Landau Forte Academy QEMS

Landau Forte Academy QEMS is an 11-16 secondary school with academy status located to the north of Tamworth, a small market town in Staffordshire in the Midlands near Birmingham. It is often known simply as QEMS . Since 1 September 2011, the school has been owned and operated by the Landau Forte Charitable Trust, after being transferred from the Staffordshire's LA control.It is situated in Perry Crofts, on the eastern side of the A513, at the junction with the B5493, around a half-mile north of Tamworth town centre.Specialist statusAs a state school, it was awarded specialist status to teach as a Music College. QEMS gained status as a Specialist Music College, under the UK Government's Specialist Schools scheme, in 2005. This specialist status also gives funding to other departments, most notably ICT.HistoryGrammar schoolIt was the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School on Ashby Road, a co-educational grammar school.ComprehensiveIt became a comprehensive in 1979, merging with Mercian Boys' School, a secondary modern school which moved from Hospital Street in 1960. The school was renamed Queen Elizabeth's Mercian School, a combination of the two schools' names. The "Mercian" in the school name refers to the fact that Tamworth was the headquarters of the Anglo-Saxon province of Mercia.