Harris Academy Purley (formerly ''Haling Manor High School'') is an

academic 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, ...

secondary school in

South Croydon South Croydon in south London is the area surrounding the valley south of central Croydon and running as far south as the former Red Deer public house on the Brighton Road. It is bounded by Waddon to the West and Selsdon and Sanderstead to the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is also part of the

Harris Federation Harris Federation is a multi-academy trust of 52 primary and secondary academies in and around London. They are sponsored by Philip Harris (Lord Harris of Peckham). Description With 52 academies in London and Essex, the Harris Federation educates ...

. Haling Manor High School was one of only fifteen schools in the country to be awarded

specialist status Specialist schools in the United Kingdom (sometimes branded as specialist colleges in England and Northern Ireland) are schools with an emphasis or focus in a specific specialised subject area, which is called a specialism, or alternatively in t ...

as a

music school A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

. It is an outstanding academy for Oxford.

History

Before becoming an 'Academy' the school was named Haling Manor High School. There were two wings to the school for many years: Pampisford Wing which was originally Croydon Secondary Technical School; and the Kendra Wing which was originally South Croydon Secondary Modern School. Origins went further back to what was Waddon Secondary School. (There was a famous entry in the punishment book from that era: 'X' received 6 strokes of the cane for letting off a paper bag during an air raid' - cited by Michael Round, previously headmaster.) The first headteacher of Haling Manor was a Mr. Fox (not to be confused with Richard Fox, Head of Science and Senior Master who spent his entire career at the school) and the first Deputy Head was J.R.Piper. Michael Round replaced Fox and was headmaster 1975-1996 (21 years). His then deputy, John Troake, took over, and was succeeded by Esther Bauman, until August 2009 when the school was passed to the Harris Foundation. Up until 31 August 2009, the school was a comprehensive Secondary High School. From 1 September 2009, it became part of the

of schools, and was renamed to ''Harris Academy Purley'', under the leadership of Carol-Anne Alcock. Alcock had previously been the headteacher at Selsdon High School. Despite its name, the school is situated in

, not Purley.

Performance

The school had a GCSE pass rate of 23% achieving 5 A*-C grades (as of July 2009) including English and Maths and had one of the highest achievement rates in the capital when taking into account CVA (

contextual value added Contextual value added (CVA) is a statistic that was used by the government of the United Kingdom to assess the performance of schools. It was superseded by expected progress and then Progress 8 The statistic is intended to show the progress child ...

) meaning that from relatively low prior attainment pupils show good levels of progress. As Haling Manor High School (Headmaster: Mr John Troake MA) 76% of all year 11 students left in 2008 with 5 A* - C grades, above the national average. 41% of all children left the school with a modern foreign language grade A*-C in 2009 again beating most Croydon schools and the national average. The school is ranked 78th in the country for CVA. This ranks the school in the top 3% of schools for the amount of progress students make. .

References

External links

*
Ofsted reports

Department for Children, Schools and Families - Performance tables
{{authority control Academies in the London Borough of Croydon Educational institutions established in 2009 Purley Secondary schools in the London Borough of Croydon 2009 establishments in England