Harris Academy Falconwood (formerly Westwood Secondary School and Westwood College) is a city academy in

Falconwood Falconwood is an area of south east London within both the London Boroughs of Bexley and Greenwich. It is north east of Eltham and south west of Welling. The local area Falconwood forms part of the Falconwood and Welling ward in the London Boro ...

, London, England. The school is a mixed gender school and accepts students based on various mental attributes.

History

In September 2007 Harris CTC was integrated into 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 ...

. This Federation was set up by the same

Lord Harris of Peckham Philip Charles Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham (born 15 September 1942), is an English businessman and politician. A prominent Conservative Party donor, Harris is a member of the House of Lords. He is the sponsor of a large multi-academy trus ...

and has been set up as a coalition of several secondary schools in London and Southeast England. Harris Academy Falconwood is part of the Harris Federation Sixth Form. In 2013, a number of staff lost their jobs at the school following evidence that BTEC science

coursework Coursework (also course work, especially British English) is work performed by students or trainees for the purpose of learning. Coursework may be specified and assigned by teachers, or by learning guides in self-taught courses. Coursework can e ...

(GCSE-level) for 69 pupils had been written by Year 12 students. The Academy has long had a reputation for high staff turnover, with forty staff leaving in 2014 alone.https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/13/schools-harris-academy-teachers-ofsted In 2019 numerous Harris Academies were accused of 'gaming' the system through the practice of entering entire cohorts for the ESOL qualification, which is aimed at students who have English as an additional language (EAL), Harris Falconwood entered the whole of their Year 11 cohort (177 students) despite only having 15 EAL students. This was shown to be common practice across the Federation. Former pupils at Westwood Secondary School include dance instructor and television presenter

Len Goodman Leonard Gordon Goodman (born 25 April 1944) is an English professional ballroom dancer, dance judge, and coach. He has appeared as head judge on the television dance programmes ''Strictly Come Dancing'', a programme where various celebrities c ...

, who lived at

Blackfen Blackfen is an area of south-east London, England, north of Sidcup in the London Borough of Bexley. Prior to 1965 it was in the county of Kent. "Blackfen" means a black, marshy area. The soil is dark and fertile and the area around Blackfen R ...

and who was a member of the school

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

team. In March 2020, academy had to close for the rest of the academic year due to national lockdown caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

(except for key workers' children). In September 2020 Terrie Askew retired as Principal, having led the school since 2008. Tom Street, a long-serving employee of the Harris Federation, took up post as Head of Harris Academy Falconwood. In January 2021, academy had to close again until March due to 2nd national lockdown caused by

(except for key workers' children). In March 2021, the government’s National Cyber Security Centre issued an alert about a spike in ransomware attacks affecting schools. Despite the academy's software and systems being fully updated at the time, the Harris Federation’s servers have been attacked. A ransomware attack means that cyber-criminals have accessed Harris Federation’s IT systems and encrypted, or hidden, their contents.

References

External links

Welling Website
{{authority control Academies in the London Borough of Bexley Educational institutions established in 2008 2008 in London 2008 establishments in England Secondary schools in the London Borough of Bexley