The school was purpose-built in 1954 as one of the first comprehensive schools in the country, by the collaboration of two local educational establishments, Coventry Technical Secondary School a Grammar School and Templars School a Secondary Modern School It opened on the morning of 21 September 1954.[1] Historic links to these two can be seen in The Woodlands School coat of arms. Pupils were aged between 11 and 18. It remained a boys school; girls went to the nearby Tile Hill Wood School.
In 2003, the school was awarded specialist status as a Sports College.[1]
In the main building there was a copy of the Guernica painting, which illustrated a stylised view of the 1937 Bombing of Guernica in Basque Spain by German and Italian bombers in the Spanish Civil War, in which the artist Pablo Picasso clearly expressed his abhorrence to the military suppression of the Spanish people.[2]
There was a flagpole behind the library bearing a dedication to students of the original schools who were killed in the wartime bombing of Coventry.
In 2003, Woodlands School adopted a new system where all the pupils took their SATs and GCSEs a year early compared to most other secondary schools in England. The percentage of pupils gaining five grade A*-C GCSEs rose from 36% in 2007 to 61.7% in 2008. This led to them being ranked the fifth most successful comprehensive in the city.[3]
In August 2011, Woodlands School converted to academy status and was renamed Woodlands Academy.
In 2016, the Governing bodies of Woodlands Academy and Tile Hill Wood School led a consultation on the possible merger of both schools. Reasons cited for the merger included a decrease in pupil numbers in West Coventry, and fewer parents and pupils choosing single-sex education. Despite some opposition, the merger was approved, and all Woodlands Academy pupils transferred to the Tile Hill Wood site in September 2016. The newly merged co-educational school was renamed West Coventry Academy from September 2017.[4]
Houses
The school made use of the house system and every pupil being registered into one of them. They had assemblies and ate lunch in the house rooms, along with all of the other year groups in the house.[5] Initially a total of eight houses were established with another two following in 1956. They were named after famous citizens of Coventry. Before it closed, the school had five houses. Out of the original ten houses, five of the houses were closed in the 1980s, and Thompson and West were additions named after two former head teachers of the school. In 2015, original house McLachlan was closed.[1]
- start table with width.
Original Eleven houses
Brooke
Cresswell
Ellis (Formerly Spencer House)
Gibson (est 1956)
Malins
McLachlan
Perrens (Formerly Wilson House)
Smith-Clarke (est 1956)
Sparkes
Stringer
West
Last five houses
Cresswell
Ellis
Sparkes
Stringer
Thompson
School crest
Sixth form
The schools shared its sixth form facilities with Tile Hill Wood Girls School and The Westwood Academy, forming West Coventry Sixth Form, which was founded in September 2001 after the sixth forms of the two schools were merged. The original sixth form building was in the new drama studio but was later in the building where the house, cresswell was.[6]
Tony Clarke (1941-2010), one of music’s pioneering producers of the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, known as ‘the sixth Moody Blue’, whose work included "Nights in White Satin".[citation needed]
John Gray, English cricketer, and rugby union, and rugby league footballer of the 1960s, '70s and '80s, playing for Warwickshire (cricket), and Marylebone Cricket Club, England 7s (RU), Coventry R.F.C., Great Britain (RL), England, Wigan, North Sydney Bears, and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles[citation needed]
Danny Grewcock (born 1972), rugby union player who like Neil Back played for the English national team around the same time.[citation needed]
