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“30% more of our students are going to a good university.”

“30% more of our students are going to a good university.”

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According to Matt Godwin, Head of Sixth Form, the Academy’s big focus this year has been on encouraging students to take more ownership of, and accountability for, their studies inspiring and resourcing them to achieve higher results and become effective citizens.  Matt said:

“We were extremely pleased to achieve the Academy’s best set of results for eight years at the end of the last academic year, with a 10% increase in students achieving at least three A Level passes, a 100% pass rate, and an increased number of A grades at both A Level and AS.

“The number of those applying to university has gone up from 20% to 50% this year, and we are looking at achieving our best set of results for the second year running.  Teaching is strong and consistently improving, and we regularly partner with other outstanding schools to support our students.

“The Academy has invested £10,000 in iPads for all Year 12 students to use in lessons and outside the Academy, allowing students to keep in constant touch with their teachers (who also have iPads) when they need help.

“Links have been considerably strengthened between the Sixth Form leadership and the students with the introduction of the Student Guild.  Year 12, 13 and 14 students now meet with me regularly to discuss how to improve our Sixth Form. This instils independence and accountability and the new ‘Suggestion Box’ gives students the chance to make anonymous suggestions about how the Academy could be improved.

“Our students have been very committed to raising money for our chosen charity, Macmillan Cancer Care, and at Christmas sold candy canes to other students to raise £150 for the organisation.  Other fund-raising projects are in the pipeline including the 10k Great Birmingham Run.

“Improvements have been made in uniform standards after students decided themselves to stop allowing checked shirts and jeans, but non-uniform days have been introduced to sweeten the pie.

“All of our initiatives this year have contributed to higher aspirations among our students and a big improvement in attendance which now averages 96%.

“With the new online careers platform, U-Explore, and a strong non-qualification curriculum such as cooking, first aid, car maintenance, healthy relationships and financial stability, we are doing all we can to create healthy, caring and effective citizens, ready for the world of work.”