Priestley Sixth Form and Community College is a sixth form college in the Wilderspool district of Warrington, Cheshire. It also offers adult courses and professional training on another site, and is an associate college of the University of Salford. The college offers a range of courses, including AS/A2 Levels, BTECs, Advanced Diplomas, functional skills and Pre-University Foundation courses.
History
The College opened in 1979, though until 1974 it was the site of the WarringtonGirls' High School, administered by Warrington Education Committee. It was addressed as being on Menin Avenue until 1998, when it became administered by Warrington borough, previously being under Cheshire Education Committee from 1974.
Namesake
Priestley College is named for Joseph Priestley, a clergyman, chemist and educator who was a pioneer in teaching modern history and the sciences. He discovered oxygen in 1774. Priestley was a Protestant dissenter who help establish the reputation of Warrington Academy in 1751. A statue of Priestley now stands inside the main entrance of the college.
Structure
It is a single campus college with seven buildings:
The Priestley Building holds the administrative facilities, finance, Viola Beach Cafe, Graphics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Performing Arts, and Modern Foreign Languages.
The Art Centre, completed in early 2013, is a permanent building which provides spare classrooms for Creative Art, Textiles, Computer Graphic Design.
The Design Centre holds 3D-Design, Woodwork.
The Sports Centre holds Sports and Physical Education.
The Crescent Building, completed in September 2007, holds Student Services, Reception and Personnel, as well as departments of Humanities, English, Public Services, Law, Business Studies, Religious Studies, Accounting, Geography and Geology.
The Lewis Carroll building was completed in 2014, with a building of the same name being demolished to make way for the newer, larger building. It is adjacent to the learning resource centre and holds rooms for ICT
Academic performance
In March 2007, the college was inspected by Ofsted, achieving the grade 'Outstanding'. In 2018, the A* to B pass rate at the college was 38.2% and 68% of vocational grades were Distinction or Distinction*. 89% of the 2016 leavers stayed in education or employment for at least two terms after studying at A level or level 3 vocational courses. 3.5% of students achieved AAB or higher in at least two facilitating subjects at A level, 12.7% below the national average.
Transport connections
The college is an approximately 20 minute walk from the town centre. Cheshire Cat Buses serve Wilderspool Causeway, which passes the college. Services operate to Warrington Bus Interchange and in the opposite direction to Stockton Heath, Altrincham, Grappenhall, Hatton and Northwich. These services combine to provide buses from the college to the Bus Interchange and Stockton Heath every 10 minutes. The service 62 operates to Runcorn Shopping City and Warrington Bus Interchange in the opposite direction. This route is operated jointly between Warrington's Own Buses and Halton Transport. The College also operates its own buses for students in conjunction with Warrington's Own Buses:
Services 18, 19 and 25 are regular passenger services that see their routes extended at certain times so that they originate or terminate at Priestley College rather than Warrington Interchange. From the 2018/19 academic year, services P3 and P4 were removed. The P4 was replaced by services 19 and 25.
