In March 2013 Ofsted carried out a 2 day inspection and judged us to be outstanding in every category.
It continues a remarkable success story for Sidney Stringer Academy, which replaced the former Sidney Stringer School that was badly damaged by fire in 2007.
Inspectors found that many of its students come to the Academy with low reading, writing and mathematical skills but make outstanding progress to achieve above average results in GCSE examinations. Results in all of the English Baccalaureate subjects are also significantly above the national average.
The academy was also praised for the quality of its teaching which is consistently good or outstanding, where students “relish the imaginatively planned, vibrant lessons provided.” 95% of lessons were judged to be good or better and 45% were outstanding. The lead inspector told us that this was the best teaching and learning profile that he had ever seen.
The Ofsted report reads: “Behaviour is outstanding. Students from different backgrounds work very well together, have a very positive attitude to learning and feel safe. They are courteous and immensely proud of their academy noting that the academy allows them ‘to be leaders of their own learning’.
Student support was also highlighted as a strength “The academy looks after the students exceptionally well” and the progress of students who need additional help is “outstanding”.
The report also praised leadership stating that “Outstanding leadership exists at every level. The leadership team has driven forward every aspect of academy life with vision, shared values and remorseless energy.”
This is such a glowing report and being rated as outstanding by Ofsted is a testament to everyone connected with the school.
I am very proud of all of our staff and of course our students. Sidney Stringer Academy has successfully built upon the solid foundations of the former Sidney Stringer School. This community deserves an outstanding school and now it has one.
Collectively everyone here has worked tremendously hard over the last few years and Ofsted’s findings, on top of the excellent exam achievements of our students, are the fruits of that labour.” This is such an exciting time to be a student at Sidney Stringer Academy. We are currently in the top 2% of schools in the country for student progress and our Maths department is in the top 1%.
W Tomes
April 2013