The Giles Academy (formerly the Giles School) is a mixed

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

located in

Old Leake Old Leake is a village and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 2,022. Old Leake is situated approximately north-east from Boston, and on the A52 road between Leverton and Wrangle a ...

in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

History

Giles Secondary Modern School opened its doors to students on Wednesday 10 January 1962. It was built by J.T. Barber of Boston. It was previously a

foundation school In England and Wales, a foundation school is a state-funded school in which the governing body has greater freedom in the running of the school than in community schools. Foundation schools were set up under the School Standards and Framework A ...

administered by

Lincolnshire County Council Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire an ...

. The new school boasts modern facilities and equipment after a £125,000 investment. On 1 September, 2010, the Giles School converted to academy status and was renamed the Giles Academy. However the school continues to coordinate with Lincolnshire County Council for admissions. The Giles Academy offers

GCSEs 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 ...

and BTECs as programmes of study for pupils. The school previously offered

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 ...

education for students to study from a range of

A Levels 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 ...

and further BTECs. In 2005, the school was awarded a specialism in visual arts. As a result, all

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. ...

students are required to undertake at least one art and design related subject for their GCSE studies. In November 2015, the school finished constructing a new swimming pool and held an opening ceremony with former student and former Olympic swimmer Melanie Marshall. In 2016, after 24 years of leadership, Executive Headmaster Chris Walls (the 3rd headteacher in over 50 years of the school's history) retired. Previous Deputy Headmaster Ian Widdows was named as his replacement. Since the departure of Widdows several years later, Lucy Conley has served as the school's headteacher, with Katie Belcher taking on the role of Head of School.

Controversies

In October 2009, the Giles Academy was fined after an unsupervised art student suffered severe burns to her hands after plunging them into a bucket of

plaster of paris Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

. After 12 operations, the student lost all her fingers on one hand, but managed to keep two on the other. In July 2012, a

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

student was briefly banned from sitting GCSE exams after arriving in a girl's uniform. In response, the student presented the headmaster, Chris Walls, with a copy of the UK's Equality Act. Despite this, the student, Ashlyn Parram, was segregated from everyone else taking the exam. On February 14, 2020, following numerous poor reports from

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a Non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament of the U ...

, a termination warning notice was served to the Giles Academy. The report highlighted a number of concerns raised by Ofsted, accusing school leaders of "lack ngcapacity to improve the school" and describing a culture of "low expectation and low aspiration". In response to the Ofsted reports and termination warning notice, local news websites began to claim the school was "failing" amidst rumours that the sixth form would be shutting down. The school had only received 30 applications for students wanting to attend sixth form the following academic year.

Notable alumni

* Melanie Marshall (born 1982) Former Olympic athlete, European Gold medal winning swimmer, now coach to Olympic Gold medal winner Adam Peaty *

Brian Bolland Brian Bolland (; born 26 March 1951)Salisbury, Mark, ''Artists on Comic Art'' (Titan Books, 2000) , p. 11 is a British comics artist. Best known in the United Kingdom as one of the definitive Judge Dredd artists for British comics anthology '' 2 ...

(born 1951), cartoonist * Lewis Brooks (born 1987), former professional football player for

Boston United Boston United Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The club participates in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. The club is known ...

Boston Town Boston Town Football Club is a football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. It is currently a member of the and plays at Tattershall Road. History The club was established as Boston Football Club in 1963 by former officials of Bosto ...

and England U-18 *

Confidential Confidentiality involves a set of rules or a promise usually executed through confidentiality agreements that limits the access or places restrictions on certain types of information. Legal confidentiality By law, lawyers are often required ...

(born 1998) Music artist/singer-songwriter

References

External links

Giles Academy official website
Academies in Lincolnshire Borough of Boston Educational institutions established in 1962 1962 establishments in England Secondary schools in Lincolnshire {{authority control