Brooke Weston Academy is an
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 ...
in
Corby
Corby is a town in North Northamptonshire, England, located north-east of Northampton. From 1974 to 2021, the town served as the administrative headquarters of the Borough of Corby. At the 2011 Census, the built-up area had a population of 5 ...
,
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
, United Kingdom, teaching pupils from ages 11 to 18. It has consistently placed very highly in
GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
league tables and has an above average value added score at
Key Stage 4
Key Stage 4 (KS4) is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs, and other examinations, in maintained schools in England normally known as Year 10 and Year 11, when pupils are aged between 14 and 16 by August 31. ...
.
The value added score for
Key Stage 5
Key Stage 5 is a label used to describe the two years of education for students aged 16–18, or at sixth form, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, aligning with previous Key Stages as labelled for the National Curriculum.
Key Stage 5 is also ...
is below average nationally, but slightly higher than the Northamptonshire average. Attainment on entry is well above average and the proportions of pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities or eligible for
free school meal
A school meal or school lunch (also known as hot lunch, a school dinner, or school breakfast) is a meal provided to students and sometimes teachers at a school, typically in the middle or beginning of the school day. Countries around the world ...
s are much lower than average.
Background
Founded in 1991, the school was opened as a
City Technology College
In England, a City Technology College (CTC) is an urban all-ability specialist schoolWalter (2007), p. 6 for students aged 11 to 18 specialising in science, technology and mathematics. They charge no fees and are independent of local authority ...
. The college's catchment area includes
Corby
Corby is a town in North Northamptonshire, England, located north-east of Northampton. From 1974 to 2021, the town served as the administrative headquarters of the Borough of Corby. At the 2011 Census, the built-up area had a population of 5 ...
,
Kettering
Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of Ket ...
and surrounding towns and villages. Two businessmen, Hugh de Capell Brooke, a local landowner, and
Garry Weston
Garfield Howard "Garry" Weston CBE (April 28, 1927 – February 15, 2002) was a Canadian businessman who was active in the United Kingdom.
Early life
Born in Toronto, Ontario, he was the son of Reta (née Howard) and W. Garfield Weston, owner ...
, owner of
Associated British Foods
Associated British Foods plc (ABF) is a British multinational food processing and retailing company headquartered in London, England. Its ingredients division is the world's second-largest producer of both sugar and baker's yeast and a major pr ...
, donated land and funded the initial building of the school respectively, along with additional grants from the
W. Garfield Weston Foundation. The school opened in September 1991 under the name Brooke City Technology College. The name was changed 18 months later to reflect the continued support offered from the Weston Foundation.
Principals
* Gareth Newman
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
: 1991 - 1999. Was appointed a
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 1997 in recognition of his services to education. The library at Brooke Weston is named after him in his honour.
* Sir Peter Simpson
OBE: 1999 - 2007. Was appointed an
OBE in recognition of his services to the school. He was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
in the
Queen's Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...
2011.
* Trish Stringer: 2007–2015 (former Executive Principal for the Brooke Weston Trust)
* Sam Strickland (Associate Principal): 2015 - 2016
* Peter Kirkbride: 2016–2020
* Shaun Strydom 2020–present
Information technology
The school makes use of
electronic whiteboard
An interactive whiteboard (IWB), also known as interactive board or smart board, is a large interactive display board in the form factor of a whiteboard. It can either be a standalone touchscreen computer used independently to perform tasks a ...
s in all classrooms, learning bases and study rooms. Every pupil and member of staff has their own user accounts and storage areas.
The school was one of the first to take on board the
GNVQ
A General National Vocational Qualification, or GNVQ, was a certificate of vocational education in the United Kingdom. The last GNVQs were awarded in 2007.
The qualifications related to occupational areas in general, rather than any specific ...
IT, in place of the
GCSE
The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...
. The transitional year of 1998 saw other subject classes cancelled for entire week blocks to bring the pupils into the new qualification having previously studied the GCSE. In addition many Design & Technology classes were cancelled to be replaced with IT classes.
Online curriculum
The school produced and sold an ‘online curriculum’. This consists of a range of interactive learning materials and online tasks which all relate to various subject areas. The school's subsidiary company, @tain, sells access to the content to other schools. In addition, the school also provided training days which allowed teaching staff from other schools to attend seminars at the school and learn the methods in which the school taught the courses provided on its online curriculum and how to maximise the effectiveness of using it in a classroom environment.
With the redevelopment of the vocational courses in 2010, Brooke Weston decided to not produce materials for the new specifications.
School traditions
Each year, the school holds its annual sports day at Corby Triangle near
Rockingham where it displays almost all popular track and field disciplines.
Brooke Weston holds an annual prizegiving in September of each year, celebrating the achievements of the pupils for the previous academic year. Prizes are awarded in each year for individual subjects (with the exception of
Year 11
Year 11 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is the eleventh or twelfth year of core education. For some Year 11 students it is their final year ...
and
Year 13
Year 13 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England and Wales, Northern Ireland and New Zealand. It is sometimes the thirteenth and final year of compulsory education, or alternatively a year of post-compulsory e ...
