Halesowen College
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| Type | Further Education |
|---|---|
| Principal | Keith Bate |
| Location |
Whittingham Road Halesowen West Midlands B63 3NA England 52°27′23″N 2°03′05″W / 52.4564°N 2.0513°WCoordinates: 52°27′23″N 2°03′05″W / 52.4564°N 2.0513°W |
| Local authority | Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council |
| DfE number | 332/8001 |
| DfE URN | 130476 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 16+ |
| Telephone | 0121 602 7777 |
| Website | www.halesowen.ac.uk |
Halesowen College is a college for students of above school leaving age in Whittingham Road, Halesowen, West Midlands. The college also has a Business Centre about a mile away at Coombswood that opened in September 1999.
From 1985 to 2003, the Walton Campus (previously Walton Girls School) was part of Halesowen College.
The college was founded in 1966 and on its completion consisted of one large building – which was later designated as Block 0 following the construction of more buildings.
Its current principal is Mr Keith Bate, who was appointed in September 1999 to replace Dr Stephen Griffiths.
Four more buildings (Block 1, Block 2, Block 3 and Block 4) were built in 1982 when the college underwent the most significant transformation in its history as part of a reorganisation of education in Halesowen, which saw sixth form facilities withdrawn from secondary schools as well as compulsory education being reorganised to traditional infant, junior and secondary schools from the three-tier system that had been introduced 10 years earlier. This was a landmark change in education in the Dudley borough, sparking a similar reorganisation in the rest of the borough within a decade.
In September 1985, the college further expanded when it took over the former Walton Girls School in Highfield Lane as a campus.
Block 5 was opened in 1997 to accommodate a new library and learning centre. Block 6 (Sports Studies) and Block 7 (ICT and Performing Arts) were opened in late spring of 2003 to replace the facilities at the Walton Campus, which was sold off to make way for a housing estate. The new building was officially opened on 22 September 2003 by Charles Clarke, the education minister. [1]
Halesowen College purchased Shenstone House office block, on Dudley Road, in the summer of 2005 and converted into a Health and Beauty academy.
This was the original Halesowen College building. It accommodated a refectory (known to students as the 'refec'), MASH (Maths and Science Hub) computer suite, Science laboratories and Animal Care centre. It was built in 1966 but by 2004 there were plans afoot for complete reconstruction of the block. The block was extended to include an admissions centre in the early 1980s but refurbishment in 2003 saw this area converted into a computer suite called the Hawne Room. Students based here studied many different subjects, from Animal Care and Separate sciences to Applied science courses such as forensics and medicine.
Part of the building was demolished in 2008 to make way for a new building which forms the first phase of a complete replacement of Block 0; it was completed in the summer of 2009 and the phased rebuilding was completed by 2012, leaving no trace of the original 1966 college.
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