Thomas Bennett Community College (TBCC) is a secondary school with academy status for pupils aged 11 to 19. It caters to approximately 1200 pupils in Years 7 to 14, including 160 in its

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 ...

. It has a specialism in Autism. Thomas Bennett Community College 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 for pupils aged 11 to 16. 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 ...

, further BTECs, CTECs and

NVQ National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) are practical work-based awards in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland that are achieved through training and assessment. The regulatory framework supporting NVQs was withdrawn in 2015 and replaced by th ...

Diplomas. It is the lowest performing school in West Sussex and has a reputation for poor quality teaching.

History

The school was planned as part of the development of

Crawley Crawley () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a populat ...

as a

new town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

in the late 1940s. Originally it had been intended to open a

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 ...

and two

secondary modern 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 pupils ...

schools on the Tilgate campus, although by the time the school was built, this plan changed to provide a bilateral secondary school for boys and girls for a trial period of two years. This entitled the school to run separate grammar and secondary modern departments as part of one school. The school was named after Sir Thomas Bennett, the chairman of

Crawley Development Corporation Crawley Development Corporation was set up in February 1947 by the Government of the United Kingdom to establish, administer and control the development of the New towns in the United Kingdom, New Town of Crawley in accordance with the New Town ...

. This body had overseen the development of the

New Town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

. Bennett officially opened the school in 1959 (the first pupils having joined the school in 1958). Although originally intended as a bilateral school, the staff of the school organised classes along comprehensive lines, with students working in sets depending on their ability in subjects, rather than broad streams. This idea proved so popular that the school became formally comprehensive by the end of the trial in 1960. By 1965, the school became one of the first in England to succeed in being truly comprehensive, with encouraging exam results, including disadvantaged children helped to fulfil their potential. In 1974, local schools were reorganised in the area, and Thomas Bennett School became an

Upper school Upper schools in the UK are usually schools within secondary education. Outside England, the term normally refers to a section of a larger school. England The three-tier model Upper schools are a type of secondary school found in a minority ...

for students aged 12 to 18, with former first year students remaining for an additional year in primary

middle school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...

s. This situation was then reversed in 2004, when reorganisation again returned the school to a full 11–18 secondary. Thomas Bennett became a community school in 1979. The student roll was 1,323 in 1984. The school converted to academy status in September 2012.

Campus

The masterplan for Crawley New Town set aside the campus for the split-site school in the south-west corner of the neighbourhood of Tilgate between the A23 and Tilgate Forest. The campus contained both the Thomas Bennett school and the local primary school – Desmond Anderson School. In 1965, Thomas bennet was the largest comprehensive school in Great Britain. The original school comprised first two and then three main buildings at opposite ends of the campus. The adjoining Ashdown and Southgate buildings provided facilities, with a further building – known as the Canterbury building – approximately 1/4-mile to the south-east. Uses of the buildings varied. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Canterbury building was used for 'lower school' pupils in the first two years of school, with 'upper school' pupils in fourth and fifth forms moving to the Southgate building, and sixth formers based in the Ashdown building. By the 1990s, pupils in the main part of the school were split equally between Canterbury and Southgate buildings, depending on their house. Both Thomas Bennett and Desmond Anderson schools were re-built, opening in entirely new buildings in 2005. The campus is now shared with the town's main leisure facilities: K2 Leisure Centre. The current building, designed by Nicholas Hare Architects, houses all pupils from all year groups in a building built under a

Private Finance Initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 1992 ...

scheme which replaced several schools in the town in the period 2004–2005. A

Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) was an executive non-departmental public body of the UK government, established in 1999. It was funded by both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for ...

audit reported that the building was well-designed.

Students

The school is entirely comprehensive, providing education for approximately 1200 pupils aged between 11 and 19 of all abilities. The school was formerly much larger with around 2000 pupils, but has reduced in recent years. The school is organised into four houses, named after the original house masters/mistresses when the school opened in the 1950s, each of which was allocated a colour: *Hepburn (Yellow) *Parker (Green) *Roberts (Blue) *Wallis (Red) Most pupils attending the school live within the catchment area, and transfer from one of the local primary schools: *Broadfield East Junior School *Desmond Anderson Primary School *Hilltop Primary School *Seymour Primary School *The Oaks Primary School *Bewbush Academy Primary School

Head-teachers

* 1958 -1965 Tim McMullen * 1965 - 1972? Patrick (Pat) Daunt * 1972?-1986 Jim Knight * 1986 - 1994 Tony Elder * 1994 - 2000 Michael Dunman * (2000? - 2012) - Ms Yasmin Maskatiya * (2012 - 2014) - Jayne Orviss * (2014 - 2019) - Pauline Montalto * (2020 - 2023) - Mr Stuart Smith * (2024 - Current) - Mrs Emer Lesova

Notable former pupils and bands

* Brian Bason, Professional footballer,

Midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

(1972-1983)] for Chelsea F.C, Chelsea, Plymouth Argyle, Crystal Palace, and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

.England v Germany Schools' International football programme, 16 May 1970, p10. * Alan E. Bell, Technologist - Key in development of the universal format of CD's and the DVD's. * Simon Calder, Travel correspondent and broadcast journalist. He won Christmas ''Celebrity

Mastermind Mastermind, Master Mind or The Mastermind may refer to: Fictional characters * Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde), a fictional supervillain in Marvel Comics, a title also held by his daughters: ** Martinique Jason, the first daughter and successor of the ...

'' in 2011. *

Dawn Primarolo Dawn Primarolo, Baroness Primarolo, (born 2 May 1954) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Bristol South from 1987 until 2015, when she stood down. She was Minister of State for Children, Young People a ...

DBE PC, Labour Party MP for

Bristol South Bristol South is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Karin Smyth of the Labour Party. Constituency profile Bristol South is a traditional white working class seat. Residents' wealth is around a ...

from

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

until

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

. *

Pearl Thompson Pearl Thompson (born Paul Stephen Thompson,Chris Gerrard (2021)The Cure FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Most Heartbreakingly Excellent Rock Band the World Has Ever Known. Backbeat, ISBN 9781493053988, p. 155 8 November 1957) is an Engl ...

, Musician and artist, most notably a guitarist for

The Cure The Cure are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Crawley in 1976 by Robert Smith (musician), Robert Smith (vocals, guitar) and Lol Tolhurst (drums). The band's current line-up comprises Smith, Perry Bamonte (guitar and keyboards), Reev ...

.Chris Gerrard (2021)The Cure FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Most Heartbreakingly Excellent Rock Band the World Has Ever Known. Backbeat, ISBN 9781493053988, p. 155 * Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts original members from Thomas Bennett School, released self-titled album in 1970.

External links

Thomas Bennett Community College website

References

5. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/06/patrick-daunt {{authority control Buildings and structures in Crawley Secondary Schools in Crawley Secondary schools in West Sussex Academies in West Sussex Educational institutions established in 1959 1959 establishments in England