Huxlow Academy is a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

and

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

with academy status, located in

Irthlingborough Irthlingborough () is a town on the River Nene in North Northamptonshire, England. As of 2021, it has a population of 9,325, and was at one point the smallest town in England to have had a Football League team, Rushden & Diamonds F.C. The pari ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

, England. Previously a specialist

Science College Science Colleges were introduced in 2002 as part of the now defunct Specialist Schools Programme (abolished in 2011) in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, science and mathem ...

, the school converted to academy status in April 2012. However, the name only changed to Huxlow Academy in late 2022. There are just over 900 students on roll, including around 100 students in the Sixth Form, which is shared with two other local schools. The head teacher is Kim Isaksen. There are 47 teachers (full-time equivalent) and 36 support staff.

History

It was founded in 1962 and was originally known as Finedon and Irthlingborough Secondary Modern School. The former head teacher was Paul Letch. He joined the school in September 2021, replacing Steve Gordon. The headteacher before Gordon was Mick Malton.

Feeder schools

The school gains its Year 7 students from primary schools in

Finedon Finedon is a town and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, England, with a population at the 2021 census of 4,552. In 1086 when the Domesday Book was completed, Finedon (then known as Tingdene) was a large royal manor, previously held by ...

Little Addington Little Addington is a village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, England, about south-east of Kettering. At the time of the 2011 census, the parish's population was 328 people. Prior to local government restructuring in 2021 the v ...

Great Addington Great Addington is a small village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It lies near the west bank of the River Nene, about 5 miles (8 km) east of Kettering. It consists of approximately 100 households; at the time of the 2011 ...

and Woodford as well as numerous schools in surrounding villages.

Sixth form provision

The Sixth Form is part of

The East Northamptonshire College The East Northamptonshire College or TENC for short is a consortium of secondary schools in East Northamptonshire that offer Post-16 education. Structure The Consortium consists of two secondary schools, Rushden Community College based in ...

(TENC), which combines Huxlow Academy and The Rushden Academy at post-16 level.

School performance and inspections

The school's

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

report in 2016 judged the school as Good in all main areas (achievement, quality of teaching, behaviour and leadership/management). The 2021 inspection rated the school inadequate. The inspectors found that racist, homophobic and sexist language is commonplace. The percentage of students achieving 5+

GCSEs The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

including Math and English was: *2012: 59% *2013: 57% *2014: 54% *2015: 48% *2018: 56% *2019: 53% The percentage of students achieving a grade 5 or above in Math and English at the end of KS4 was: *2018: 43% *2019: 36.4% *2020: 44.5% *2021: 37%

Convictions of staff

In 2017, Emma Wright, an art teacher, was found to have allowed pupils to take inappropriate photographs for an art project. She was banned from teaching in 2022 by the

Teaching Regulation Agency The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) is an executive agency of the Department for Education responsible for regulation of the teaching profession in England. Background Between 2000 and 2012, the teaching profession in England was regulated by a ...

. In 2019, Kevin Sheppard, a former teaching assistant in the school, was arrested after child abuse footage was found on his telephone and computer. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for 2 years, and 120 hours of unpaid work. Kevin Sheppard was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and is subject to a sexual harm prevention order.

References

External links

Huxlow Academy website
{{authority control Secondary schools in North Northamptonshire 1962 establishments in England Educational institutions established in 1962 Academies in North Northamptonshire