Thomas Hepburn Community Academy (formerly Thomas Hepburn Community School) was 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 ...

with academy status, located in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The county is ...

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 ...

. The school served about 700 pupils aged 11–16.

History

There was a deliberate fire at the Highfield site in August 1972 costing £200,000, being rebuilt by April 1974. There was another deliberate fire at the Highfield site on Saturday 8 July 1978 at 9pm, with 16 fire engines, costing £750,000, started by a 15 year old boy. Thomas Hepburn Community School was founded in 1990 following the merger of Sheriff Hill and Highfield Schools, based at the Highfield site. It was named for

Thomas Hepburn Thomas Hepburn (c. 1795 – 9 December 1864), often known as Tommy Hepburn, was an English coal miner and trade union leader. Background Hepburn was born in Pelton, County Durham. He began employment as a coal miner as a child, aged just ...

, a trade union leader. The original headmaster was Mr. C.B. Buddle who had previously been headmaster at Sheriff Hill. In 2009 the school started an extensive rebuild project which saw the demolition of North and South block, the school hall, sports hall and gym as well as the refurbishment of the Technology block which now is home to the Art, Humanities and ICT departments. The Lifelong Learning building was refurbished over the summer break in 2011. In 2012 Thomas Hepburn was judged to be "Unsatisfactory" by Ofsted, and the 2012 Exam results placed the school among the 200 lowest attaining schools in the country. In January 2013 the Department of Education made the decision to convert the school into an academy, which formally occurred in October 2013. The school was then renamed Thomas Hepburn Community Academy. In 2015 a new system of a "mini school" took place, letting the year 7 students be free from the older students. In 2019, the school closed, due to dwindling student numbers, mainly attributed to poor exam results.

Ofsted

In February 2017, the academy was rated 'Inadequate' by Ofsted. The report said almost all pupils failed to achieve good enough qualifications and the brightest pupils weren't fulfilling their potential, while poorly planned teaching saw academic strugglers punished. Inspectors said teachers “settle too often for incomplete work or work of a poor standard”, and pupils who missed lessons weren't helped to catch up, and quickly fell behind. Meanwhile, behaviour was described as sub-standard. The report said: “The majority of pupils have a positive attitude to learning but a significant number of pupils purposely disrupt learning for themselves and others. These issues have been ongoing seemingly since the school was formed.

References

School buildings in the United Kingdom destroyed by arson Educational institutions established in 1990 1990 establishments in England Defunct schools in Gateshead Educational institutions disestablished in 2019 2019 disestablishments in England Felling, Tyne and Wear Arson in 1972 Arson in 1978 {{TyneandWear-school-stub