Highfields School, Matlock

Highfields School is a coeducational secondary comprehensive school located in Matlock, Derbyshire. At the time of its September 2012 Ofsted inspection, the school had 1337 pupils (male and female) on roll aged 11–18, with 215 in the sixth form. It is split across two sites in the town 1.8 miles apart.HistoryHighfields was created in 1982 as a comprehensive school by the merger of Ernest Bailey's Grammar School and Charles White Secondary Modern School. The site of Charles White in Starkholmes became the 'lower site' of Highfields, while Bailey's was converted to the county council records offices. A new site was built to house the new 'upper site' at Lumsdale.David Marshall was headmaster from the school's founding in 1982 until he was replaced by Ian Dalrymple-Alford. Today, Marshall is remembered in the name of the Lumsdale site's David Marshall Sports Hall. Dalrymple-Alford left the school in January 2006, being replaced by Dr Ramsey Tetlow.The school was a specialist 'performing arts college' from 2005, until the specialist schools programme was ended in 2010. The school retains an emphasis on its performing arts credentials. Dr Tetlow in turn retired in 2011, being replaced by Eddie Wilkes.The school has been criticised, amongst several other British schools, for making use of the Brain Gym 'mental exercise' programme, which claims that 'the brain is a muscle' and that a set of hand and leg movements and chest rubs can promote learning. Commonly described as pseudoscience, physician Ben Goldacre has described the programme as 'ludicrous' while Teacher of the Year award-winner Philip Beadle described it as 'moonshine...you'd probably get as much benefit from taking a Brain Gym book and booting it around the room'.