Aylesbury Vale Academy

The Aylesbury Vale Academy

Motto	Success Beyond Belief
Established	2009
Type	Academy
Acting Principal	Mrs Fiona Froment
Specialisms	Science & Technology with ICT
Location	Weedon Road Aylesbury Buckinghamshire HP19 9PG England
Local authority	Buckinghamshire
DfE URN	135879
Ofsted	Reports
Students	800
Gender	Mixed
Ages	11–19
Colleges	Faraday      Franklin      Nobel
Website	www.theacademy.me

Coordinates: 51°49′36″N 0°49′22″W / 51.8268°N 0.8228°W / 51.8268; -0.8228

The Aylesbury Vale Academy, formerly Quarrendon School, was Buckinghamshire's first Academy. It is a Church of England Academy with the Anglican Diocese of Oxford as the primary sponsor and Buckinghamshire County Council as a co-sponsor.

The academy's catchment area comprises parts of north Aylesbury, including Quarrendon, Elmhurst and Watermead, as well as the villages of Hardwick, Weedon, Whitchurch, Oving and Pitchcott. It also includes both the Berryfields and Weedon Hill developments.^[1]

History

Quarrendon County Secondary School was officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh.^[2] on 13 June 1958.^[3] It was later known as Quarrendon Upper School and finally as Quarrendon School. Quarrendon School officially closed on 10 July 2009.

Quarrendon School was placed on special measures, for the second time in five years, in September 2004. This was followed with regular inspections by Ofsted, which included interviews with pupils during lessons to determine their attitude towards the school and the teaching standards. The school came out of special measures in November 2006, after making satisfactory progress due to the improvements, which the school had implemented.^[4] The school is now planning to apply to DCSF to become a specialist Science and Technology College.^[5]

The school's sixth form reopened in September 2008.

Buckinghamshire County Council originally planned to close the school in 2009, and to move to a new site, built as part of the Berryfields Major Development Area (MDA), with housing replacing the school on the current site. However, in 2006 there was some doubt as to whether this would happen due to funding issues.^[6]

In 2007 it was proposed that Quarrendon would become a Church Academy, jointly funded and controlled by the Local Authority and the Church of England. It was also proposed that Brunel University, would become a partner.^[7][8][9]

The proposal was accepted in November 2008. Quarrendon became The Aylesbury Vale Academy in 2009 and will have £1.5m invested in it over the next few years. Pupils and staff at the school automatically transferred to the new Academy. Building work on the new Academy is due to start at the Berryfields site in April 2012 and is due for completion in summer next year. The Academy staff and students will transfer to the new building in September 2013.^[10]

Site

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The site is made up of a series of blocks.

• Science block, built in 1971, with Humanities on the first floor and the school Library
• English block, opened in 1975, also contains the Sports Hall, Dance/Performing Arts studios and SEN study centre
• Administration block with Gymnasium, Assembly Hall, Canteen, main reception and headteachers office
• Tower block for modern foreign languages, Mathematics, Business Studies and ICT
• Technology block
• Music block

Links with other schools and colleges

The Aylesbury Vale Academy has close links with Mandeville Upper School in Aylesbury as part of the Aylesbury School Sports Partnership.^[11] The Academy is also a member of the Aylesbury Vale Leading Edge Partnership^[12] which includes The Grange School and Waddesdon Church of England School.

The academy also has close links with Aylesbury College, and sends students there weekly.

The academy also maintains links with its feeder primary schools and hosts an annual primary schools sports day.

Notable alumni

• Emmerson Boyce, footballer^[13]

References

External links

• Department for Education Performance Tables 2011