Thomas Bennett Community College
Current logo used by the school
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| Motto | ‘Every student matters. Every student succeeds.’ |
|---|---|
| Established | 1958 |
| Type | Academy |
| Headteacher | Ms P Montalto |
| Chair of Governors | Mr R Bates |
| Location |
Ashdown Drive Crawley West Sussex RH10 5AD England  Coordinates: 51°05′57″N 0°11′22″W / 51.0992°N 0.1894°W |
| Local authority | West Sussex County Council |
| DfE URN | 138620 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1285 |
| Gender | Coeducation |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Hepburn, Parker, Wallis, Roberts |
| Website | www |
Thomas Bennett Community College (TBCC) is a secondary school with academy status for pupils aged 11 to 18. It caters to approximately 1450 pupils in Years 7 to 13, including nearly 220 in its sixth form.
The school was planned as part of the development of Crawley as a new town in the late 1940s. Originally it had been intended to open a grammar school and two secondary modern schools on the Tilgate campus, although by the time the school was built, this plan changed to provide a bilateral secondary school for boys and girls for a trial period of two years. This entitled the school to run separate grammar and secondary modern departments as part of one school.
The school was named after Sir Thomas Bennett, the chairman of Crawley Development Corporation. This body had overseen the development of the New Town. Bennett officially opened the school in 1959 (the first pupils having joined the school in 1958). Although originally intended as a bilateral school, the staff of the school organised classes along comprehensive lines, with students working in sets depending on their ability in subjects, rather than broad streams. This idea proved so popular that the school became formally comprehensive by the end of the trial in 1960.
In 1974, local schools were reorganised in the area, and Thomas Bennett School became an Upper school for students aged 12 to 18, with former first year students remaining for an additional year in primary middle schools. This situation was then reversed in 2004, when reorganisation again returned the school to a full 11-18 secondary.
The school converted to academy status in September 2012.
The masterplan for Crawley New Town set aside the campus for the split-site school in the south-west corner of the neighbourhood of Tilgate between the A23 and Tilgate Forest. The campus contained both the Thomas Bennett school and the local primary school - Desmond Anderson School.
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