Somervale School is situated in

Midsomer Norton Midsomer Norton is a town near the Mendip Hills in Bath and North East Somerset, England, south-west of Bath, north-east of Wells, north-west of Frome, west of Trowbridge and south-east of Bristol. It has a population of around 13,00 ...

Bath and North East Somerset Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) is a unitary authority district in England. Bath and North East Somerset Council was created on 1 April 1996 following the abolition of the county of Avon. It is part of the ceremonial county of Somerset. T ...

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

. The school, which has academy status, is a

specialist Specialist may refer to: Occupations * Specialist (rank), a military rank ** Specialist (Singapore) * Specialist (arena football) * Specialist degree, in academia * Specialty (medicine) * Designated market maker, in the American stock market * ...

Arts College. It is one of two schools in the area, providing

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

to local children and some pupils who live outside the catchment area. The number of pupils on the school roll is 538. A fall in the number of pupils prompted the school to propose a federation with nearby Norton Hill School in March 2009. This later became the foundation for the Multi Academy Trust, named Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership, with Alun Williams as chief executive officer In October 2010, Somervale School became an academy alongside Norton Hill. Somervale was named amongst the 100 top performing schools based on sustained improvement of results by Minister of State for Schools Nick Gibb in March 2012. Somervale School was awarded 'Good' by Ofsted in January 2013. The school shares its sixth form with federated school Norton Hill. The sixth form is based across both sites and is called the Midsomer Norton Sixth Form. In 2008, the school was the first in

to win the Eco-Schools Silver Award. The local community radio station,

Somer Valley FM Somer Valley FM is a local community radio station in North East Somerset that serves Midsomer Norton, Radstock, Westfield and surrounding areas. It was launched in 2008. Ownership and structure The station is owned by Somer Valley Communi ...

, broadcasts from the former caretaker's house on the school premises. It provides opportunities for pupils to gain radio work experience and training. The school was built on land that was formerly part of the estate of the now-demolished mansion Norton House, built by coalmine investor Thomas Savage in 1789. A

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included t ...

memorial obelisk built by the Savage family survives in the school grounds to this day. Award-winning playwright

Chris Urch Chris Urch is an English playwright. He trained at the Drama Centre as an actor, before turning to writing plays. His first full-length play ''Land of Our Fathers'', set in a Welsh coalmine on the eve of the 1979 general election, received wide c ...

went to Somervale when he lived in Midsomer Norton before moving to London to study acting.

References

External links

* {{authority control Academies in Bath and North East Somerset Secondary schools in Bath and North East Somerset Midsomer Norton Specialist arts colleges in England