KAA sister academy named 7th most improved school in the country

by Alan Brooks  on July 18, 2013  in  Uncategorized

Darwen Aldridge Community Academy (DACA), the first school to be sponsored by the Aldridge Foundation, has received recognition for achieving some of the fastest improving GCSE results in the country.

SSAT, the representative body for schools, placed the Academy as the seventh most improved school in England based on improving GCSE results year-on-year from 2009 to 2012.

Academy Principal Brendan Loughran said: “We always knew that our improvements in the last three years have been far greater than most schools and to be in the top 20% nationally is great news, but to then discover that when ranked in order, the Academy is the seventh most improved in the whole country, really is outstanding”.

“We were delighted to be judged to be a good school by Ofsted in January of this year, and we know that if we continue to sustain our improvements in results, we will achieve our ambition to be recognised as outstanding”.

Every school in the country has been ranked according to how much progress they made in improving their GCSE results between 2009 and 2012 by SSAT. The award is only made to schools which have shown continuous improvement over that time.

Sue Williamson, Chief Executive of SSAT said: “Darwen Aldridge Community Academy should be congratulated for their stunning achievement in improving their GCSE results. DACA has proved itself to be one of the best schools in the country at improving GCSE outcomes for their students. Successful schools like DACA understand the value of data in helping to ensure all young people perform to the very best of their ability There is plenty that other schools could learn from the Academy’s success.”

Aldridge Foundation chairman Sir Rod Aldridge said: “DACA is really changing the life-chances of young people in Darwen, not only in terms of GCSE and A level results, but in the numbers of students now going on to university. These results are testament to the commitment and hard work of the students, teachers and leadership team at the Academy. It’s a great example of what we hope to achieve across all of our sponsored academies.”

In addition to GCSE success DACA has provided its community with a sixth form for the first time. Four years after opening its A level A-E pass rate is now 99% and the Academy takes great pride in seeing
many students gain offers from their first preference universities. Around two-thirds of each year group progressing to University are the first from their families ever to go on to higher education.

This year Khushna Sulaman-Butt became the first DACA student to be offered an Oxbridge university place.