Chestnut Grove Academy (often abbreviated as CGA) is an 11–19 mixed partially selective secondary school with academy and VisualArts College status in Balham, London, England.[4][5] In January 2019, Chestnut Grove was assessed in an OFSTED inspection report as good.[6]
It was formed as Chestnut Grove School in September 1986 by the amalgamation of Henry Thornton School (named for Henry Thornton) and Hydeburn School[7] before achieving academy status in July 2011.[8]
It selects 40% of its pupils for places based on aptitude in art and design or language. It was the first Arts College in the United Kingdom.[9]
The Chestnut Grove site has many buildings, each dedicated to their own specialised facilities.
North Block - Textiles, Languages, History, Geography, Government & Politics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Food Tech classrooms. Also contains the library.
South Block - Drama, Dance, Music, IT, Business, Film, and Sport classrooms. Also contains the canteen, drama theatre, indoor sports hall, and dance studio.
West Block - Philosophy, Beliefs, and Ethics (Religious Studies), Sociology, Psychology, and Sport classrooms. Also contains the Sixth form study and multigym.
Hearnville Building - English, Maths, Further Maths, and Economics classrooms.
Pavilions - Fine Art and Digital Art classrooms. Also contains the art studio.
Outside these buildings, Chestnut Grove has two sports pitches: an upper pitch dedicated to football and a lower pitch that can hold a wide-ranging selection of sports. Additionally, Chestnut Grove has an eating area with benches outside the canteen and a green.
Chestnut Grove's house system consists of 7 tutor groups: Blake, Da Vinci, Hepworth, Kahlo, Kapoor, Kusama, and Turner. Every year group is separated into these 7 tutor groups, each of which contains 30 students. Each tutor group has its own corresponding coloured tie:
Blake - Green
Da Vinci - Yellow
Hepworth - Cobalt Blue
Kahlo - Red
Kapoor - Maroon
Kusama - Violet
Turner - Light Blue
The Kusama tutor group was introduced in September 2020 in order to meet the large numbers of new Year 7s. KS3 students were given the choice to vote on the name and corresponding tie colour of the tutor group. [10]
Chestnut Grove's sixth form offers a range of subjects to study at A-level. It is open for application to both internal students (students that studied at Chestnut Grove), and external candidates (students that received their secondary education elsewhere).
The sixth form offers subjects that were not available to take at GCSE level, such as Film Studies, Government & Politics, Sociology, and Psychology. Students can also retake GCSEs during their sixth form course. The sixth form has minimum entry requirements of grade 6s at GCSE level for subjects that students want to further study at A-Level. For a student to graduate from year 12 to year 13, they must have attained minimum grades of two Es at AS level.
