Extracts from Summer Newsletter 2007.

Wolverley High School was itself a re-birth as it was opened in 1973 after the Sebright School, an independent boarding and day school for 250 boys, closed a year or two earlier. When June Longmuir, the first Headteacher opened the school, it had places for 1100 boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 18.

The School was opened at the time that the Local Authority made a decision to move from selective to comprehensive education.

I find it extraordinary looking back on how much has changed in education in that time. The period is full of ironies. June Longmuir, the first Headteacher, was an early champion of vocational education and established the somewhat grandly named farm at Wolverley. Kenneth Baker's National Curriculum destroyed at a stroke much of the excellent vocational work that had developed in schools. In the past few years, we have been re-creating vocational routes and now have, amongst other provision, the Young Apprenticeship programme and are on the threshold of Specialised Diplomas. I am especially pleased that we have begun to re-establish a Land Centre at Wolverley and have numerous other vocational opportunities for our students.

I have always felt that Wolverley has something special which I cannot fully explain. I know too that this feeling is not simply the paternalism that every Headteacher feels as lots of people have commented on it, former students, staff, parents. It has a warmth and friendliness, an informality that expresses our being a community. June Longmuir, when opening the Jubilee Copse, expressed this as "the genius of the place". It is very hard to work out what creates this but it has something to do with the beauty of the site itself, something to do with the character of the children in this area, something to do with the traditions of the school and something to do with the set of beliefs on which the school is founded.

I know that many of our readers came to Wolverley as students and I am conscious of the loyalty that exists for the school and the area. When I arrived, the school had a strap line of "Values the pastlooks to the future". The new school will build on the success of the current school and will value the memories and history of Wolverley High School and all who were associated with it just as we have and will continue to value our history from the days of the Sebright School. We will continue to strive to achieve success for all our young people in the future because they are the future. I would like to thank on behalf of the young people who have passed through Wolverley High School over the last 34 years, all those who contributed to its success.