Thomas Telford School could be first to offer degrees
Thursday 26th August 2010, 6:08PM BST.
Ambitious plans have been unveiled which would see Thomas Telford School becoming the first in the country to offer degree courses for its brightest sixth-formers.
The school in Telford topped the national results table for the third year running as Britain’s most successful comprehensive for GCSE results, with 98 per cent of students getting five GCSEs at grade C or above.
Now headteacher Sir Kevin Satchwell is in talks with Wolverhampton and Staffordshire universities which he hopes could see fast-tracked students begin work counting towards a degree as early as next year.
All pupils at the school are already encouraged to take some GCSEs up to two years early – and Sir Kevin said almost two-thirds have passed English and Maths by the time they are 15.
With some starting A and AS-levels early as well, the headteacher said offering degrees was the next logical step.
There are already plans to offer Open University degree modules to sixth formers from next month – but the head said a more formal link-up with universities could soon be in place.
He said: “I believe it is the next trend that we will see.
“When schools have got youngsters who are progressing well and earlier through GCSEs and A-levels why on earth can’t they, in collaboration with universities, start putting pupils through degree courses?
“For some youngsters it might see them complete the degree at the school.”
He added: “For others it could be what I call a ‘part-part’ arrangement where they would do one year at the school and another two years at university or two at the school and one at university, or indeed going on to university to do a Masters.”
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it would be grrrrrreat for shropshier to have a uni in telford and or shrewsbury, well paid jobs and moer youth in the county is what we need
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There is already a Univeristy in Telford, University of Wolverhampton Campus in Priorslee.
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Whatever next? Is this one of the head’s plans to do something big before he eventually retires? The school just cares about results and not about the student as a whole. Class sizes are big and most pupils are just left to blend into the carpet gathering no social skills unless you are really good at Football or a genius. If the school is so good why has nobody really heard of it outside Shropshire and why do only a handful get into the best universities each year, surely more should get in if it really is the best school in the country?
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Actually the class sizes are small compared to nationally. The classes are only 24 maximum compared to 40 from some of the other local schools, and most classes are around 20, because the school is not desperate to fill up places. There is an individual focus on every pupil as well with every student having a learning plan to help them achieve.
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I’m always sceptical of schools which claim to have the best results but who only enter pupils for exams when they know they’re going to pass at a certain level.
I can’t help but think this idea is another exercise in self-publicity for the head.
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…or steer other pupils on to the school’s own “vocational” courses which are claimed to be the equivalent of several GCSEs but seem to be hardly recognised outside the school in question.
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you are quite right, totally agree. It’s much better for pupils to study for 5 years for an exam that they have no chance of passing. F’s always look better on CV’s than NVQ’s.
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I am a student at Thomas Telford and I do not see any of these problems.
We do exams earlier because we are capable of doing the exams earlier. We are capable of this because of the standard of education and support that we are provided with.
James, you would employ somebody with 4 F’s rather than somebody with 4 A*s?
Please all commenters stop being so pessimistic and what I would describe as jealous, accept tht there is a school out there that is capable of this, as are its students.
Capt. S
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I would employ either so long as they had the necessary experience and had continued their education in some way shape or form after the 6th form.
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James,
I have no problem with the idea of pupils being entered for appropriate exams fitting to their abilities.
However, when this takes place, and the school then seeks to make supposedly like-for-like comparisons with other schools where such selective exam entry does not take place, such comparisons are statistically dishonest.
It’s that cynical dishonesty I object to, not the fact that the school seeks to pick and choose which pupil to enter for which exam.
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Spot on Peter. This head has been self-publicising for years, pretending that it is a superb comprehensive school with the best results in the area. It was never a comprehensive – but a school taking most of the best pupils from Wolverhampton and Telford,and the other schools having what is left.
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Brian.
” but a school taking most of the best pupils from Wolverhampton and Telford,and the other schools having what is left.”
This comment is complete and utter rubbish. If you came to the school you would realise that the people there differ in abilitys vastly.
Yes there are very intelligent pupils, there also pupils who are not so intelligent. However the school gives the pupils (me included) and extremely good education which allows us to get results.
Jealousy is not a good trait
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What is wrong with being a school, for goodness sake?
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You will only get in this school if mommy and daddy have got plenty of cash so I suppose now that we have a new money grabbing government that the tory voters voted in we will now see all the little blue noses get in
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The school is open to the poorest to the wealthiest in Telford and Wolverhampton and does not charge a fee. Most jealous people pretend to slam it to make themselves feel better.
