Wayland Academy ranked 4th best performing school in Norfolk

Wayland Academy, an Inspiration Trust school situated in Watton, is celebrating the monumental progress its pupils have made during their time at the secondary school. The latest Progress 8 scores show that the same students that ranked 45th place out of 53 secondary schools when looking at Key Stage 2 assessment data when they arrived in Year 7, left the school ranked as 4th in all of Norfolk for progress!

Wayland Academy puts this achievement down to the hard work of all its teachers and pupils, which is even more impressive when you consider this incredible progress has been made during a pandemic. Teachers and pupils faced the challenges head-on and learnt to adapt quickly, with teachers conducting live lessons throughout to ensure all students could follow their normal timetable and there was as little disruption as possible. 

Such progress has also been made possible through the extension of the school day which increases curriculum time and sees each student take part in 28 one-hour lessons per week. Wayland Academy also believes its move to Inspiration Trust has been a big driver in its success with the move to a knowledge-based curriculum being instrumental in the large leaps in progress its pupils have made. 

Glen Allott, Principal - Wayland Academy says:

 

‘It is hard to put into words how proud I am of the students at Wayland Academy and to see them make such significant leaps in progress is truly amazing. Our Progress 8 score was excellent at +0.6. This means that as a year group, our students achieved two-thirds of a grade better in a range of academic subjects than similar students across England’.

Wayland Academy went on to praise all of the pupils and teachers who have achieved so highly and said it is a real reflection of how hard they have all worked. The amalgamation of Wayland Academy into the Inspiration Trust is also recognised, which allowed the school to move to a knowledge-based curriculum and gave the school and its students access to the Trust’s subject specialists, all of which has contributed to the significant climb in student progress.

As a school, it has been a big year for Wayland Academy which has not only ranked 4th highest performing school in Norfolk, but in the summer the school achieved its best ever GCSE results with 62% of students achieving a grade 9-5 in English and Maths - the average across England being 50%!