First purpose-built Yorkshire academy celebrates ‘outstanding’ Ofsted verdict

Trinity Academy, in Thorne, has been praised Ofsted for the care and support it provides to pupils and for its academic attainment.

Principal Ian Brew said the new report showed he education of young people in the town had come on “quite a journey” since the academy opened.

The school was at the forefront of the academy movement under the last Government and caused some controversy when it first opened in 2005 backed by the Emmanuel Schools Foundation – a charity with strong Christian values funded by millionaire Sir Peter Vardy. It was opened to replace Thorne Grammar School under Labour’s academy programme which saw schools set up in new buildings to transform standards in deprived areas. Since then it has delivered consistent improvements in results and won plaudits from Ministers and Ofsted.

Two years after it opened it was named as the most improved academy in the country and now it has been given the highest possible rating from the schools watchdog.

The Ofsted inspection report says; “A combination of outstanding care, guidance and support, an extensive and varied curriculum and teaching that is predominantly good, results in the students making exceptional progress over the course of their time at the academy.

“In the time since the last inspection, students’ attainment has been above average overall. The most recent set of examination results and the academy’s own high quality data on the students’ current levels indicate that attainment is close to being high.”

Mr Brew said: “The inspectors noted that all groups of students achieve well above national average, and that every child feels safe. Besides the undoubted academic achievements the inspectors’ judgment was heavily influenced by the character of the students who have come to embody the core values of the academy.

“They were clearly impressed by our students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.”

Mr Brew also thanked parents for their contribution to the academy’s success. “The inspectors were amazed by the sheer volume of parental responses to the Ofsted questionnaire and that they gave overwhelmingly positive comments.”