Queensbridge Visual & Performing Arts School

Queensbridge is an 11-16, mixed, multi-cultural comprehensive school in a cosmopolitan suburb on the south side of Birmingham. The school shares its impressive 10-acre site on the edge of Moseley and Kings Heath with Fox Hollies Special School. Birmingham is fortunate to be one of the Government’s Excellence in Cities areas, and Queensbridge benefits from the additional funding and resources that this initiative brings.

We have 600 pupils, two-thirds of whom are boys. Pupils are drawn from a wide area with many pupils coming from the area between the school site and the city centre, and from other areas in the city – particularly the local Kings Heath and Moseley area. The majority of pupils come from families that speak a language other than English and the school community celebrates its rich cultural diversity. The school has become increasingly popular with parents in recent years, to the extent that there are many on the waiting list for admission. The LEA asked us to take in an additional form of entry for September 2003.

Queensbridge works extremely closely and effectively with staff and pupils from the Fox Hollies School, an LEA Special School catering for pupils with severe learning difficulties. We are further developing our inclusive approaches through joint professional development. These are very exciting times at Queensbridge as we became (jointly with the Fox Hollies School) Birmingham’s first Specialist School of Performing Arts in September 2000. This has brought additional funding to the school and a focus that is extremely popular with parents and pupils alike as we seek to unlock the creativity and potential of everyone. Governors, staff, parents and pupils are very enthusiastic about our Arts developments, as is the LEA, and we are convinced about the intrinsic value of curricular and extra-curricular Arts to pupils and to our school. Indeed, we see the Arts as a key strand in our continued school improvement.