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I went to this school many years ago i am now 28. thomas telford has always been about getting good grades and isnt that what getting a goood education about. you dont need to have money or even be brainy to go to this school. i was the first girl there to have a disability which is that i am hard of hearing. i struggled with learning and i can tell you now they did there damn best to make sure i achieve grades. yeah i may not have got A* but i walked away from there with GNVQs and GCSES which i would not of got if i went to another school. I do how ever feel that turning it into a uni would be a bad idea because it is doing so well as it is. i am proud to say i went there. i was poor and was not brainy and yet they gave me a chance so fair play to them. keep up the good work.
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So, no capital letters in ‘thomas telford’ (sic), ‘they did there (sic) damn best’ and ‘I would not of (sic) got’.
This is the best education available in Telford – I think not!
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oooohhhh! Someone is having a hissy fit. I didnt realise I had to have amazing grammer on here sooorrryyy! seriously though peter I am just giving an opinion on what I experienced. You must not of got in and just slagging this school off at every opportunity. I did not say that this was the best education in telford, I said that they gave me the opporuntunity to further myself than any other school in telford would have. So stop having a hissy fit you sad person!
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Peter,
Have your say?
Who does offer the best education in Telford?
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Another ex-pupil, also 28. I can confirm that you definitely don’t need rich parents to get in there. That’s one accusation you can’t level at the place.
Whilst I won’t lie and say I enjoyed my time there (barring the time with friends I made), I am proud to say I went there, and achieved excellent results, which I’m sure I wouldn’t have got at pretty much any other Comprehensive in Telford.
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Every body that went there is proud to say they went there. I did not have the most amazing time there but it is a school you are not there to have fun.
Yeah the hours were long and the breaks were short, but the reason for that is because of good education.
Again I am another ex-student that is proud to say that I went there and would consider sending my daughter there if we still live in telford at the time.
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All these synical commenters on here are nothing but whingers.
Stop acting so jealous, look up the facts on the school and realise that it takes people of:
All Abilitys, both intellectually and physically
All Classes, the rich the poor and the middle class
And the one thing it does with all of them:
Gives them a darn good education.
What matters is that the students going to this school are getting one of the best educations in the country.
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“Gives them a darn good education”
…sadly in your case obviously not in English grammar and spelling….
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Interesting name. What does ‘Sensibe’ mean?
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Spelling error
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A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. It is a corporation that provides both undergraduate and postgraduate education. The word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning “community of teachers and scholars.
Thomas Telford School, is not a university, it is a a secondary school, it is not a centre for research, it has no undergraduate or post graduate students or courses.
On any definition of the word university it fails.
University and degrees have been grossly devalued over the last 3 decades.
Rightly only the brightest and the best would go up to university, in the 1980′s approximately only 2% of the population had graduated. Now anyone can. The value of a degree has thus fallen.
We need to recognise that not everyone is suited to academia, that is why Polytechnics had their place to cater for more vocational tertiary learning.
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This article isn’t about how good the school is, or whether only pupils with rich parents can attend atc.
No – the article is about the School offering degree courses.
Now – the problem I see with this is –
A degree should be the absolute pinnacle of education and achievement – and I also believe a degree should only be obtained in core subjects. That way – a degree really means something – and proves that the holder has genuine ability to provide a genuine value to the advancement of society and the economy overall.
The danger here is that “everyone” will start handing out degrees, in a wide range of subjects, and thus, in the end, when everyone has one, they will be of no value.
That sadly – I beleive is already the case!!
No matter how hard we try – we cant ignore the fact that statistically – we cant ALL be clever and hold a degree !!!
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In what way is THAT sentence wrong?
“Darn” is more suitable than “Damn” considering this is a family website.
Get Off Your Soapbox.
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I was commenting on poor standard of grammar and spelling in this and your earlier post.
“Synical”, “abilitys”, apparently random capitalisation, ignorance of the difference between “there” and “their” – need I go on?
Jealous? – I don’t think so!!
PS Have you decided whether you’re called Captain Sensible, Captain Sensibe or Capt. S?
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Rob – Your picking faults for the sake of picking faults.
I admit they are errors but I did not read through the post after I had posted it.
Next time I will.
PS – it’s going to be Captain Sensible.
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PPS
It’s ‘you’re picking errors’. The apostrophe indicates a missing letter – you Are.
‘Your’ is the possessive.
I don’t know about Rob but I only carp about such things when someone is bragging about how well-educated they are. Better stop that, is my advice.
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