# Ormiston Venture Academy

Ormiston Venture Academy (formerly Oriel Specialist Mathematics and Computing College) is a secondary school with academy status located in Oriel Avenue, Gorleston in the English county of Norfolk. The school educates children aged 11 to 16. It is housed in a block constructed in 2008 and a second newer building that stands where the original building, constructed in 1954, was located. This building is E-Block, and it houses 4 classrooms. The present facility includes a new reception area, Learning Resource Centre, 4 science laboratories and classrooms; it was opened in March 2014 by alumnus Callum Cooke.

## History

Originally named Great Yarmouth Technical High School, it was opened in 1954 to replace the old Technical High School located in Southtown. It has gone through many different names, including Oriel Grammar School, Oriel High School and Oriel Specialist Maths and Computing College. In c 2007, its houses were: Trinity, Magdalen, Girton and Pembroke. Previously, when the Technical High School and the Oriel Grammar School the houses were Blue - Perebourne, Red - Fastolff, Yellow - Grenfell, and Green - Paget. Also Middleton were black and Nelson wearing white.
The current principal as of February 2013 is Simon Gilbert-Barnham. A new building was added to the site, by Net Zero Buildings, to accommodate the Humanities department. The school is sponsored by the Ormiston Academies Trust.
The school has been changed by a governing body of students called the UVS which changed systems like the canteen in recent years.

## Gresham's Scholarship

The school has a connection with the privately-funded, boarding school Gresham's in Holt, North Norfolk – whereby one student per academic year is offered a fully-funded scholarship to study at Gresham's for two years. There have been 10 scholars so far.

## Teacher Prohibition

On the 7th of June 2013, Mr Gregory Hallam, employed between 2007 and 2011 was banned from teaching indefinitely.
Mr Hallam was found to have:
"a. failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries in his relationships with students, in that he; ii. made comments of a sexual nature on more than one occasion
b. failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries in his relationship with a 14 year old student, Student A, in that he; i. accepted her as a friend on the social networking site ‘Facebook’ despite recognising that it was not appropriate for him to do so; ii. communicated with her via ‘Facebook’ on four occasions; iii. made an inappropriate comment to her via ‘Facebook’, including a comment that he was “watching porn”.
c. failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries in his relationship with a 14 year old student, Student B, in that he accepted her as a friend on the social networking site, ‘Facebook’, despite recognising that it was not appropriate for him to do so;
d. used School ICT equipment to access pornographic material."
Mr Hallam may apply for the Prohibition Order to be set aside, but not until 14 June 2015, 2 years from the date of this order at the earliest. If he does apply, a Panel will meet to consider whether the Prohibition Order should be set aside. Without a successful application, Mr Gregory Hallam remains barred from teaching indefinitely.