West Heath School is an independent school in Sevenoaks, Kent. It caters for children for whom mainstream schooling has become insufficient, for varying reasons. The school's motto is "Rebuilding Lives Through Education."

The school, founded in its current form as a charitable trust on 14 September 1998 as the Beth Marie Centre, is based in of parkland on lease from Mohamed Al-Fayed, who contributed almost £3 million towards the school. The building formerly housed West Heath Girls' School, a girls' school with around 100 boarding pupils, established in 1865 and closed in 1997.

History and grounds

The school occupies premises formerly occupied by West Heath Girls' School, a private school founded in London in 1867, and which moved to this site, the 18th-century Ashgrove House, in 1932. The former mansion house is grade II listed. Pupils included (from 1974 to 1977) Diana Spencer, the future Princess of Wales. In the 1990s the school began to experience financial difficulties owing to falling pupil numbers, and it was placed into receivership in 1997.

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund considered buying the school, but decided against it, and Mohamed Al Fayed stepped in to buy West Heath for £2,670,000 on 20 May 1998 as new premises for the Beth Marie Centre. He later pledged to contribute a further £550,000 towards equipping the school. In a statement, he said:

I am surprised that the Princess Diana Memorial Fund, with all its millions in the bank, did not show a greater interest in this project. I believe it to be a far more fitting tribute to her work than putting her name on tasteless souvenirs.

The school was founded in its current form, as The New School at West Heath, with Valerie May as Principal, on 14 September 1998. At the start it had around 30 pupils. Boarding began in the year 2000, and there are six boarding houses, each named after one of the trustees (see "Management", below); Tarrant, Sissons, Astor/best house, Ruth, Hunniford and Esther.

The school was renamed as West Heath School in September 2015.

Child sexual abuse Vice-principal and head of child protection (at the time) William Whillock was convicted as a sex offender in 2010 via the accidentally left phone of his victim. He had encouraged a pupil to send sexual photographs of herself. Whillock was suspended following the discovery and later sacked. He was given a three-year community sentence and banned from working with children.

Management Founding patron: Mohamed Al-Fayed

The school is governed by a board of 10 trustees.

Current management is listed on the school's Web site.

Academic performance

2004 GCSE grades:Secondary Schools 2004 Number of pupils aged 15: 20 Pupils achieving 5 or more GCSE passes (A*–C): 0% Pupils failing to achieve at least one entry level qualification: 20% Average total GCSE point score per 15-year-old: 121.3 (for comparison, the nearest non-Special Educational Needs school, Sevenoaks School: 498.2)

2009 GCSE grades:Kent | Special Reports | EducationGuardian.co.uk Number of pupils: 31 Pupils aged 16 achieving 5 or more GCSE grades A*–G: 89% (unpublished which of this is passes, e.g. A*–C) Average total point score per 16-year-old: 23.8 (for comparison, the nearest non-SEN school, Sevenoaks School average: 66.8) Pupils with Special Educational Needs: 100%

2002 Key Stage 3 testsEducationGuardian.co.uk | Interactive guides | Kent (not GCSE): % pupils achieving level 9 or above in English test: 100% % pupils achieving level 9 or above in Maths test: 100% % pupils achieving level 9 or above in Science test: 100% % 15-year-olds achieving 9 or more grades A*–C: 100% 1998–2002 decrease in % of 15-year-olds getting 5 or more A*–C: 100% % 15-year-olds achieving 5 or more grades D–G: 0% % 15-year-olds failing to achieve at least 5 G grades: 0%

2000 GCSE grades: Pupils achieving 5 or more GCSE grades A*–C: 33% Pupils failing to achieve at least 5 GCSE passes: 67% Pupils failing to achieve any GCSE passes: 17% Pupils with Special Educational Needs: 100% Pupils with SEN with statements: 61.9% Pupils with SEN without statements: 38.1% Number of pupils: 42

1999 GCSE grades: Pupils achieving 5 or more GCSE grades A*–C: 21% Pupils failing to achieve at least 5 GCSE passes: 79% Pupils failing to achieve any GCSE passes: 11%

Post 16 As well as teaching pupils from Years 7 to 11, the school operates a section allowing pupils to get "support" from the school while going to college; the school itself does not have staff to teach subjects at A-level. Many continue boarding at the school while going to college elsewhere.

References

External links

The New School at West Heath, Ofsted social care inspection reports The New School at West Heath, Ofsted independent school inspection reports The New School at West Heath on Independent Schools of the British Isles Article mentioning the school on BBC News Online, September 2003 Information about the school previously on Al-Fayed's website (last available archived version, 17 May 2006) West Heath Tennis Centre , which takes place on the schools facilities when not in use for additional funding.