Cathy Come Home" is a 1966 BBC television play about homelessness. It was written by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach. A 1998 ''Radio Times'' readers' poll voted it the "best single television drama" and a 200 ...
is a 1966 BBC television play by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by
Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a retiredhttps://variety.com/2024/film/global/ken-loach-retirement-the-old-oak-jonathan-glazer-oscars-speech-1235956589/ English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist views ar ...
, about homelessness * John Harris, Chairman from 1982-94 of
East Midlands Electricity The East Midlands Electricity Board (EMEB) was formed in 1947 as one of the United Kingdom's twelve area electricity boards specified under the Electricity Act 1947. In 1990 it was floated on the stock market as East Midlands Electricity plc, w ...
* Alec Hastilow CBE, Chairman from 1962-8 of Smith & Nephew * Denver Hewlett, Chief Executive since 1996 of
Glen Dimplex GlenDimplex (formerly known as Glen Electric) is an Irish consumer electrical goods firm headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company is privately held, with manufacturing and development centres in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, ...
Home Appliances * Trevor Jones (1941-1946) England and F.I.H International Hockey Umpire. Hon Sec. Great Britain Hockey Board 1982 - 4 (GB Men won the Bronze Medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games) *
Kevin McNally Kevin Robert McNally (born 27 April 1956) is an English actor and writer. He began his acting career in the BBC TV adaptation of ''I, Claudius'' (1976), but is best known for portraying Joshamee Gibbs in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' fran ...
, who has made many TV and film appearances, including Pirates of the Caribbean. He was first put on the state by Steve Walker in "The Long and the Short and the Tall". * Members of
The Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in May 1964. The band initially consisted of Graeme Edge (drums), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (multi-instrumentalist/vocals) and Clint W ...
- John Lodge * Jeff Watson, broadcaster and documentary maker and author, now in Sydney, Australia. *
Nicol Williamson Thomas Nicol Williamson (14 September 1936 – 16 December 2011) was a British actor. He was once described by playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando". He was also described by Samuel Beckett as "touched by genius" an ...
, Shakespearian actor, once described by
John Osborne John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, and entrepreneur, who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in post-war theatre. Born in London, he briefly worked as a jo ...
as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando." * Tony Hiam who invented
Extreme Ironing Extreme Ironing (also called EI) is an extreme sport in which people take ironing boards to remote locations and iron items of clothing. According to the Extreme Ironing Bureau, extreme ironing is "the latest dangerous sport that combines the th ...
in 1980, inspired by his eccentric brother-in-law. Tony has since gone on to be more eccentric.


Sir Wilfrid Martineau School

* Mick Rathbone, Blackburn Rovers footballer, as well beginning his career at Birmingham, has a distinguished career still as physiotherapist.


Byng Kenrick Central School

* Anthony Armatrading, nationally-known actor (''Casualty'') and brother of singer
Joan Armatrading Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading (, born 9 December 1950) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her first major commercial success came with her third and fourth albums, '' Joan Armatrading'' (1976) and '' Show Some Emotion'' (1977), a ...
* June Pennell née Daniel, well known for her pro-active support in ''Canine Psychology'' Principal of The International School for Canine Behaviour and Psychology


References


External links


Tile Cross Academy official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tile Cross Academy Secondary schools in Birmingham, West Midlands Academies in Birmingham, West Midlands