Malmesbury School’s so connected (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Malmesbury School’s so connected

6:00pm Friday 10th February 2012 in News By Victoria Ashford

Malmesbury School headteacher Tim Gilson is keen to connect with the community as part of the school’s 40th anniversary celebrations.

A series of events have been organised to commemorate four decades of Malmesbury School, during which time the original grammar school became the town’s secondary school, albeit across three different sites.

Mr Gilson, who took over as headteacher in 2007, said: “It’s a nice opportunity to talk about the school and what has been going so well.

“The 40th birthday is a great time to make the community aware of what we are doing, and really connect with the community.”

One way was to hold a series of public lectures, including one on Wednesday night, by Professor Chris Budd, called Maths and the Making of the Modern World.

A concert has also been organised involving children from the school on St George’s Day – April 23.

Ruth Thornton was headteacher of the lower school, as it was known when she joined in 1990, and now works part-time as a geography teacher. In its original form, from 1971 to 2002, the school was split between three sites.

She said: “When we moved onto one site it was an amazing challenge for all of us. It was lovely to move to a brand new site and for us to be in a purpose-built facility.

“I think a lot of the parents loved the split site.

“The primary schools were all small and I think they felt it was an extension of that.

“The downside was staff used to commute between the different sites and it meant lessons were sometimes delayed.”