), pupil of the year, and also recognition for academic success in GCSE and A Level.
Other facilities
The school also has a
Design Technology suite, with
CAD/CAM
CAD/CAM refers to the integration of Computer-aided design (CAD) and Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). Both of these require powerful computers. ''CAD'' software helps designers and draftsmen; ''CAM'' "reduces manpower costs" in the manufactur ...
facilities and a laser cutter. The CAD/CAM suite also includes an A3 colour laser printer. The department also includes two workshops including
CNC
Numerical control (also computer numerical control, and commonly called CNC) is the automated control of machining tools (such as drills, lathes, mills, grinders, routers and 3D printers) by means of a computer. A CNC machine processes a ...
lathes, wood-turning lathes, metal working lathes, scroll saws and pillar drills, jig-saws and
clamps
Clamp may refer to:
Tools and devices
*Brick clamp, an early method of baking bricks
*Clamp (tool), a device or tool used to hold objects in a fixed relative position (many types listed)
**C-clamp
**C-clamp (stagecraft)
**Riser clamp, a device u ...
. The department also features facilities for textiles and
sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabr ...
as well as an area for pupils to review and edit design plans digitally using a range of programmes. It was refurbished in 2008 at a cost of £250,000. The school also has its own video editing studio with
chroma-key
Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...
(blue-screen) facility.
Recent development
In September 2008, Brooke Weston converted to an
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 ...
. £5 million of Government money has been invested in the school, which has resulted in the construction of a new Creative and Digital Arts Centre. Opened on 9 October 2009, this has expanded the school's music and drama performing facilities alongside a new TV studio and kitchens, which will allow Food Technology to be taught. The entire school building underwent a refurbishment to coincide with the opening of the new department.
Controversy
In January 2013, Brooke Weston issued an apology after an email criticising a pyjama day was accidentally sent from vice principal, Mark Willimott, to children's cancer charity 'Chelsea's Angels', who suggested the event. Willimott had intended to forward the email with his comments to a colleague, but inadvertently addressed it to charity founder Michelle Tompkins too, writing:
"AM I MISSING SOMETHING??? FYI although are they aiming for a paedophile's paradise????"
In August 2015, Willimott was arrested for possessing and distributing indecent images of children. He pleaded guilty to all four charges facing him, including one count of making 30,546 indecent images of children, one count of making 773 indecent images of children, one count of distributing 128 indecent images, and one count of possession of an extreme pornographic image showing the act of intercourse with an animal. None of the images were of children at Brooke Weston. In April 2016, Willimott was sentenced to two years in prison for the charge of distributing images, eight months in prison for each of the charges of making images, and one month in prison for a further charge of possessing an extremely indecent image involving an animal. A statement from Brooke Weston said:
"Brooke Weston Academy is shocked and appalled by Mark Willimott’s conduct. The police investigation determined that none of the activity took place using school equipment or involved any of our pupils. The safety of pupils at the Academy has and will always be our paramount concern and we have robust safeguarding procedures which have been complied with.”
Brooke Weston Trust
The school is in partnership with the
Corby Business Academy
Corby Business Academy is a non-selective, co-educational state-funded secondary school in Corby, Northamptonshire, for the ages of 11–18 years. It is one of a group of Academy
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀ ...
, which has replaced the former Corby Community College. The former principal of Corby Business Academy, Dr. Andrew Campbell, is the Chief Executive of the
Academy Trust
An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements. Most ...
, with
principals Simon Underwood and Nicola Treacy (Joint Heads of School) and Peter Kirkbride respectively in charge of each school.
In September 2009, the Partnership became partly responsible for the running of the new
Kettering Science Academy
Kettering Science Academy is a secondary and sixth form school in Kettering, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county i ...
. This 3-18 school replaced both the Ise Community College and Henry Gotch Primary School.
Academic performance
2007
86% of Brooke Weston pupils achieved the equivalent of 5 or more A*-C GCSEs including English and maths.
2008
Brooke Weston achieved a 100%
A level
The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...
pass rate.
86% of Brooke Weston pupils achieved the equivalent of 5 or more A*-C GCSEs including English and maths (100% A*-C GCSEs).
2009
81% of Brooke Weston pupils achieved the equivalent of 5 or more A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths. It also achieved a 100% A*-C pass rate.
Nearly a quarter of all 183 pupils achieved 10 or more A* or A grades, and exactly a third of all grades awarded were an A or A*. Three pupils achieved 17 A* and A grades (including GNVQ ICT), and 2 pupils achieved the equivalent of 19 GCSEs.
In A Level, Brooke Weston achieved a 100% pass rate, including 48% of those being an A or B grade. In five subjects, all entries received A grade achievements.
