The Victory Academy (formerly Bishop of Rochester Academy and Medway Community College) 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) ...

and

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 ...

located in

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

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 ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

History

Bishop of Rochesters Academy was formed in 2010 with the merging of Medway Community College or MCC, with Chatham South. MCC had previously been Fort Luton High School for Boys and Christchurch High School(girls). It changed its name to The Victory Academy when it severed its ties with the Church of England, and was refactored into the Thinking Schools Academy Trust in May 2015

Governance

Medway Community College was a community school directly controlled by

Medway Council Medway Council is the local authority of Medway in Kent, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. The council was created on 1 April 1998 and replaced Rochester-upon-Med ...

. The school converted into a

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 ...

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 September 2010, and was renamed

Bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was foun ...

Academy. The school was sponsored by the

Diocese of Rochester The Diocese of Rochester is a Church of England diocese in the English county of Kent and the Province of Canterbury. The cathedral church of the diocese is Rochester Cathedral in the former city of Rochester. The bishop's Latin episcopal signat ...

Canterbury Christ Church University , mottoeng = The truth shall set you free , established = 2005 – gained University status 1962 – teacher training college , type = Public , religious_affiliation = Church of England , city ...

and Medway Council. In 2015 the academy changed its name due to severing ties with the

, and is now sponsored by the Thinking Schools Academy Trust.

The building

It is located on Magpie Hall Road, at the crest of dry valley that cuts the chalkland, this constrains the site which still had to host the old school during construction. The school was designed by

Nicholas Hare Architects Nicholas Hare Architects is a UK architectural practice, with a portfolio of award-winning projects. These include schools, higher education, refurbishment, commercial projects, and buildings for the arts. Founded by Nicholas Hare in 1977, the pr ...

using the same construction techniques at Hare's other two Medway buildings:

Brompton Academy Brompton Academy is an 11–18 mixed, secondary school and sixth form with academy status in Gillingham, Kent, England. It is part of the University of Kent Academies Trust. History Brompton Academy was originally called The Great Lines Sch ...

and

Strood Academy Strood Academy is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in Strood in the English county of Kent. History Strood Academy was formed in September 2009 following the closure of Chapter School and Templ ...

. The Victory Academy is built around a central courtyard with a range of outdoor spaces used for performance and teaching. The building is constructed from prefabricated sections. These include brick-clad pre-cast concrete sandwich panels for external walls, pre-cast columns and pre-cast floor planks.

Curriculum

The Victory 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, while students in the sixth form have the option 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. The school also operates a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

stream for academically gifted pupils.

References

External links

*
Thinking Schools Trust official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Victory Academy Secondary schools in Medway Chatham, Kent Academies in Medway