Kepier School
| Kepier School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| , , DH4 5BH | |
| Coordinates | 54°50′25″N 1°28′26″W / 54.84015°N 1.47395°W |
| Information | |
| Former names | Houghton Kepier School Houghton Kepier Sports College |
| Type | Academy |
| Established | 1987 |
| Local authority | Sunderland City Council |
| Department for Education URN | 137262 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Principal | Colin Devlin |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Age | 11 to 16[1] |
| Enrolment | 1147 As of 2025[1] |
| Capacity | 1210[1] |
| Website | www |
Kepier School is a coeducational secondary school in Houghton-le-Spring, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England.[2] As of 2025, it has 1147 pupils, and is larger than the average secondary school.[1][3]
History
The school was established in 1987 as a result of a merger of three local comprehensive schools: Bernard Gilpin School, Houghton School and Sancroft School.[4][5][6] It was originally called Houghton Kepier School.[7]
It is not connected to the nearby small fee-paying grammar school, founded in the 1570s and closed in 1922, the Royal Kepier Grammar School, but was named after it.[7][8]
The school was commended by the Department for Education in 2003 for using staff who were not qualified teachers as temporary "cover supervisors" in an attempt to manage teachers' workload; the initiative was criticised by the National Union of Teachers.[9][10]
The then headteacher, Sue Hyland, was the national secondary school Leadership Trust Award winner in 2002.[11] The school had been failing when she came to it in 1999; "Results had been going down for seven years".[11][12] By 2002, The Guardian described the school as "recognisably on the up", but struggling with a lack of money, particularly for staffing.[13]
In 2001, one of the staff, Eileen Osborne, published textbooks on religion and citizenship which were used in other schools.[14]
Uniform controversy
In early September 2017, it was reported that students were forced to line up in the rain while the principal compared the students' trousers with a swatch of fabric supplied by Total Sport, to ensure the grey trousers were from this supplier. These cost £15.99, while similar products were available for £7.00 elsewhere. Students not wearing the "required" trousers were sent home.[15][16]
Inspections
The school has been inspected by Ofsted five times since 2012.[17] In 2012, the inspectors deemed it "satisfactory".[18] Both inspections in 2013 saw the school judged as "requires improvement", with the inspectors commenting that "leaders and managers do not always focus their actions where they are most needed and do not check the impact on students' achievement."[19] In 2016, the school had improved sufficiently to be rated as "good", because of "... vastly raised teachers' expectations of how quickly pupils can make progress in all of the subjects they study."[20]
Notable former pupils
- Michael Adams, TV personality[21]
References
- ^ a b c d "Kepier". Get Information about Schools. Gov.UK. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ^ "Kepier website".
- ^ Blake, Brian (2006). "Houghton Kepier Sports College Inspection Report". Ofsted. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ^ "Schools merger on way". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. 12 June 1987. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
Arrangements are underway for the amalgamation of Houghton's three secondary schools into the Houghton Kepier School single complex. From September, it will operate under headmaster James Shurben on three separate sites at Hall Lane, Hetton Road, and Dairy Lane. The new school uniform closely resembles those worn in the three schools, Houghton, Sancroft, and Bernard Gilpin.
- ^ "Schools tune in for new setting". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. 26 June 1987. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
Bernard Gilpin, Sancroft, and Houghton Schools, which all merge into the Kepier School next term
- ^ "Schools in Houghton-Le-Spring". Houghton Heritage Society. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
- ^ a b "Pupils staged walkout in protest at school merger". Seaham and Houghton Star. 19 December 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
- ^ "The Royal Kepier Grammar School". Houghton Heritage. Houghton Heritage Society. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
- ^ Kitson, Leighton (10 October 2003). "School applauded for workload cuts". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
- ^ Kitson, Leighton (17 October 2003). "Use of support staff slammed". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ^ a b Wainwright, Martin. "Turning it all around: Sue Hyland, secondary school winner of the Leadership Trust Award, tells Martin Wainwright how she helped a barely adequate school become excellent". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ^ "Award-winning head teacher, Sue Hyland". BBC News. 1 November 2001. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ^ Woodward, Will (18 April 2002). "Head fears that classes could suffer". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ^ Horn, Bob (4 May 2001). "Teacher Eileen enjoys second career as school textbook author. Miss is heading for the bestsellers list". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ^ "Sounds like life in North Korea' - what you said about the 'wrong trousers' row at Kepier School". Sunderland Echo. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017.
- ^ "School sends 'wrong trousers' pupils home". BBC. 7 September 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
- ^ "Ofsted Kepier". Ofsted. 27 September 2023.
- ^ "Houghton Kepier Sports College: An Academy Inspection report" (PDF). Ofsted.
- ^ "School report Kepier" (PDF). Ofsted. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^ "School report Kepier" (PDF). Ofsted. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^ "Sunderland teen chosen to front CBBC TV show about factory children in Brazil". www.sunderlandecho.com. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
Michael Adams, (in blue top), 14, a pupil at Houghton Kepier School, travelled thousands of miles to Brazil to make a CBBC programme.
