This article details a number of defunct schools that were once located in Sandwell in the West Midlands of England.
The school buildings were situated on Pope's Lane to the south of the town centre.
Plans to close the school were first drawn up in 2001, but these were initially shelved in July of that year after a re-think by Sandwell council officials.
[5] The school featured in an edition of On The Record, the BBC's flagship political TV programme, in 1989.
By the late 1980s, numbers on the school roll were falling and Sandwell council decided that it was no longer viable and would have to close.
By the early 1980s, however, extensions were added to the main Alexandra site on Alexandra Road which meant that the younger pupils only used the Park Lane buildings (by this stage in a deteriorating condition) on a part-time basis.
After persistent lobbying particularly by the headmaster Mr George Lloyd that the premises were unfit for a Grammar school, a new school was built at a site on Hawes Lane in Rowley Regis and opened in September 1962, providing education for pupils aged 11 to 18 years.
[1][permanent dead link] The new St Michael's Church of England High School opened on the site in September 2011 to replace the existing buildings on Throne Road, which were later demolished.
The new school opened its doors early in January 2007, at the beginning of the Spring term.
The school made the headlines for all the wrong reasons in February 2007 when teacher Kenneth Paskin, 59, was found guilty of sexual offences against a 13-year-old girl who had been placed in his care some time earlier.