Archbishop Tenison's CofE High School
Archbishop Tenison's
Nearest train station: East Croydon
caters for around 760 pupils, of whom 270 are in the Sixth Form. It occupies a site established just over 35 years ago in a pleasant residential area of the Borough. Since 1959, the accommodation has been augmented by the building of a Sixth Form Centre, and Art, a Geography, and Technology Centres. We have just come to the end of a planned expansion from two forms of entry to three. This, of course, required additional accommodation, which includes a new library-resource area, a music suite, technology and science rooms and several general-purpose classrooms.
The school is highly regarded locally and each year is heavily over-subscribed. Hence the need for the expansion referred to above. The popularity of the school stems from its high academic standards (around 7+ A*- C grades per candidate at GCSE), the presence of a large Sixth Form, the very high level of pastoral care provided for the pupils, and the Christian ethos of the school.
Assemblies are taken seriously; there is a termly School Eucharist, all students take Religious Studies at GCSE and there is usually a good A-level entry. Because the school is oversubscribed, it is necessary for the Governors to select those to whom places are offered and this selection at Year 7 is based entirely on the church membership of the applicants and their families. The annual admissions procedure is shared with our sister school, St. Andrew's, an 11-16 mixed C.E. voluntary aided school situated near the centre of Croydon.
Admission is not restricted to Anglicans and the school welcomes many pupils from other churches and now reflects the social and ethnic population of Croydon. Pupils at St. Andrew's have a right to places in the Sixth Form at Archbishop Tenison's, and a large number of them take advantage of this opportunity each year.