Parklands High School, Chorley

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Parklands High School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status located in Chorley, Lancashire, England. The school has been judged “good” with “outstanding” in the behaviour and safety of pupils, by Ofsted in February 2014. There are currently 1085 students on roll. The current headteacher, Mrs. Claire Hollister, is the fifth headteacher of Parklands. She was appointed headteacher in 2008, when the previous headteacher, Mrs. Jean McGrath, retired from the school.HistoryGrammar schoolThe current Parklands High School was originally called Chorley Grammar School. It was originally housed in buildings in Union Street, Chorley which is now home to the public library. It changed its name in 1972, when the school changed from a grammar school to a comprehensive school, to Parklands High School.From 2003 to 2012, Parklands High School held a specialist language college status. Since 1962, the school badge reads Propositi Tenax, which translates to Firm of Purpose. The current motto if the school is Learn, Respect, Aspire, Achieve, which has been used since the school became an academy.The school introduced a house system in 2012, which introduced the vertical tutoring system. There are five houses in the school; Asia, South America, Australasia, Europe and Africa. There are 8 different countries in each house. Each form in Parklands represents a country in their house. This system replaced the traditional form groups in 2012.BuildingsThe current school buildings were opened in 1959. This included the hall, concourse, south and north blocks and the gym. Several buildings have been erected since the school was first built. This includes the west block, which was built in 1970s, and is currently used as history, music and ICT classrooms.