RSA Academy Arrow Vale (formerly Arrow Vale High School) is a co-educational

upper school Upper schools in the UK are usually schools within secondary education. Outside England, the term normally refers to a section of a larger school. England The three-tier model Upper schools are a type of secondary school found in a minority of ...

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 ...

with academy status located in

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

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 ...

. The school is sponsored by the

Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

opening as an RSA Academy in September 2012. The school is a member of the RSA Family of Academies. It currently has around 620 students on roll with 180 in the sixth form.

Academic results

Results in the predecessor school were flat lined at 29% 5A*CEM in 2007, 2008 and 2009. This rose to 33% in 2010. Change in leadership then led to series of step changes in results. In 2011, 49% of students achieved this benchmark, with 59% in 2012. In 2013, having converted to an RSA Academy, this rose to well above national figures at 64%. Students achieving 5A*G grades rose from 94% (national average) in 2012 to 99.5% in 2013. Under the new government measure of best 8 subjects including English and maths, the progress the students made from key stage 2 to 4 was 1044 (national 1000) which represents outstanding progress. The school's focus on disadvantaged students prompted a visit in December 2013 by The Minister of State for Schools,

David Laws David Anthony Laws (born 30 November 1965) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Yeovil from 2001 to 2015. A member of the Liberal Democrats, in his third parliament he served at the outset as a Cabinet Mini ...

. Laws was interviewed by the ''Redditch Standard'' saying "with strong leadership and desire there was no reason schools could not deliver more for their students. There are too many communities and schools in the past, and some still around today, where the aspiration hasn’t been high enough and people often think because schools serve a disadvantaged catchment that is an excuse or justification for having low levels of performance. This is a brilliant example of a school that just a few years ago was producing quite unimpressive results and yet with the right leadership and the right teaching has totally transformed the outcomes for young people.”

Academy conversion

In September 2012 the school began its first year under academy status.

3-tier system

is one of the few areas of the country where the 3-tier system of first, middle and high schools still exists. RSA Arrow Vale is a high school. The RSA have created the first structural change in Redditch to remove the negative issues in terms of performance of students, by bringing the main feeder school to Arrow Vale, Ipsley CE Middle School, into the Redditch RSA Academies Trust, thereby enabling streamlined education for young people from aged 9 to 19. The schools share resources and staffing; Ipsley became Ipsley CE RSA Academy in January 2013 and has seen very rapid improvements in outcomes for students.

Notable alumni

Jacqui Smith Jacqueline Jill Smith (born 3 November 1962) is a British broadcaster, political commentator and former Labour Party politician. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Redditch from 1997 to 2010. She served as Home Secretary from 2007 to 2009 ...

, MP for Redditch and former British

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

, taught Economics at Arrow Vale in the 1980s.New Minister of State for Health
, UK Transplant Bulletin, Autumn 2001 * Jimmy Davis, footballer, was a pupil at the school from 1994 until 1999. He began his career with

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, playing his only first-team game for them in November 2001, and had just been loaned to

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

when he died in a car crash in August 2003.

References

External links

RSA Academy Arrow Vale website

Arrow a Vale Arts website celebrating and selling the students art work internationally
{{authority control Upper schools in Worcestershire Academies in Worcestershire Redditch