Addington High applying to become an academy
THE estate's troubled secondary school is to take drastic steps to improve falling standards – by applying to become an academy.
Addington High announced on Friday it was in the early stages of a complete overhaul of the school, which will result in it being taken out of the control of Croydon Council.
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Addington High may soon become an academy
Governors revealed the move to academy status will be "sponsored" by Bromley-based boys' school Ravens Wood, which has a record of turning failing schools around and is an academy itself.
This means Ravens Wood, which has been judged as "outstanding" by Ofsted inspectors, will contribute money and advice in getting the school up and running in its new form.
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Ann Shepherd, chair of Addington High's governing body, said: "We are delighted to be strengthening our partnership with Ravens Wood, which has an outstanding national reputation.
"This is a fantastic opportunity for the current and future pupils of Addington High.
"We are looking forward to working with the Ravens Wood team to help us build on our achievements of the past decade."
Governors hope the school will be up and running as an academy by February 2013, after a turbulent year.
The school has been shrouded in scandal over the past twelve months after an array of embarrassing incidents, which included teaching staff being sacked after pornographic photos were found of them romping in classrooms. In September, the Advertiser reported how a teacher had been sent home for being drunk in charge of a lesson. Then in February, head teacher Tim Davies admitted the school had "failed" its pupils, after it was revealed to have the worst GCSE results in the borough.
The plans for change were started just weeks after the problems came to a head in February, and now the school has been given the green light by Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove to progress to the next stage in the process.
As an academy, the school would be directly funded by central government and independent of Croydon Council.
It would have to teach core subjects, such as maths, English and science, but get greater freedom in selecting which other subjects to teach, and full control of its own budget.
Ravens Wood has already helped a number of other schools transform their performance, including Westwood Girls' College of Language and Arts in South Norwood, which this year had a rise in the number of youngsters achieving five A* to C grades, from 65 per cent to 84 per cent.
Comments
by Johnnyboy360
Saturday, June 30 2012, 1:15AM
“I don't care what anyone says about Addington High, if the pupil wants to learn, they will learn. I am just about to walk out of there with at least 6 A*-C GCSEs. I am a little behind on schedule but that is because teachers having to leave class to deal with pupils who don't want to learn. Or waste of air/space as I call them. Don't slate Addington High when theres pupils out there who went there and got some very decent grades.”
by Pippin109
Friday, June 29 2012, 10:42PM
“At the end of the day all people stem (by stem i mean early years (pre school)) from the product of their environment and it is the teachers job to educate subject knowledge, not to raise and be responsible to show pupils basic moral and good behaviour (basic manners/ life skills), which i think teachers find themselves doing here more, which in turn brings the school down.”
by The3rd
Tuesday, June 26 2012, 12:49PM
“You can have the best teachers in the world at this school, but you will always have the same lazy, feral children attending it.
This school should have closed down years ago. It has always been rough.”
by addingtongirl
Tuesday, June 26 2012, 9:41AM
“The trouble started many years ago when the choice of senior schools was taken away...(overbury)..parents had only one school to chose from ..??? both my children went to Addington High and it was good at the time..
But there will always children who dont want to learn,also they should have a good teaching staff.and head......May be it might be a good idea if they built another school instead of houses/flats and cramming more people on to already over crowded estate.?????????”
by roomster
Tuesday, June 26 2012, 9:15AM
“I just hope that the good children can get the education they deserve whilst some children don't want to learn and shouldn't be in school as they only spoil the teaching for those who want to learn.It is of course important that ALL schools are run properly who ever is running them.”