The Aylesbury Vale Academy, formerly Quarrendon School, was Buckinghamshire's first Academy. It is a Church of England Academy with the Anglican

Diocese of Oxford The Diocese of Oxford is a Church of England diocese that forms part of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese is led by the Bishop of Oxford (currently Steven Croft), and the bishop's seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. It contains m ...

as the primary sponsor and Buckinghamshire Council as a co-sponsor. The academy's catchment area comprises parts of north Aylesbury, including

Quarrendon Quarrendon or Quarrendon Leas is a medieval English village near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England, which has been depopulated since the 16th century and is now a scheduled monument. Description Quarrendon's site is now a large area of field ...

, Elmhurst and Watermead, as well as the villages of Hardwick, Weedon, Whitchurch,

Oving Oving may refer to: *Oving, Buckinghamshire *Oving, West Sussex Oving is a small village, and civil and ecclesiastical parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. The village lies about east of the city of Chichester. The civil p ...

and

Pitchcott Pitchcott is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is about northeast of Waddesdon, slightly less than south of Winslow and slightly more than north of Aylesbury. It is in the civil parish ...

. It also includes both the Berryfields and Weedon Hill developments.

History

Quarrendon County Secondary School was officially opened by the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

. on 13 June 1958. It was later known as Quarrendon Upper School and finally as Quarrendon School. Quarrendon School officially closed on 10 July 2009. Quarrendon School was placed on

special measures Special measures is a status applied by regulators of public services in Britain to providers who fall short of acceptable standards. In education (England and Wales) Ofsted, the schools inspection agency for England and some British Overseas Ter ...

, for the second time in five years, in September 2004.The school came out of special measures in November 2006, after making satisfactory progress. In 2007, the school was planning to apply to

DCSF Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education. DCSF was replac ...

to become a specialist

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and

Technology College In the United Kingdom, a Technology College is a specialist school that specialises in design and technology, mathematics and science. Beginning in 1994, they were the first specialist schools that were not CTC colleges. In 2008, there were 59 ...

. The school's

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

reopened in September 2008. Buckinghamshire County Council originally planned to close the school in 2009, and to move to a new site, built as part of the Berryfields Major Development Area (MDA), with housing replacing the school on the current site. However, in 2006 there was some doubt as to whether this would happen due to funding issues. In 2007 it was proposed that Quarrendon would become a Church

Academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

, jointly funded and controlled by the Local Authority and the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

. It was also proposed that

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...

, would become a partner. The proposal was accepted in November 2008. Quarrendon became The Aylesbury Vale Academy in 2009 and had £1.5m invested in it over the next few years. Pupils and staff at the school automatically transferred to the new Academy. The Academy staff and students transferred to the new building in September 2013. The school later opened a

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

department.

Site

The Quarrendon site was made up of a series of blocks. * Science block, built in 1971, with Humanities on the first floor and the school Library * English block, opened in 1975, also contains the Sports Hall, Dance/Performing Arts studios and SEN study centre * Administration block with Gymnasium, Assembly Hall, Canteen, main reception and headteachers office * Tower block for modern foreign languages, Mathematics, Business Studies and ICT * Technology block * Music block Most of which have now been demolished after the academy moved to Berryfields. The new building in Berryfields consists of one building for the academy and one for the Berryfields primary school next to it.

Links with other schools and colleges

The Aylesbury Vale Academy has close links with Mandeville Upper School in Aylesbury as part of the Aylesbury School Sports Partnership. The Academy is also a member of the

Aylesbury Vale The Aylesbury Vale (or Vale of Aylesbury) is a geographical region in Buckinghamshire, England, which is bounded by the Borough of Milton Keynes and South Northamptonshire to the north, Central Bedfordshire and the Borough of Dacorum ( Hertfor ...

Leading Edge Partnership The Leading Edge Partnership programme was established in 2003 by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in the United Kingdom. The programme's intention was to encourage Secondary schools in England to work in partnership to solve som ...

which includes The Grange School and

Waddesdon Church of England School Waddesdon Church of England School is a mixed Secondary education#England, Wales and Northern Ireland, secondary school in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire. In September 2011 the school became an Academy (English school), Academy. It ...

. The academy also has close links with

Aylesbury College Aylesbury College is a general further education college in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England. It educates students in a broad range of vocational fields, including Creative Arts, Health and Social Care, Hair and Beauty, Hospitality and C ...

, and sends students there weekly. The academy also maintains links with its feeder

primary schools A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

and hosts an annual primary schools sports day.

Notable alumni

* Emmerson Boyce, footballer * Jennifer Gadirova and

Jessica Gadirova Jessica Gadirova (born 3 October 2004) is an English artistic gymnast of Irish birth and Azerbaijani descent, representing Great Britain internationally. She represented Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal in the ...

Olympic medalist gymnasts>

References

External links

Department for Education Performance Tables 2011
{{authority control Aylesbury Secondary schools in Buckinghamshire Academies in Buckinghamshire Church of England secondary schools in the Diocese of Oxford Educational institutions established in 2009 2009 establishments in England Primary schools in Buckinghamshire