Principal's Welcome

Granville Academy is committed to providing academic excellence within a caring and inclusive environment. We believe a solid education that develops knowledge and understanding, allowing academic success is a right and an entitlement.

At Granville Academy, we are driven to ensure that all the children and young people in our care have the opportunity to fulfil their potential through achieving highly, regardless of their ability or background. In developing our students on their pathway to excellence, we are guided by our simple values statement 'Work hard, Be kind, Choose Wisely'. We believe that these values are both central to success within education, but also key values that allow us to be successful in life. We explicitly teach and promote these values, expecting our students within our academy to show acts of kindness, gratitude and self-discipline within lessons, within social time and within their wider community. We support this by upholding the highest of expectations within a warm strict culture.

Our results in 2022 and 2023 are indicative of the transformational change that the academy has achieved.   GCSE results have gone from strength to strength.  In 2022, English and Maths performed above the national average showing significant growth.  Within Maths, we achieved 80.9% 4+ and 60.5% 5+.  Results were similar in English with 81% of our students achieving 4+ and 65% 5+. 

2022 and 2023 results indicated basics are now in line with national figures with significant improvements identified within progress measures.  The academy has made strides, increasing P8 from -0.16 (2019) to +0.15 (2023).  We believe that our good outcomes are tangibly linked to our clearly defined expectations and a culture of high standards which is clearly evident within all that we do.

This culture is tangible across the whole of the academy.  Our visitors report our academy to be warm and welcoming.  Students are encouraged, and are keen to do well, supported by a strong body of specialist staff, who are aspirational for rapid progress and this can be seen by the increases within the number of subjects who have performed above the national average on a number of key headlines.  In 2022, MFL results were significantly above the national performance for 4+ (94%) and above; and were in the top 20% of national performance as were Physical Education in which students achieved an average APS of 6.7 again placing them in the highest 20% in the national statistics.  In 2023 these subjects alongside Maths. Art and RE all again performed well against national headlines at 5+ with Maths and PE exceeding the national standards at 7+.

We continue to strive for academic excellence and utilise the strengths within the Trust to ensure that students are challenged in an academically rich curriculum with subject experts in all of their lessons.

Our academic and rigorous curriculum ensures that students are knowledgeable about the world around them, it prepares them to contribute to their local community and take their place within a global society.  We recognise that to be successful, academic success is important, but will also be supported by our students leaving our academy as confident, articulate, ambitious lifelong learners. We support this development through a clear approach to developing knowledge.  We believe that knowledge is powerful.  We place value on its importance in securing the building blocks that are needed for our students to make sense of concepts.  When secure, it allows students to independently make links and connections that deepen their understanding, that encourages intellectual curiosity and subject mastery for all students. Our teaching is direct and explicit.  We emphasise the need and ability to retrieve and recall factual information.  We develop this by interleaving our curriculum; sequencing lessons and start each lesson with a low stake quiz.  We use knowledge organisers in every subject and sign post the core knowledge that should be retained.  We develop this within lessons, but also set frequent homework activities that direct students to spend time on learning this critical information.  Learning is a skill.  We teach students why this is important.  We show them how to do it effectively in order to achieve their potential and celebrate their success when this is done well.

One of the key strengths of the academy is the positive relationships between staff and students. We have a friendly, respectful and harmonious environment.  We are truly inclusive and will not tolerate discrimination of any kind. Within our school community, students and staff are known, valued, developed and supported to be successful. We believe that every member of our community has the right to feel safe; tolerance, respect and fairness underpin the fabric of our ethos and are promoted through the traditional British values, such as treating each other with respect, being courteous and polite. We have a strong commitment to helping and encouraging our students to make a positive contribution to their community. We have recently launched our culture curriculum through which we will explore and embed the traits and behaviours that support our students in becoming successful learners and global citizens.

Granville is at the heart of the Woodville community, and we take every opportunity to be involved in joint events and projects.

Our warm strict approach is based on high expectations of student behaviour and conduct. Our rules are based on the common-sense principles, which form our Code of Conduct. Students wear our uniform with pride and come to the academy ready to learn.

Staff and students are proud of our brand new highly equipped Science, Technology and Physical Education building. Students are proud of the new ICT facilities.  We continue to invest to ensure our students and local community have the facilities and learning environment they deserve which will further support our progress and journey towards excellence. 

Parents, carers and the community are important to us.  We are open about our vision because we want a shared understanding about how success can be achieved together.  We want you to support our ethos.  We want to communicate the standards and expectations as one voice.  We do this together, because we have a shared purpose in securing the best for our students and maximising their potential.  We ask them every day to be the “best version of themselves” and stress the importance of this, so that they leave us with high standards, continued ambition and a desire to pursue challenging, fulfilling careers that bring both success and happiness. We expect parents/carers to support us in upholding our high standards and expectations.  We are a family with one shared goal and in partnership, we provide the best for our students to be successful.

We commit to this because it is right, and because we care.

Of course, you cannot really get a true feeling about an academy from a website; you will only get this by coming to see us first hand. We would urge any prospective parents or carers to come and see us in action and experience what we have to offer first hand. If you would like to do this, please contact the academy Reception on 01283 216765 and we will be happy to arrange a tour of the academy.

We look forward to meeting you.

Kind regards,

Mrs Oliphant

Principal