Tabor Academy is a

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) ...

with Academy status located in Braintree,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

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 ...

. Its executive headteacher is Anita Johnson, the CEO of the

Loxford School Loxford School (formerly Loxford School of Science and Technology) is a mixed all-through school with academy status located in the Ilford area of the London Borough of Redbridge, England. The school's current headteacher is Anita Johnson. Th ...

Trust and the Headteacher of Loxford School, and Tabor's headteacher is Sarah Speller, who took over from Elizabeth Robinson in 2018.

History

The school started life in the early part of the twentieth century on Panfield Lane. Nominally co-educational, girls and boys were separated; the school effectively was split into two parts. Later with the introduction of the 1944 Education Act the school opened as a newly established secondary modern school and eventually became a fully coeducational school. It was eventually renamed the Margaret Tabor Secondary Modern School. The Tabor part of the name derived from the then local and prominent Tabor family who were major woollen merchants in the 16th century. The family shield was used as the badge of the school, and can still be seen today decorating Bocking bridge near the Old Convent, and on many old buildings in Braintree and Bocking. In September 1971 with the introduction of comprehensive education, the school was merged with the local

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 ...

to form The Tabor High School. The school replaced the Tabor High School as the secondary school for west Braintree and surrounding villages and the old Senior section site was knocked down in 2004. In 2007 it had science speciality status and was branded as Tabor Science College. The school converted to Academy status in January 2013. It first joined the Lilac Sky Trust. It refactored the

Trust based in Ilford. As of 2015, Tabor Academy is also a partner in the

Braintree Sixth Form Braintree Sixth Form is a school Sixth Form centre for educating 16- to 19-year-olds in Braintree, Essex, England. It is located approximately 15 miles east of Stansted Airport in north Essex. Up until 1981 post 16 education in Braintree took pl ...

which opened on the

Notley High School Notley High School & Braintree Sixth Form is situated in Braintree in Essex, England. The school was built in the early 1970s. Notley High School was an 11–16 school until September 2009, when Braintree Sixth Form opened for 16- to 19-year-old ...

site in September 2009.

Description

This is a smaller than average secondary school with fewer than 1000 students. It had legacy issues with low level disruption that has depressed the results but the trust have addressed these and in the 2016 Ofsted Inspection it was rated as a 'Good School'. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under th
Open Government Licence v3.0
. © Crown copyright

Buildings

The new school building was first built around 1992, sharing facilities with Braintree Leisure Centre. Since its opening, it has been added to in stages. The original site contains 30 classrooms and was intended to be the new building for the Senior section of the Tabor Science College located a short walk away. The second stage was completed when the Senior and Middle schools merged and contains a similar number of classrooms. The Third stage (a new building built for the languages faculty was completed in the summer of 2006, adding an extra 5 classrooms and a new faculty office and locker space.

Academics

Virtually all maintained schools and academies follow the National Curriculum, and are inspected by Ofsted on how well they succeed in delivering a 'broad and balanced curriculum'. Schools endeavour to get all students to achieve the English Baccalaureate(EBACC) qualification- this must include core subjects a modern or ancient foreign language, and either History or Geography. The school operates a three-year,

Key Stage 3 Key Stage 3 (commonly abbreviated as KS3) is the legal term for the three years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9, when pupils are aged between 11 and 14. In Northern Ireland the ...

where all the core National Curriculum subjects are taught. Year 7 and Year 8 study core subjects: English, Mathematics, Science. The following foundation subjects are offered: Art, Technology, Computing, Drama, RE, French, German,(formerly Spanish), Geography and History, Music and PE. In years 10 and 11, that is in

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 study a core of English Language, English Literature, Mathematics, Science: Double or Triple, PSCHE, RE and Physical Education. Pupils select 1 Language (French, German ), 1 Humanity (Geography or History). Students have two options chosen from a pool of Art, Business Studies, Food Preparation and Nutrition, Computer Studies, Dance, Design and Technology, Drama, Geography, History, Media Studies, Music, Photography, Physical Education, Sociology, Triple Science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics).

References

External links

Loxford School Trust official website

BBC NEWS league tables for Tabor Science College
{{authority control Secondary schools in Essex Academies in Essex Braintree, Essex Educational institutions established in 1944 1944 establishments in England