Sir James Smith's School
History
Founded as a grammar school in 1679, at a property overlooking the town, the school has been state run since 1962 when it moved to Dark Lane. It was the first purpose-built comprehensive school in Cornwall. Until July 1962 it was Sir James Smith's Grammar School at College Road and no secondary modern school existed for the district. The new school at Dark Lane was designed by the county architect, F. K. Hicklin, and Kenneth Sprayson continued to be headmaster. (The school building at College Road was built about 1879 and extended twice before being vacated and used as offices for the rural district council.)
Previously a foundation school administered by Cornwall Council, in October 2018 Sir James Smith's School converted to academy status. The school is now a member of the Westcountry Schools Trust.
Geography
The catchment area for Sir James Smith's is largely rural and covers an extensive and sparsely populated district of north Cornwall, stretching along the coast from Crackington Haven to Boscastle, Tintagel, and Port Isaac. Inland Delabole, St Teath and St Breward and the isolated hamlets and farmsteads of Bodmin Moor are included. This area is one of the most economically deprived in Europe. Available employment is frequently part-time and/or seasonal and the average wage is the lowest in the UK; whereas property and living costs are among the highest.
21st century
The school has 602 pupils aged 11–16 (as of 2023).
The last decade has seen an extension to the adult education building; the Salon United for careers in hair and beauty therapy (2007); the West End music and drama suite (2004); a new reception and office suite (2003); a new Mathematics block (2001) and The Princess of Wales Design Centre (Arts and Technology) (1992). The school however closed the hair salon extension, which has subsequently become the offices for Camelford police, a part of Devon and Cornwall Police.
In 2005 Sir James Smith's School became the first specialist humanities college in Cornwall.
In October 2007 it was announced that the school's Sixth Form block would be closing with immediate effect. No new students were to be admitted in the following September. Students continuing their education now travel to other Sixth Form centres at Bude, Bodmin or Truro College.
Deme system
In 2004 the deme system was introduced: Deme being a Latin term for a house or group. The first elements of the names are derived from common place-name elements in Cornish: chy (house), tre (farmstead), pol (pool), and lan (originally an enclosure, but in placenames usually combined with the name of a saint to refer to a church). The demes are equivalent to the house system followed by many neighbouring schools. (A division into Drake House (green) and Wallis House (red) was in existence at one time in the grammar school; then Bottreaux, Carew, Grenville and Molesworth houses in the comprehensive school.) An in-school competition followed to name them: those selected were all from the Cornish language, with deme added to the end.
- Chydeme - blue
- Tredeme - orange
- Poldeme - purple
- Landeme - yellow
Although the school had a 'vertical' tutoring system for a number of years, where forms consisted of a single deme and students from years 7 - 11), it has since reverted to the more traditional year group form system.
Magazine
The pupils produced a school magazine in the 1950s and 1960s called The Camel: the issues for 1957-1962 are numbered Vol. I, no. VI - XI and 1964 is not numbered.
Notable former pupils and staff
- Trevor Colman — UKIP MEP for South West England, 2008-2014
- Derek Pooley — chief executive, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, 1994-97
- Jenny Rowe — civil servant and chief executive of the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
- Tom Jago — liquor executive and marketeer
- Sheila Oates Williams — mathematician in Australia
- Carole Vincent (1939-2019) — painter, sculptor and teacher; taught at the school
References
- ^ http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144125&command=displayContent&sourceNode=232510&home=yes&more_nodeId1=232470&contentPK=18759496
- ^ ‘COLMAN, (Bernard) Trevor’, Who's Who 2015, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, Oct 2014 accessed 2 Dec 2014
- ^ ‘POOLEY, Dr Derek’, Who's Who 2015, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, Oct 2014 accessed 2 Dec 2014
- ^ ‘ROWE, Jennifer, (Mrs J. Ellis)’, Who's Who 2015, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, Oct 2014 accessed 2 Dec 2014
