Academy’s progress is among best in county

Students and staff have been celebrating the news this week, just four years after the rural secondary school became a member of Tollbar Multi Academy Trust.

The trust took over the former school in 2015, when it was in special measures and on the verge of potential closure, and turned it into Somercotes Academy.

It was refurbished from the ground upwards and the trust brought in new teachers who had trained at its flagship school, Tollbar Academy.

Last year, Somercotes Academy received its first inspection by Ofsted and was rated ‘Good.’ The academy is now reportedly so popular that it is oversubscribed.

A Trust spokesman told the Leader: “Following an impressive set of GCSE results in August, the school knew it was celebrating an extremely positive improvement in students’ progress.

“The Government tables this week prove that, with Somercotes Academy ranked fourth highest out of 38 non-selective schools across the whole county.

“The academy now has a Progress 8 figure of 0.45, with the national average being zero.

“Progress 8 measures a student’s progress from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school.”

The 0.45 figure puts the Academy into the ‘above average’ category of schools across the whole country,

David Hampson, CEO of the trust, said: “This just shows what can be achieved at a small school in a coastal area with the right teaching and commitment to raising standards and ensuring that all children receive a quality education.”

Frances Green, Somecotes Academy Principal, added: “This score is a testament to the hard work from the staff, students and parents along with the continued support of Tollbar MAT. For a coastal, rural school this is an outstanding set of results which we are very proud of.”