Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA) (formerly Portslade Community College) is a secondary school led by Dr Alby Barrett with academy status located in

Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...

, in the city of

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...

, England. It was rated Good by Ofsted in December 2016. The school has around 900 pupils. It is part of the Aldridge Education

multi-academy trust Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or school trust is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local autho ...

. In June 2015 the Governors at Portslade Aldridge Community Academy announced the appointment of Elliott Fuller as the new Principal at PACA. The school is involved in the Aldridge Cricket Academy which allows students from

Brighton Aldridge Community Academy Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) is a coeducational academy school in Brighton. It opened on 1 September 2010. The school replaced Falmer High School and is part of the Aldridge Education multi-academy trust. Dylan Davies became Bri ...

or Portslade Aldridge Community Academy to combineacademic studies with an intensive cricket development programme.

and Portslade Aldridge Community Academy also recently partnered up with Latest TV to offer a new digital media academy to students called the Brighton Digital Media Academy (BDMA), which launched in September 2015.

Location and history

Portslade Aldridge Community Academy is located on Chalky Road in Portslade. It was previously located over three sites, however £12.7 million was invested in extending the Chalky Road site to include a dance studio, community library, sixth form and STEM Centre, completed in 2014. * Main school (Chalky Road site) The Chalky Road site was previously known as Portslade Secondary Modern School for Girls, (circa 1947) and then later Mile Oak Girls School, (circa 1954). The school was renamed Portslade Community College in the 1970s, and was opened by

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

, while

Secretary of State for Education The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. ...

Sixth Form Centre

The sixth form centre is now situated on the main Chalky Road site in the new £12.7 million campus that has recently been built. Previously, it was located about a mile away from the main site, at the top of Portslade High Street. This site has also been used in the past for Windlesham School, Portslade Secondary Modern, and Portslade Community College Lower School. The Sixth Form college was previously located within the old Mile Oak

Approved school An approved school was a type of residential institution in the United Kingdom to which young people could be sent by a court, usually for committing offences but sometimes because they were deemed to be beyond parental control. They were modelle ...

in the 1960s and 1970s, in Mile Oak Road.

Move to academy status

In 2009, an OFSTED inspection judged the overall effectiveness of the school "inadequate" and found that "Standards are exceptionally low". A further inspection led to the decision that the school required special measures. The Aldridge Foundation, led by

Rod Aldridge Sir Rodney Malcolm Aldridge (born 7 November 1947) is the founder and former executive chairman of Capita, a British company specialising in business process outsourcing. He is a former Chair of Vinspired, a charity launched in May 2006 aiming ...

, expressed an interest in 2009 in sponsoring PCC to become an academy, in the same way that it had sponsored the academy at

Falmer High School Falmer High School was a community mixed-sex non-denominational comprehensive school for pupils aged 11 to 16 in Brighton, East Sussex, England. It closed on 31 August 2010 and was replaced by Brighton Aldridge Community Academy on the same si ...

. This was approved by the Department for Education and finally agreed by the City Council in February 2011. The council report proposing the closure of PCC to make way for the academy stated that to leave PCC unchanged was "''not considered acceptable as in discussions with the DfE it has been agreed that the school requires significant structural change to improve the results achieved by the school''". The sum of £12.7 million will be available to the academy which will enable the sixth form provision to be moved to the main site at Mile Oak, as well as providing new science facilities.

Academic results

In 2015 they reported their best ever results with 60% of students achieving 5 GCSEs at grade A*-C including English and Maths, 78% achieving A* to C grades in English and 68% achieving A* to C grades in maths. In 2013 there were vast improvements in the results compared to previous years, with 60% of students achieving 5 GCSEs at grade A*-C including English and Maths, placing PACA as one of the top ten most improved schools in the country with an increase of +21%. Previously, it had been as low as 25% of students achieved Level 2 (5+ A*-C) including English and maths GCSEs, in 2009, compared with 44% across all Brighton and Hove schools. In 2010, this had risen to 35%.

Adult education

The adult education centre within the school was shortlisted, as one of four institutions, for an "Education Oscars" event organised by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership. In 2006, 645 adult students gained a qualification with the school.

References

External links

Portslade Aldridge Community Academy official website
{{authority control Secondary schools in Brighton and Hove Academies in Brighton and Hove