Wey Valley School and Sports College

The Wey Valley Academy is a secondary school with academy status in Broadwey, Weymouth, in the county of Dorset, in southern England.

The school is a member of the Chesil Education Partnership .[1]

As a specialist sports college the school offered a wide sporting curriculum and held the responsibility of leading the west Dorset School Sports Partnership.[2] The school is also highly involved in outdoor education and runs many trips and activities and is a key contributor to Leading Edge Expeditions linked to the Dorset Expeditionary Society.

The school results (Level 2 threshold or more commonly known as 5 A*-C) have been variable but have been improving since 2005

2003 46%[3] 2004 49%[3] 2005 47%[4] 2006 48%[5] 2007 49%[6] 2008 50%[7] 2009 63%[8]

A second measure was introduced in 2006 which saw school performance also measured against 5 A*-C grades including English and mathematics. The achievement tables for 2009 show the trend since this started with the school dropping below 30% in 2007 and thus being identified as National Challenge. It has moved back above that threshold in 2008 and continued further in 2009 with 44%.[8]

The performing arts department performed musical productions at Weymouth Pavilion, including Mack and Mabel in 2009.[9] Head of Drama, Margot Stanley, was awarded a National Teaching Award for regional secondary teacher of the year in 2005.[10]

The National Challenge was launched by the Secretary of State on 10 June 2008. It is a programme of support to secure higher standards in all secondary schools so that by 2011, at least 30 per cent of pupils will gain five or more GCSEs at A* to C including both English and mathematics. Wey Valley is one of three Dorset schools to be part of National Challenge. The school was identified on the basis of a new performance measure in 2007, with 27% of students achieving 5 A* to C passes including English and maths.[11] However, it successfully met this target in 2008 and improved significantly to 44% in 2009.[12] Various strategies have been employed by the school to target improvement including accessing coaching from the leader of an outstanding school in the area in order to improve the likelihood of the school meeting the Government's targets. Consultancy support was also accessed from within the County to support developments in maths, English and with attendance.[13]

The school's latest Ofsted report, prior to academy conversion, demonstrated improving performance with a headline comment that the school was "A good and rapidly improving school with some outstanding features".[14] One of the outstanding areas is student care and guidance. In 2008 and 2009, 97% of all students achieved at least 5 A*-G passes at GCSE or equivalent. The overall A* to C pass rate from 2009 places the school fifth from bottom in the county, an improvement from second from bottom the previous year.[12][15]