Wath Academy

Admissions

The school is a specialist Language College, though it is non-selective. It has approximately 2,000 pupils between the ages of 11 and 18 on roll, including around 400 in the sixth form.

There is also a school council, which contributes to the decisions made by the head and speaks on behalf of all the students in all years. The school is within the Maltby learning trust.

History

The school was founded in 1923 as Wath Secondary School. Initially, the school was situated on Park Road, sharing the building of Park Road Infants School. The school was controlled by West Riding County Council.

Wath Secondary School rapidly outgrew its original accommodation, which led to lessons taking place in a number of borrowed locations scattered throughout Wath-upon-Dearne. To rectify this, the school moved into new, purpose-built accommodation on Sandygate in 1930. The institution became known as Wath Grammar School in 1931. The school was expanded with many new buildings and extensions in the early 1950s.

In January 1964 the school absorbed the neighbouring Wath (Park Road) Secondary Modern School. The expanded school initially still divided students into 'grammar' and 'basic' (secondary modern) streams and it was some time before it was formally designated a comprehensive school in 1972 and renamed Wath Comprehensive School in 1974 (which coincided with the school coming under the control of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council). The Park Road site initially continued to be used for the secondary modern stream, but later became a wing for first form (later known as Year 7) students. Due to further expansion, the school also occupied a corner of Wath Central Junior School site on Festival Road for a period, making a total of three sites.

On 31 December 1998, two students of the school, aged 14 and 15, died in a meningitis outbreak. Other students at the school were given antibiotics as a precaution. This was followed by an immunisation programme for all 1,700 students, which delayed the school reopening for lessons after the Christmas holiday by two days. The school itself was not thought to be the source of the outbreak.

The school was awarded language college status in 2001 and appended this to its name to become Wath Comprehensive School: A Language College.

Over time, the school's buildings, on all three sites, aged badly. In its 1997 report on the school, Ofsted described the accommodation as 'quite appalling', 'debilitating' and 'some of the worst working conditions the inspection team has seen'. The Inspectors highlighted 'damp seeping through the walls and ceilings', 'decaying door and window fittings', 'areas of crumbling asphalt and potholes' and 'falling plaster', before going on to conclude:

School periodicals

Wath Academy's school magazine, Torch, has been published in its present form since September 2022. Previous publications include The Wath Magazine (c.1923–1930), The Wathonian (1930–c.1977 and 1991), The New Wathonian (1984–1985), The Wath Chronicle (1992–2001), Connexions (1996–2010), In Touch (mid-2000s–2014) and The Torch (2014–2022). The school also publishes a weekly newsletter during term time.

School size

The school opened with 77 students in 1923, though had 520 students by 1929 (making it the fourth largest school in the West Riding local education authority area). Numbers then grew gradually, though were boosted to around 1,500 in the 1960s due to the closing of Wath (Park Road) Secondary Modern School. The school expanded again from the late 1970s, particularly boosted by the closure of the nearby Brampton Ellis Comprehensive School in 1985, and eventually reached 1,750 students. Numbers were at this level until as recently as 2007. However, further rises in student numbers (partially the sixth form, which has swelled from 300 to 400 students) have taken the total number of students to over 1,900: 300 students in each of Years 7 to 11 (rising to 320 from the 2018 intake and 330 from the 2019 intake onwards), with 200 in each year of the sixth form. As of 2013, the school is the 24th largest in England.

Academic performance

The school's results, whether measuring progress or raw attainment, are all above national averages.

In 2017, the school's Progress 8 score, which measures the progress made by students between the end of Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 (GCSE), was +0.07 (above the national average of −0.03, putting the school in the top third of the country). Its Attainment 8 score, which converts GCSE and other qualification grades into points, was 47.1 (above the national average of 44.6). The percentage of students achieving GCSE grades 9–5 in English and Maths was 41% (above the national average of 39.6%). The percentage of students achieving the English Baccalaureate was 35% (well above the national average of 19.7%), with entries for the EBacc being 70% (double the national average of 35%).

The sixth form results for 2017 showed an A Level/academic progress rate of +0.20 (in the top 10% of the country). The progress of vocational students was +0.77 (also in the top 10% of the country). The progress rates for students resitting GCSEs were +1.00 grades for English (in the top 3% of the country) and +0.88 grades for Maths (in the top 5% of the country).

Ofsted inspections

Since the commencement of Ofsted inspections in September 1993, the school has undergone seven full inspections. This includes the highly controversial inspection of 2017, where the school's results – officially classed as 'average' by the Department for Education – were inexplicably called 'dire' by Ofsted. As Wath Academy is legally a new institution, it received its first inspection in 2023.

Headteachers/principals

Rev. Arthur Grear, September 1923 – August 1940 (left to be an Air Force chaplain)

John Ritchie, September 1940 – May 1954 (died in office)

Sylvia Swift, May 1954 – April 1955 (acting headmistress)

Dr Clifford Saffell, April 1955 – August 1972

Roger Murphy, September 1972 – April 1977

Elsa Clegg, April 1977 – August 1977 (acting headmistress)

John Brothwell, September 1977 – February 1991 (died in office)

Derek Kirby, February 1991 – August 1997 (acting until end of June 1991)

Robert Godber, September 1997 – August 2002

Eric Sampson, September 2002 – May 2003 (died in office)

Jim Chisholm, May 2003 – December 2003 (acting headteacher)

Patricia Ward, January 2004 – August 2016

Jon Taylor, September 2016 – August 2020 (role name changed from 'headteacher' to 'principal' in September 2019)

Liam Ransome, September 2020–May 2026

Andrew Hopkin, June 2026–present

Notable former pupils

Ollie Banks, footballer

David Bret, biographer

Kenneth Burton (1939–1943), biochemist

Brandon Crook (2004–2011), drummer in The Sherlocks

Kiaran Crook (2007–2014), singer and guitarist in The Sherlocks

Sir Charles Curran (1933–1940), former director-general of the BBC

Rob Dawber (1967–1974), screenwriter

Alan Dobie (1941–1948), actor

Toby Foster, radio presenter and comedian

John Goldthorpe (1946–1953), sociologist

Bryan Gray (1964–1971), former chairman of the Northwest Regional Development Agency

William Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond (1973–1979), former leader of the Conservative Party and Foreign Secretary

Peter Hardy, Baron Hardy of Wath (1942–1949), politician

Jonathan Holmes, theatre director

Kingsley James, footballer

Brian Key (1958–1965), politician

Alec Lazenby (1938–1945), agronomist

Paul McCue (1969–1970), military historian

Notable former staff

Peter Cullen, javelinist