Tavistock College

Tavistock College is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Tavistock, Devon, England. It had (as of April 2020) approximately 1800 pupils. The schools draws pupils from a catchment area of about 20 km (12 mi) radius.

Tavistock College
Address
Crowndale Rd Tavistock , Devon , PL19 8DD England
Information
Type	Academy
Motto	Together: we care, we challenge, we excel
Established	1552
Local authority	Devon County Council
Trust	Dartmoor Multi-Academy Trust
Department for Education URN	145336 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Chair	Mandy Govier
Principal	James Buchanan[1]
Staff	300
Gender	Coeducational
Age	11 to 18
Enrolment	approx. 1800
Houses	Challenge   Together   Excel   Care
Colour(s)	Red, White, Black
Publication	In Focus
Website	www.tavistockcollege.org

The college has links with Japan, Uganda, Spain, Ukraine, Swaziland, Peru, France and India through which staff exchanges and pupil visits and projects take place.^[2]

Success

In 2013 a Japanese teacher won the so-called teachers' Oscar for secondary school teacher of the year.^[3]

Ofsted Reviews

In early 2010 the school received a "notice to improve" from Ofsted, the national school inspection agency.^[4] After a failure to improve, the school was placed into special measures in September 2011 and underwent a change in head teacher fairly soon after. The result of the changes made by school leadership led to an improvement in grades in the next years GCSEs. Following the success in 2012 and 2013, the school came out of special measures and has been progressing well.^[5]

History

Tavistock grammar school was founded in 1552. In the 1930s it stood "on the Plymouth road, a modern block with splendid playing fields" but was later moved to the current site to allow for expansion as Tavistock and surrounding areas grew in population.^[6]

The college motto was traditionally “Crescit sub pondere virtus” (Virtue flourishes under a burden); this is also the motto of the Earl of Denbigh. However the school motto was changed to ‘Together: we care, we challenge, we excel’.

Previously a community school administered by Devon County Council, in January 2018 Tavistock College converted to academy status. The school is now sponsored by the Dartmoor Multi-Academy Trust.

Curriculum

In 1996 Tavistock College began requiring year 7 and 8 students to take courses about the Japanese language, the first school in England to have such a requirement.^[7] As of July 2022, the College no longer offered a GCSE course for Japanese language.^[8]

Other activities

Since 2006 the college has organised concerts locally under the name of ParkLife; a ParkLife festival was held in 2007 and 2008.^[9]

Sports

Over £1.1m has been invested in new sporting facilities - an all-weather pitch, competition standard athletics track, and a football pitch development comprising seven pitches over the past years. The college Rugby and Football teams all extensively utilise these facilities as well as allowing local clubs such as Tavistock FC to train on the Astro on a regular basis. The track and other athletics facilities are regularly used for athletics clubs and for hosting competitions.

Most years the college engages in school “Sports Tours” with the Rugby, Football and netball teams to foreign destinations such as France, Italy or America where the teams compete over multiple tournaments during the trip.

Notable former pupils

• Graham Dawe, rugby union player^[10]
• Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, actress/model, came from a nearby farm; she is known for Transformers: Dark of the Moon^[11]
• Seth Lakeman, folk musician^[12]
• Sam Sills, sailor^[13]
• Danny Chambers, British MP and veterinary surgeon