Langley High School, Oldbury

Oldbury Grammar School, later known as Oldbury High School, Langley High School, Oldbury College of Sport, then Oldbury Academy, was a secondary school located in Oldbury, West Midlands, It served the Warley (Smethwick, Oldbury, Whiteheath) area of Sandwell (West Bromwich and Warley) and was situated in Moat Road, Langley. It was between Oldbury and Smethwick to the east of what is now the M5 motorway.

History

Oldbury Grammar School

Oldbury Grammar School originally opened as Oldbury County High School in 1926,^[2] situated next to Barnford Hill Park in Langley Green after the transfer of Oldbury Secondary School, founded in 1904, from Flash Road, Oldbury. In 1944, following the new Education Act, the County High, originally co-opting its location within Worcestershire, became Oldbury Grammar School.

In 1929, local glass artists Tom Stokes and Bill Pardoe created a window for Oldbury Grammar's main school hall as a memorial to the Old Boys of the school who died in the 1914 war. It consists of eight lights with the allegorical figures of Justice, Courage and Fortitude and with extracts from the story of the Peloponnesian War, specially selected by Mr Willis Bond, that great figure in Worcestershire education of those days. Around the same time, money was raised for a multi-pipe church-style organ. "I Vow To Thee My Country" became a regular fixture of morning assembly.

The school motto was Cresco (I Grow) and former Grammar school pupils are known as "Old Cresconians".

Serving a mainly working class area, the school acted as a bridge to University education and a career in the professions. A thriving Sixth Form, lost when the school changed to a comprehensive in 1974, saw many pupils attain sufficient quality A-levels (Advanced levels) to attend major British universities and gain social mobility.

A history of Oldbury Grammar School 1904-1974 was written by former history teacher at the school Mr A.A.L Pearce and published in 1979.^[3] "Farewell to Oldbury Grammar School", a poem written to commemorate the last grammar school intake to leave the school in the summer of 1978, appeared in The Blackcountryman, the quarterly publication of The Black Country Society.^[4]

As a selective Grammar with open entry dictated only by academic ability at 11+ rather than the ability to afford school fees, the school not only promoted similar levels of academic excellence to that of private schools but adopted many of their trappings including a House system, winter and summer school uniform (which included distinctive striped blazers and straw boater hats for girls) and a school song ^[5] which drew on the working class roots of the area.

Comprehensive

The school became a non-selective 11-16 comprehensive school in September 1974 when many of the former Grammar School teaching staff retired or left for posts in other schools and pupils seeking A-level education left to continue education at new Sixth Form Colleges established at the premises of the former Holly Lodge Grammar School for Boys (renamed West Park College) in Smethwick and Rowley Regis Grammar School in Rowley Regis. On becoming a comprehensive, the school marked the move away from selective intakes with a name change to Oldbury High School and a smaller, more localised, catchment area . The name change coincided with the Warley (which included the school and Oldbury, Smethwick and Rowley Regis) and West Bromwich county boroughs merging to become known as Sandwell. Oldbury High School merged with comprehensive Albright High School in September 1983 to become Langley High School.^[6]

Closure and merger

Plans were announced in 2006 to merge Langley High with nearby Bristnall Hall Technology College. These plans coincided with the school finishing lowest of 18 secondary schools in Sandwell, when a mere 16% of GCSE students attained 5 or more 'A' to 'C' grades compared to 95%+ of pupils gaining 5 or more 'O' Levels at grades 1-5 (A-C) when the school held Grammar status and a majority successfully passing 8 'O' Levels.^[7]

However, the school later merged with nearby Warley High School (Oldbury Tech), becoming Oldbury College of Sport and it was announced that Bristnall Hall Technology College (formerly Bristnall Hall Secondary School and now Bristnall Hall Academy) was to be rebuilt on the Moat Road site, with the relocation expected to take place during the early 2010s. Oldbury College of Sport ^[8] was renamed Oldbury Academy in 2011 with the school moving all activity to the former Oldbury Technical School site on Pound Road and abandoning the Grammar School site in Moat Road. Sandwell Council have since issued a prospectus with a view to an educational trust reopening the former Grammar School site as a new school.

The original grammar school building was destroyed in 2015, when work began on redeveloping the site.

Alumni

Oldbury Grammar School alumni

• Allan Ahlberg (1938– ), Children's Book Author. Writer of contemporary children's classics including "Each Peach, Pear, Plum", "The Jolly Postman" and "Burglar Bill".
• Martin Elliott (1946–2010), photographer best known for the iconic Athena Tennis Girl poster^[9]
• Mick Aston (1946–2013), archaeologist on Time Team
• John Jennings (1937- ), CBE, Chancellor of Loughborough University since 2003, and Managing Director of Shell from 1987–97,^[10]
• Robin Stubbs (1941– ), Birmingham City and Torquay Utd footballer^[11]
• Lewis Stevens (1936– ), MBE, Conservative MP for Nuneaton from 1983–92
• Judith Cutler (1946– ), author
• Steve Bennett (1964– ), Aka (Quicko McBrain) Drummer with Iron Maiden tribute band, Hi-on Maiden, from 1994-2008.
• John Bryan Taylor (1928– ), Fondren Professor of Plasma Theory at the University of Texas at Austin from 1989–94, and Chief Physicist at the Culham Laboratory from 1981–89^[12]
• Simon Fox (1949– ), drummer, Be-Bop Deluxe
• Canon Ralph Stevens (1915–2006) Chaplain to The Queen.
• Peter Withers (1946–2012), youngest Governor of Glasgow's notorious Barlinnie Jail, Europe's busiest prison, Board member of the Scottish Prison Service and prison service reformer,^[13]

See also

• Secondary schools in Sandwell

References