OUR HISTORY
The school traces its roots and foundations back to the Queen Victoria High School, which was founded in Stockton in the nineteenth century. These buildings no longer survive, but the site was opposite St Peter’s Church on the Yarm Road in Stockton.
The Cleveland School was founded in 1938 but moved in 1945 to the rambling mansion of Woodside Hall on the beautiful banks of the River Tees in Eaglescliffe. These impressive buildings were enjoyed by generations of schoolgirls before their demolition in 1970.
At this point in time, the two schools merged, the name Teesside High School was adopted, and the present buildings were begun. Since then, the school has flourished under several distinguished Heads. Both of the pre-merger schools were girls’ schools. However, in 2005 Teesside High School made the decision to admit boys for the first time in the Prep School, and in 2008 they first enrolled in the Senior School and Sixth Form. This year, 2015, the school marked the occasion of 70 years of education on the current Eaglescliffe site with a celebratory lunch. It was heart-warming to hear so many tales and stories from pupils who attended so long ago, and particularly at the time when the school first moved here in 1945.
AIMS AND ETHOS
Teesside High School is an intentionally small community with traditional values. Alongside our academic results and aspirations, these are the main reasons why parents choose our school. We provide a caring, friendly and lively environment in which the individual is valued and nurtured. Whilst the school has a Christian ethos, our community contains pupils from a range of religious and non-religious backgrounds. Our whole school assemblies reflect on moral and spiritual issues relevant to all young people as we seek to share values of tolerance and understanding of the world around us. The culture of the school reflects these differences, whilst celebrating our similarities.
EVERYTHING THAT WE DO IS SHAPED BY OUR AIMS :
- To provide an environment in which students achieve their full academic and personal potential in all areas of development, and become a caring, confident, self-disciplined and well-balanced adult.
- To nurture a sense of intellectual curiosity and to value creativity in all aspects of school life.
- To help each individual to develop a firmly rooted sense of justice and morality
- To encourage each individual to develop self-esteem and to respect the rights, opinions, and property of others irrespective of age, sex or religion.
OUR CAMPUS
Teesside High School was created in 1970 by the amalgamation of two much older independent schools: Queen Victoria High School (1883) and Cleveland School (1939). The School is fortunate in having some 20 acres of attractive grounds on the banks of the River Tees, in what was once the rambling mansion of Woodside Hall. The lovely old buildings, enjoyed by generations of schoolgirls, were sadly demolished in 1970 lending way to the current school which is easily accessible by road (close to the A66 and A19), rail (a five-minute walk to Eaglescliffe station) and air (Tees Valley airport). It serves a wide catchment area with pupils traveling from the Teesside conurbation, south Durham and North Yorkshire. The School roll is currently just under 400 pupils.
Until 2004 the School catered for girls only, but since then boys have been admitted on a gradual basis throughout the years and the School has been fully co-educational since 2011. The School has recently embarked on a new Digital Learning Programme, where every child from Year 3 upwards uses an iPad as part of their learning in and out of school.
Teesside High School is an intentionally small community with traditional values. Alongside our academic results and aspirations, these are the main reasons why parents choose our school. We provide a caring, friendly and lively environment in which the individual is valued and nurtured. Whilst the school has a Christian ethos, the school community contains pupils from a range of religious and non-religious backgrounds. The culture of the school reflects these differences, whilst celebrating our similarities. Everything that we do is shaped by our aims:
- To provide an environment in which students achieve their full academic and personal potential and become a caring, confident, self-disciplined and well-balanced adult.
- To help each individual to develop a firmly rooted sense of justice and morality
- To encourage each individual to develop self-esteem and to respect the rights, opinions, and property of others irrespective of age, sex or religion.
Teesside High School has in recent years seen the major refurbishment and building projects works take place. These works show the high emphasis we place on providing top-quality international standard facilities for our youngsters and form part of our long-term strategy for continually improving facilities and learning at the School.
One project has seen the school’s six tennis courts upgraded to an international standard all-weather surface, providing a midi hockey pitch and training facility and three five-a-side football pitches, whilst still retaining tennis and netball courts.
Another project has provided a brand new playground for the Preparatory School. This project has led to old tarmac play areas being replaced with an all-weather, synthetic surface marked out for a number of sports including tennis, hockey, football, and basketball. All of which is protected by a green mesh perimeter fence. This new playground is perfect for introducing our younger pupils to a wider range of sports and helps them develop new skills.
It also includes the installation of a ‘buccaneer play ship’ with interconnecting walkways, slide, climbing wall, ladders and play panels, plus tree benches for quiet time reading or just chatting with friends. An existing mini-obstacle course is also included finished off with several raised beds for the young gardeners to experience and grow their own vegetables. The play ship encourages creative play, inspiring the children’s minds whilst also developing co-ordination, play, and agility.
The latest edition to the school portfolio has been the building of a new state of the art Sixth Form block. The bespoke, two-story building is located on the school site with views over the school grounds and the River Tees. It has been designed to meet the growing demand for Sixth Form places across the Tees Valley and beyond.
The building contains common areas, quiet workspaces, classrooms, and conference facilities being designed with the transition from school to university in mind. As part of its Eco-school commitment, the new Sixth Form center has been constructed with energy efficiency in mind and should secure an efficiency rating of a ‘B’.
- PV panels on the roof will provide clean, renewable energy, converting sunlight into DC power.
- The insulation of the building will exceed current Building Regulation Requirements
- The European redwood cladding is sourced from sustainable, managed forests
It is hoped that the local community will also benefit from the new all-weather pitches, which will be available for use by other schools and community sports groups, as well as organized tournaments.