£15,000 of additional funds to enhance school facilities

Twyford Church of England High School has been awarded Specialist School Status in music by the Department for Education and Skills.

The new status, awarded this week, will give the school additional funds of £150,000 which will be used to help enhance its facilities. The school is already a leading music centre within the Ealing Borough and there are many plans for further development.

The school's headteacher, Alice Hudson, was delighted with the news and said:
"The school has long enjoyed a very well deserved reputation for excellence in Music and the Performing Arts which are seen as enhancing the spiritual life of the schools as well as being as important as conventional subjects."

Ms Hudson added: "Twyford already provides an extensive programme of individual music tuition and hosts the Ealing Youth & Ealing Schools Orchestras. In addition it carries out music outreach work with local primary and secondary schools as well as enjoying regular partnership projects with professional musicians, which this year included the BBC Concert Orchestra.

"The award will allow the school to develop this work further both within the school and in the local community."

To apply for specialist status, schools need to raise £50,000 in private sectorship and draw up a four year plan to raise standards, increase provision and encourage students into the specialist subjects.

Although it is a very lengthy and detailed process, it has paid off and the children will benefit from it. Performance figures for 2004 showed that nationally 57.4 per cent of pupils in specialist schools achieved 5 or more grades A*-C at GCSE, compared to 48.2 per cent in non-specialist schools. Twyford's pass rate is already 75 per cent.

The school is due to begin major redevelopment in July and should be completed by early 2006.

July 5, 2005