2010
Pupils at Brooke Weston achieved an 86% pass rate of A*-C grades in GCSE including Maths and English. 38% of all grades awarded were A* or A, and seven pupils achieved 17 GCSEs each. Top performing pupils achieved 15 A* or A grades. Brooke Weston also achieved its, at the time, best ever A Level results this year, with a 100% pass rate. 61% of grades awarded were A*/A+B, and the average
UCAS point score for each pupil also increased significantly.
2011
84% of pupils achieved 5 or more A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths, with 37% of all GCSE grades awarded either an A* or A grade.
On average pupils attained 15 GCSEs.
100% of pupils passed all the A Levels they sat. 68% of all A Level exams were graded at A*/A or B (up 7% from the year before), with 6% of all exam entries being awarded an A* grade. The average UCAS point score increased to 379 (equivalent to 3 A grades per pupil), up from 334 from the previous year.
2012
87% of pupils achieved 5 or more A*-C GCSE passes including English and Maths, a 3% increase on the year before. The 100% GCSE pass rate was extended to a ninth year. 41% of all entries were graded at A* or A.
64% of A Level exams were graded at A*/A or B, a decrease of 4% from the previous year. The average points score also decreased marginally to 361, which remains as the equivalent of three A grades. However, there was a 4% increase in the number of A* grades awarded, up to 10% in 2012.
2013
72% of pupils achieved 5 or more A*-C grade GCSE passes including English and Maths, a significant drop from previous years.
On average, each pupil achieved 14 GCSEs graded A*-C, and 47 pupils achieved at least 8 A* or A grades. 40% of entries were awarded A* or A.
The school's, at the time, best ever A-Level results were celebrated in 2013.
2014
84% of pupils achieved 5 or more A*-C GCSE passes, up 8% from the year before. Excluding ICT, 21% of all entries were graded at A* or A.
Of the year 11 cohort, 73% gained a GCSE in Modern Foreign Languages, a significant improvement compared to previous years. 92% of entries for Mathematics were graded A*-C, replicating the school's record.
2014 was a year of change in GCSE examinations; had previous accountability measures been used, 100% of pupils would have secured 5 A*-C grades, and 39% of all entries awarded A* or A.
61% of all A-Level entries were awarded A*, A or B, and 86% of all entries graded A*-C. The overall average point score was 336 UCAS points, equating to a grade profile of AAB.
17 pupils achieved a profile of 3 A*/A grades, and 3 pupils a profile of 4 A*/A grades. 39% of all entries were awarded A* or A.
2015
90% of pupils achieved 5 A*-C grades at GCSE, with 84% of the cohort securing English, Maths and at least three other GCSEs. 28% of all grades awarded were either A* or A. The academy celebrated its best ever A-Level Results. It was also the sixth consecutive year that pupils have performed at an outstanding level, with an average score per pupil of 381 UCAS points, indicating that, on average, pupils achieved three A grades each.
2016
83% of year 11 pupils secured A* to C grades, or equivalent, in five or more subjects at GCSE. 77% of the cohort secured English, mathematics and at least three other GCSEs or Level 2 qualifications. Almost a quarter of all grades awarded were A*/A or Distinction.
55% of all A-Level entries were graded at A*/A/B and 83% of grades were A*- C. The overall average point score per pupil was 325, indicating an ABB profile.
2017
93% of year 11 students secured grades 9 to 4 in the newly reformed English qualifications and 88% of the cohort secured the same in Mathematics. Over a quarter of all grades were awarded A*/A, or the new equivalent 9 to 7 measure.
62% of all A-Level entries were graded at A*/A/B, marking an increase of six per cent from last year. 16 subjects of the 27 offered at Brooke Weston Academy increased their A*/A/B outcomes for students.
2018
85% of Year 11 students secured grades 9 to 4 in English, 85% in maths and 91% in science. The new ‘strong pass’ or grade 5 also saw outcomes of 73% attained in English, 69% in mathematics and 82% in science. 32% of all grades were awarded A*/A, or the new equivalent 9 to 7 measure, and over 8% achieved the new ‘A**’ grade 9 with 126 grades awarded across all subjects.
81% of A-Level students achieved A*-C across all subjects and 53% of all entries were graded at A*/A/B at A Level only. Nine subjects increased their A*/A/B outcomes for students in comparison to last year.
2019
86% of Year 11 students secured grades 9 to 4 in English and 87% in Mathematics. The new ‘strong pass’ or grade 5 also saw outcomes of 72% in English and 73% in Mathematics. Almost a third of all grades were awarded 9 to 7 Grades. Over 40% of students achieved the English Baccalaureate at Grade 5 or above, more than double the national average.
85% of A-Level students achieved A*-C and almost 60% of all entries were graded at A*/A/B.
References
External links
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Educational institutions established in 1991
Academies in North Northamptonshire
Former city technology colleges
Secondary schools in North Northamptonshire
1991 establishments in England