School facilities
The school is fortunate enough to provide a very impressive range of facilities for use by staff and students and also the wider community.
In September 2002, the School achieved Arts College status, specialising in the Media Arts. We continue both to offer the full curriculum and also try to meet all the needs and interests of all students, but the extra resources and facilities we gain from being a Media Arts College result in an exciting new dimension being added to the curriculum, teaching and learning styles and extra- curricular activities. Arts College status has also enabled us to create a brand new Media Centre at Wem Town Hall.
We chose Media Arts not just because of the importance of Media education, but also because the students now have access to the very latest digital video and IT equipment across the curriculum which add greatly to the teaching and learning opportunities available to all students. We are also able to provide extra learning and leisure opportunities for the whole community.
In April 2007, the School achieved Applied Learning Specialism status. This is allowing the School to develop still further its curriculum with applied learning opportunities to complement its more "traditional" courses. Applied courses in art, catering, dance, film, music technology, photography and PE are now available in Key Stage 4, while leisure, music technology, environmental science, applied ICT as well as Media and Health and Social Care at OCR National level 3 and BTEC PE level 3 are offered at sixth-form level as 'A' levels or ‘A’ level equivalent subject areas. There are a wealth of facilities available to support these activities.
Music plays a vitally important part in the life of Thomas Adams School and we are proud of the quality and range of musical experiences that are on offer to students. State of the art facilities are available in the School's music centre at St Peter's Annexe which are well utilised during the school day and for extra-curricular activities.
The School enjoys the sporting facilities provided by having a Joint-Use Sports Centre on site and the municipal swimming pool within walking distance. These, together with the extensive playing fields, ensure first class provision for indoor and outdoor sport.
Thomas Adams has an extremely strong tradition of performance-related events that cater for a wide variety of tastes and abilities. Some, such as the 'A' level and GCSE drama evenings, are closely tied into timetabled drama lessons, whilst others are open to all years and often bring together students from across the year groups. These activities make use of the excellent drama and performance facilities that we have.
The School has made significant investment into ICT across the curriculum. There are six dedicated IT suites in the school with a range of both PC and Mac based systems. In addition, many departments have computer ‘banks’ where students can access IT facilities within the classroom. The school is fully wireless enabled and attendance is monitored lesson by lesson electronically.
These outstanding facilities are also used throughout our extensive range of extra-curricular activities.
