16/03/10 - New Beginnings for Etone College

This year sees Etone College celebrate its 100th year serving the local community as an educational establishment. For the first 63 years of its life Etone College was known as Nuneaton High School for Girls and it was only in 1973 that it became a co-educational school. The school was originally 'Nuneaton High School for Girls', the grammar school equivalent for girls passing the eleven plus exam However, after the abolition of the tripartite system, the school became mixed sex and changed its name to 'Etone Community School'. In 2002, the school was granted Technology College status under the specialist schools programme. It also gained specialist language and vocational status in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Now Etone is a popular, oversubscribed and outstanding technology, languages and applied learning college soon to have a brand new, purpose built Sixth Form complex.

The proposal is to provide a purpose built Post 16 Centre (Etone Post 16 Centre) for up to 250 students on the Etone site under presumption arrangements for high performing specialist schools with an applied learning specialism. Etone is currently the only 11-16 high performing specialist school with an applied learning specialism in Warwickshire.

The turf cutting ceremony marks the culmination of three years of planning and development by the Governors, staff and students of Etone. “This project represents the next step in the life of Etone, offering students from the Nuneaton area the opportunity to experience outstanding education from 11 years old through to 18 years old. We are all looking forward to the completion of the project next March and can’t wait to start using the state of the art facilities to transform Etone and the local community.” said Colin Turner, Head teacher.

Paul Clarke, Director at Thomas Vale Construction comments: “We are pleased to be a part of this exciting new development which will help to improve the facilities at Etone College and look forward to working closely with everyone involved in the college.”

The new Sixth Form facilities are due for completion in 2011. For further information regarding the build please contact Aimee Hyde on 01299 827770 or aimee.hyde@thomasvale.com.

Further information regarding the centenary celebrations can be found by logging onto www.etonecentenarycelebrations@facebook.com.