Varndean School

See also: Varndean College

Varndean School [1] is a secondary school founded in 1884 and located in Brighton, England. It moved to its current site overlooking the city and the sea in 1926. Varndean is a specialist school for technology and music [2]. Varndean is the only secondary school in the city to have been graded twice by school inspectors as "outstanding" and so was listed on OfSTED's roll of honour in 2005. The school also has 'leading edge' status and is memorably described in the world's biggest selling education book (The New Learning Revolution by Kiwi author Gordon Dreyden, 2005) as 'an inspiring example to the world'.

Varndean shares a campus with Balfour Junior School, Balfour Infants School, Dorothy Stringer High School and Varndean College[3].

Historically the current Varndean School building was the Varndean Girls School and the current Varndean College building was Varndean Boys school. The Boys School became a sixth form college in 1975, and in 1979 boys were admitted to the girls school for the first time and it became a mixed high school for 11-16 year olds.

In 1998 Varndean School became the first school in the city to be designated a specialist school. The school gained a second specialism in music in 2006 and a vocational specialism in 2007. The school created a company Varndean e-Learning [4], which supplies software to over 450 schools and colleges nationwide.

Varndean School's current headteacher is Andy Schofield who has held the position since 1999 after being deputy head and a Geography teacher for three years at the school. He also chairs the Specialist Schools & Academies Trust's 'Futures Vision' group, who published the widely acclaimed 'Essential questions for the future school' in 2006 [5].

Famous alumni include footballers Darren Freeman (GillinghamFulham, Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion), Russell Martin (Wycombe Wanderers), Tommy Fraser (Brighton & Hove Albion) and James Fraser (Bristol Rovers). Current staff members include Stuart Tuck (Brighton & Hove Albion Eastbourne Borough, Bognor Regis Town). Past staff members include Ben Watson (Brighton & Hove Albion, Bognor Regis Town Grays Athletic).

Oliver Doodson, the little-known writer of two little-known novels, 'The Mole and My Mum' and 'The Curious Incident of My Mum in the Night-time', was educated at this school.

FFS WIKIPEDIA MODERATORS, OLIVER IS WORTH A FUCKING MENTION, HE IS FUCKING FAMOUS IN BRIGHTON.