AN EXCITING new era for St Joseph's School, Launceston is on the horizon as plans are announced for a sixth form and the introduction of boys into the senior school.
St Joseph's, a non-selective independent school, has provided education for girls at Launceston since 1915. Run by nuns until 1984, St Joseph's has provided
co-education for children aged three to eleven for a number of years.
However, the senior school (11-16) has always only ever been open to girls. This is all set to change in September 2010 when boys will be introduced into Year 7.
Headmaster, Graeme Garrett explained: "Boys will come into the senior school in a staged way. We're not just going to open the doors to boys throughout the school from day one. We're going to bring them in in stages."
In 2010, boys will be introduced to Year 7; in 2011 there will be boys in Years 7 and 8 and in 2012 boys will be part of Years 7, 8 and 9 and so on.
Mr Garrett continued: "We simply couldn't manage opening the doors to five year groups at once. We going for a phased approach."
The second major development for the school will be the introduction of a sixth form in 2011, which will take both boys and girls.
Part of the reason behind starting a sixth form at St Joseph's was the government's decision to keep children, from this current Year 7 onwards, in education until they are 18.
Mr Garrett said: "The governing body felt it would be wrong to ask the pupils to leave at 16 and felt that we should be offering them
education until 18."
The sixth form will mean that St Joseph's will be able to provide an "all inclusive" education from the age of three to 18.
Mr Garrett said the sixth form would need to be co-educational, however this would have left a period between the ages of 11 and 16 when boys would not have been able to attend St Joseph's.
This was therefore one of the reasons for the introduction of boys into the senior school. Mr Garrett commented: "We felt that that was a silly gap and hence the plan to stage boys into St Joseph's from 2010."
Another reason for introducing boys was the "demand" from parents, said Governor Mrs Mandy Williams. Parents with male and female children who entered them into the junior school at St Joseph's were forced to move the boy once he reached 11. Now both children will be able to remain at St Joseph's.
The reaction to the news had been "hugely positive" said Mrs Williams. "We've had parents saying 'we don't understand why it's not been done before.'"
Mr Garrett said there had been "minor negative comments" but once he had explained what the school was trying to achieve they were happy.
With currently 180 children at St Joseph's, the introduction of boys and a sixth form will inevitably increase numbers. However, Mr Garrett said: "We plan to remain a small school of around 250/300 children. We physically couldn't take too many because of space
constraints."
There will also be restricted numbers for the sixth form: "We're not looking to take more than 25 students to start with for the sixth form," said Mr Garrett. "However, if the demand is there we will have to review the situation."
The plans will also mean the creation of male toilets and facilities in the senior school as well as extra teachers and support staff for the sixth form which will create jobs for the area.
The school is currently looking into the possibility of offering the International Baccalaureate (IB) for sixth form students. The IB is an internationally recognised qualification for students aged 16 to 19. It is based around detailed academic study of a wide range of subjects, including languages, the arts, science, maths,
history and geography.
St Joseph's is an incredibly successful school and was ranked the fifth top secondary school in the whole of the South West in the 2008 Sunday Times' 'Parent Power Schools of the Year' table. The top four were all selective schools which meant that St Joseph's was ranked the top non-selective school in the South West.
Last year St Joseph's was also graded 'Outstanding' following an Ofsted
inspection, the highest attainable accolade. Mr Garrett explained that only three per cent of schools in the UK were registered as outstanding.
The Headmaster stressed that the plans for the school would not "reduce the high quality education" offered at St Joseph's.