Tasker Milward Voluntary Controlled School

Tasker Milward Voluntary Controlled School is an English medium secondary school in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, South West Wales. It has 750 students on roll as of 2016 which is significantly less than in 2009 when 1,100 were on roll. It was ranked red by the Welsh government categorisation scheme in 2015 but has made considerable improvements in 2016. ^[2]). The Sixth Form is a member of the "Haverfordwest federation" which links it with Sir Thomas Picton School and Pembrokeshire College.

History

The old building of Tasker's School for Girls, Tower Hill, Haverfordwest.

Tasker-Milward School was created in 1978 after the closure of two separate schools, the Haverfordwest Grammar School and Tasker's School for Girls.

Haverfordwest Grammar School was founded by no later than 1488.^[3] Thomas Lloyd, of Cilciffeth near Llanychaer, endowed the school with property in his will dated 22 November 1612.^[4] This included farms, which earned a rental income, enabling the school to be free. The school also benefited from the will of John Milward in 1654, who also bequeathed to King's Grammar School, Birmingham.^[5] The grammar school was a boarding school until it moved to new premises in 1965.^[6] It was located where the town's library stands today.^[7] It was also, between 1938 and 1958, a Public School, its headmaster RS Lang being a member of the Headmasters' Conference ^[3]

Tasker's Charity School was established by the Tasker Charity, which was set up by Mary Tasker (previously Miss Howard/Hayward, of 1 Flether Hill, Rudbaxton) in her will dated 1684,^[8] to educate poor children of both sexes, although it later became a school for girls. The old school buildings have since been turned into flats.

Tasker's School for Girls and Haverfordwest Grammar School ceased to exist in 1978, and pupils transferred to the new Tasker-Milward school.

Mrs M Haynes.^[2] became headteacher in September 2007. Following her recent departure, Mrs H Lewis has now stepped in as acting headteacher with immediate effect as of June 2014.

Amenities

The school has three buildings located on site:

The Milward Building (Bottom School), housing the English, Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Physical Education departments and the library; the Humanities Block (H Block), where the Geography, Geology, History and RE departments are based ("H Block" was built in 2001); and the Tasker Building (Top School), where the Welsh, MFL, Biology, ICT, Drama, Media Studies, Music, Technology and Art departments are based. This Tasker Building also caters for the Sixth Form, providing a computer/work area and a common room.

Sporting

There is an inflatable sports dome on the grounds, referred to as The Dome, which contains two tennis courts and a basketball/netball court. The Dome is open to the public after school hours (from 4pm), on weekends and school holidays. Other sporting facilities include four outside tennis courts, an all-terrain pitch (ATP) and rugby pitch.

Special needs facilities

The school has had ramps and stair lifts installed in bottom school. Top school is less well equipped and has no disabled access for most classrooms. There is one stair lift for disabled access to the Music, Drama and English Rooms.

In summer 2008 some of the playing field was lost to the building of the new Portfield special-needs school. As part of the arrangements, the all-weather pitch was refurbished and is now a multi-purpose ATP.

Throughout summer 2014, the Tasker Milward Welsh Department moved upstairs to form the language department, in which languages are taught. The old Welsh department is now owned by Portfield special-needs school, and has been developed into two new classrooms for that school.

Controversy

Sexual Education Policy

On 20 August 2013 the school was accused of having a sex education policy that referenced Section 28 (a now repealed act).

The policy stated "Section 28 of the Local Government Act does not prevent teachers from addressing issues of homosexuality in the classroom in a neutral and unbiased manner, however, the local authority shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material which actively promotes homosexuality."

The school was immediately put under the investigation of the Welsh Government, who described the policy as 'simply unacceptable'.

The school initially refused to comment. However, Pembrokeshire County Council released a statement stating "The Sex Education policy on the Tasker-Milward school website was an old policy not in operation and which had not been deleted. The school does have a current Strategic Equality Plan, further details of which can be obtained directly from the school. The former headteacher, Maggie Haynes, apologised for any distress that the failure to remove the old policy from the website may have caused.^[9]

Notable former pupils

• Stephen Crabb – Member of Parliament for Preseli Pembrokeshire and former Secretary of State for Wales
• Chelsea Manning – U.S. Army soldier convicted of leaking classified information via Wikileaks
• Jonathan Goodwin - British magician and escapologist.

References

1. ↑ https://www.pgfl.org.uk/schools/tmf/TaskerMilward/Pages/staff.aspx
2. 1 2 "From the Head: Welcome to Tasker Milward". Tasker Milward Voluntary Controlled School. 
3. 1 2 G Douglas James "The History of Haverfordwest Grammar School", JW Hammond & Co, 1961.
4. ↑ "HAVERFORDWEST [HWLFFORDD]". Genuki. Retrieved 26 August 2011. 
5. ↑ Mr Basil H. J. Hughes. BA. "Gazzetter: Haroldstone". Cenquest Census Research Wales. Retrieved 26 August 2011. 
6. ↑ WG Thomas "The History of Haverfordwest Grammar School - The Later Years", JW Hammond & Co, 1978.
7. ↑ "Historic Haverfordwest: In Pictures". BBC South West Wales. September 2009. Retrieved 26 August 2011. 
8. ↑ "Pembrokeshire Record Office - Secondary School Records; Sample Selection of Textbooks used in Pembrokeshire Schools and Pembrokeshire Technical College Records". Archives Wales. Retrieved 25 August 2011. 
9. ↑ http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/tasker-milward-section-28-investigation-5757914