Hillcrest School is a

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 ...

for girls (and mixed

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

) in the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

area of

Bartley Green Bartley Green is a residential suburban area and electoral ward in Birmingham, England, south west of the city centre. The ward is part of the Birmingham Edgbaston constituency and is represented in parliament by Labour Co-operative MP Preet G ...

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 ...

, in the West Midlands of England.

History

It was established as Bartley Green

Grammar School A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

for Girls on 7 September 1954, although the official opening by Sir Wilfred Martineau did not take place until 13 July 1955. The sixth form was opened by the end of the 1950s. The school was considerably extended and expanded in the 1970s to accommodate with the increase in pupil intake. The school was renamed Hillcrest School in September 1983 and became a

comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

. Boys were allowed to join the sixth form during the 1980s. Following further work at the school in 1998, the school became a Certified

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

Networking Academy in 1999. The school also became a specialist

Maths and Computing College Mathematics and Computing Colleges were introduced in England in 2002 and Northern Ireland in 2006 as part of the Government's Specialist schools programme, Specialist Schools programme which was designed to raise standards in secondary educati ...

. 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 ...

, Hillcrest School converted to academy status in June 2013. However the school continues to coordinate with Birmingham City Council for admissions. In 2013

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

rated the school as 'good' with 'outstanding behaviour and safety'.

Academics

Hillcrest School

GCSEs 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 ...

and BTECs as programmes of study for girls, while students in the sixth form have the option to study from a range of

A-level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

s and further BTECs. The sixth form provision is offered as part of the '' Oaks Sixth Form College'', a consortium of 7 secondary schools in South-West Birmingham.

Notable former pupils

Bartley Green Grammar School for Girls

* Lynne Jones, Labour Party politician *

References

External links

Hillcrest School official website
{{authority control Secondary schools in Birmingham, West Midlands Girls' schools in the West Midlands (county) Educational institutions established in 1954 1954 establishments in England Academies in Birmingham, West Midlands