King Alfred's Academy

King Alfred's

Motto	Achieving Excellence Together
Type	Academy
Headteacher	Joanna Halliday
Executive Head	Simon Spiers
Location	Wantage Oxfordshire OX12 9BY England Coordinates: 51°35′12″N 1°25′46″W / 51.5866°N 1.4294°W / 51.5866; -1.4294
Local authority	Oxfordshire
DfE number	931/4142
DfE URN	137140 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Students	1787
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	11–18
Houses	Ridgeway, Vale, White Horse
Colours	Sky blue, navy blue and black (Ridgeway=Red, Vale=Blue, White Horse=Yellow)
Website	King Alfred’s Academy

King Alfred's Academy is a Secondary school in Wantage, Oxfordshire, recognised as an Academy.^[1] It is named after King Alfred The Great, who ruled Wessex from 871 to 899 and was born in Wantage some time between 847 and 849AD. The school has approximately 140 teachers and 2000 students spread across three sites.

History

The general history of King Alfred's is vague and often debated over by local historians. The school amalgamated with Icknield (now East Site) and Segsbury (now West Site) during the 1980s.

The three schools (Segsbury Secondary Modern, Icknield Comprehensive and King Alfred's Grammar School) were broadly independent from each other, with some links from 1972. They merged to become Wantage School (Segsbury, Icknield, and King Alfred's Halls) for the 1984/5 academic term. For the 1987/8 term and beyond, the whole entity was renamed King Alfred's School to retain the former's history.

The Sixth Form was built in the late 1970s next door to Centre Site.

The School became a Specialist Sports College in the late 1990s.

In September 2011 King Alfred's was given Academy status.

On 25 April 2014 King Alfred's was visited by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex to open the new hall block at Centre Site.^[2]

Alumni include: spy novelist John Gardner; actor/author Stephen North; and jockey Lester Piggot.

Sites

The school is distributed over four sites, corresponding to the age groups catered for.

East Site, formerly Icknield School, caters for year 7 and year 8 students. In 2012, £661,000 was spent on improvements to the facilities including new classrooms, a new science lab, new music rooms and a new fitness suite. In all, East Site has more than 25 classrooms, including 4 science labs, 4 ICT rooms, a drama studio, a tennis court, a netball court, a library and 5 rooms devoted to design and technology.

West Site, formerly Segsbury School, is the site attended by year 9 and Year 10 students. It has more than 20 classrooms including 6 science labs, 6 ICT rooms, a dance/drama studio and a sports dome. It does not have a library.

Centre Site, formerly King Alfred's School, is the site attended by year 11 students, those in the last year of Compulsory education in Great Britain. It has more than 30 classrooms, 16 of which are situated in a four storey block, which includes science labs and ICT rooms. There is also a Macbook suite. It has no onsite sports facilities, but is able to make use of the local leisure centre. There is another new four storey block being built at the moment, complete with more ICT rooms, science labs and a restaurant. It should be finished by October 2015.

The Sixth Form site, used by students aged between 16 and 18, and located across the road from Centre Site, was opened in the 1970s. It also makes use both of the Centre Site facilities and those of the local leisure centre, the latter offering students access to sports activities and a dance studio. The sixth form is Oxfordshire's second largest, after Thame).

Academy status

In February 2011 an OFSTED inspection identified King Alfred's as 'outstanding'; subsequently the school was granted academy status. (The application for this status is said to have been made in the hope that it would bring in additional funding: both to counteract the impact of anticipated cuts, and to enable new building works to be undertaken.)

References

• School site
• Sixth Form site
• Old Alfredians site