Bishop Walsh Catholic School

Bishop Walsh Catholic School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham in the West Midlands of England.IntroductionThe school opened in 1966 and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2006 with a mass in the school building which was conducted by Vincent Gerard Nichols (Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop of Birmingham).The school currently teaches 765 pupils aged 11–16 and a further 240 pupils in the VI form. The current headteacher is John B. Farrell, who was Deputy Head at the school, 2000–2008 and was a teacher at the school from 1988-1992. The school is managed by the senior management team and the board of governors. Since the end of September 2012, Peter McCann is the Chair of the Academy Representative Committee.Specialist School and academy statusIn 2006 the school applied to renew its bid as a performing arts college which was successful. It also achieved specialist status as a Mathematics and Computing College. Bishop Walsh now belongs to three of the Specialist Schools Trust's award clubs. The school is enrolled in the club for highest performing results, the highest valued scores from SATs (see National Curriculum assessment) to GCSE and the third club is for the most improved schools over the past four years. Only 34 schools in the UK, excluding Walsh, belong to all three clubs, placing the school in the top 1.2% of specialist schools in the UK.