Ortu Gable Hall School (formerly Gable Hall School) is an oversubscribed

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 ...

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and

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 ...

located in Corringham (near Stanford-Le-Hope) in

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Essex, England. It lies on the north bank of the River ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Previously a

foundation school In England and Wales, a foundation school is a state-funded school in which the school governor, governing body has greater freedom in the running of the school than in Community school (England and Wales), community schools. Foundation schools ...

administered by Thurrock Council, the school academized on 1 July 2011 and became a

multi-academy trust Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or academy chain is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local aut ...

in 2013. In 2017 the school was rebranded as Ortu Gable Hall, ortu being

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "rising", alongside the trust's rebrand under the same moniker. The trust is now called the Ortu Federation and the school is sponsored by it. Ortu Gable Hall School offers

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 pupils, while students in the sixth form have the option to study from a range of

A Levels 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 a ...

and further BTECs. Since 2002 the school has been a specialist arts college (

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

) and was previously an applied learning college from 2007.

Controversies

In April 2013, Peter Goldsmith, a former teacher at Gable Hall and Westcliff High School for Boys, admitted to downloading child abuse images. He pled guilty to three charges in exchange for avoiding jail time. Principal Sophina Asong made a statement in response in which it was reassured that the school knew there were "no direct links to any of our students" and that it had been "working closely with the Local Authority Safeguarding Officer for Thurrock to ensure that provision is available to support our students and parents should any specific safeguarding concerns regarding this individual emerge at this point." In September 2021 a social media post about a teacher at the school allegedly calling Year 11 students "retards", "cowards" and "chicken sh**s" in an assembly went viral. Principal Ceril Evans stated that "It has come to my attention that a member of my teaching staff has made derogatory comments to the cohort of Year 11 students. As a school, we do not tolerate or accept such behaviour." The teacher was then suspended, pending an investigation. In response, some parents and ex-pupils came to the teacher's defence and campaigned for his reinstatement. The students who reported him were called "

snowflakes A snowflake is a single ice crystal that is large enough to fall through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.Knight, C.; Knight, N. (1973). Snow crystals. Scientific American, vol. 228, no. 1, pp. 100–107.Hobbs, P.V. 1974. Ice Physics. Oxford: C ...

" and "push buttons" and the teacher's suspension was lifted later that week.

Ortu Sixth Form Centre Stanford & Corringham

The Ortu Sixth Form Centre Stanford & Corringham is an extension of Ortu Gable Hall School and it provides

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is additional education to that received at secondary school that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...

for 16-19 year olds. In Gable Hall's 2018 Ofsted inspection the sixth form was rated as Good. Students are able to apply for

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, T-Levels and BTECs in a variety of subjects each categorised under five different "blocks". A-Level applications require no less than three courses and these courses must not be from the same blocks. From 2022 the sixth form will offer a level 3 BTEC in

E-Sports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

. The sixth form motto is "Working Together To Ensure Success" and it boasts a robust 100% student pass rate for over four years running. 98% of students so far have held two grades in A-Levels and 86% achieved three or more A*-E passes. Furthermore, fifteen subject areas boast a full-blown 100% pass rate. The current sixth form director is Ms. Sue Weston.

Notable former pupils

* Renei Batlokwa, footballer * Danny Crates, former athlete * Matt Garvey, rugby player * Perri Kiely, Member of dance group

Diversity Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce *Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers * ...

* Joss Labadie, footballer * Ruti Olajugbagbe, singer and The Voice UK series 7 winner * Jack Plom, cricketer * Dougie Poynter, Member of pop-rock band

McFly McFly are a British pop rock band formed in London in 2003. The band took their name from the ''Back to the Future (franchise), Back to the Future'' character Marty McFly. The band consists of Tom Fletcher (lead vocals, guitar, and piano), Da ...

* Emily Scott, rugby player * Michael Stanley, rugby player

Headteachers

* Les Jones (1980–1993/1994) *John King OBE (1993/1994–2011) * Sophina Asong (2011–2017) * Clive Stokes (2017-2018) * Ceri Evans (2018–2022) * Gary Lewis (2022- 2024) * Sam Cooper (2024- Present)

References

External links

Ortu Gable Hall School official website
{{authority control Academies in Thurrock Secondary schools in Thurrock Specialist arts colleges in England