Sharnbrook Academy, formerly Sharnbrook Upper School until 2017, is a large, rural

academy school An academy school in England is a state-funded school which is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control. The terms of the arrangements are set out in individual Academy Funding Agreements. 80% ...

located in

Sharnbrook Sharnbrook is a village and civil parish located in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England, situated around north-west of Bedford town centre. The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a parish within the Hundred o ...

, a village in the English county of

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

. Built in 1975, the school now has over 1700 students and around 300 staff, and includes a large

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 ...

founded in 1978 of around 650 students.

Age range of students

Most students join the school in Year 7 where they are aged 11. They take

GCSE 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 ...

exams, in year 11 (ages 15–16), after which some students will leave to attend a technical college or an alternative sixth form. Most, however, stay and join the sixth form (Years 12 and 13, ages 16–18+), where they are joined by a large number of students who have completed their GCSEs at other schools and have moved to Sharnbrook for their final two years at school.

Vertical tutoring

Beginning in the 2003 to 2004 academic year through to the 2017 to 2018 academic year, Sharnbrook introduced vertical tutoring, a pastoral system in which each tutor group has students from each year group, from Year 9 to Year 13 (Upper Sixth). This was initially stopped for Years 12 and 13 (Sixth-Form), when Sharnbrook became a secondary school. Vertical tutoring was ended completely when the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

started, as when the school returned for the 2020 to 2021 academic year, the tutor groups were split horizontally. In June 2022, a new house system was announced consisting of five new houses as well as the return of vertical tutoring for Years 7-10. Year 11 initially remained horizontal, however this was stopped beginning in the 2023-24 academic year. This was introduced at the beginning of the 2022-23 academic year. The new names are Cygnus, Delphinus, Pegasus, Phoenix, and Ursa. The previous houses were Grange, Colworth, Templar, Parentines, Loring and Ouse, named after

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

manors of Sharnbrook village. To accommodate the new vertical tutor groups, a

House system The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. The school is divided into units called "houses" and each student is allocated to on ...

was devised, comprising six houses, one of which every student is a member. Most of the staff are also assigned to a house. Each house contains fourteen tutor groups and is led by a ''Head of House'' and an ''Assistant Head of House'', titles which are sometimes abbreviated to HOH and AHOH, respectively. Traditional ''Heads of Year'' still exist, although their role has greatly diminished with the arrival of ''Heads of House''. When the school went to horizontal tutoring in 2020, the houses were retained.

Facilities

*Art rooms and gallery, including a photographic darkroom and a specialist digital suite. *

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for pitch (sports field), playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a pile (textile), short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Si ...

sports pitch *

Climbing wall A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with manufactured grips (or "holds") for the hands and feet. Most walls are located indoors, and climbing on such walls is often termed indoor climbing. Some walls are brick or wooden constr ...

*Dance studio *

Interactive whiteboard An interactive whiteboard (IWB), also known as interactive board, interactive display, interactive digital board or smart board, is a large interactive display board in the form factor of a whiteboard. It can either be a standalone touchscre ...

s *Main Hall and Sports Hall *Music centre, incorporating two

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...

s and a large music tech room *Paula Radcliffe Community Sports Centre *

Playing field Play is a range of Motivation#Intrinsic and extrinsic, intrinsically motivated activities done for recreation. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other high ...

s *Sixth form centre, built in 1999 *

Tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...

s *

Television studio A television studio, also called a television production studio, is an installation room in which video productions take place, either for the production of live television and its recording onto video tape or other media such as SSDs, or for ...

, edit suites *Drama Studios The school hosted its own Farm onsite for many years (later an Animal Care Centre). In late 2009 plans were confirmed for the construction of a new science centre, with construction due to begin early 2010. The centre was completed in November 2010. In 2011 there was a large project which included, but was not limited to, a new library (the Learning Hub), dining room (Dining 1) and another refurbished dining room (JDs).

Broadcast team

Sharnbrook Academy Media Department offers students the role of studio hands in the "Broadcast Team". The group is responsible for the running of the school broadcast system, which replaces the traditional whole school assembly. The broadcast is filmed, live, in a special television studio and gallery, situated in the heart of the academy.

Specialisms and academy status

Sharnbrook is a Training School, a Partnership Promotion School, a Beacon School and has received the Artsmark Gold and Sportsmark awards from the

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

and

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded partners, ...

, respectively. Previously Sharnbrook was granted

specialist school Specialist schools, also known as specialised schools or specialized schools, are schools which specialise in a certain area or field of curriculum. In some countries, for example New Zealand, the term is used exclusively for schools specialis ...

status as a

media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

Arts College An Arts College, in the United Kingdom, is a type of specialist school that specialises in the subject fields of the performing, visual, digital and/or media arts. They were announced in 1996 and introduced alongside Sports Colleges to En ...

. On 1 February 2011, Sharnbrook Upper School formally gained academy status.

School day

As of September 2020, the school day begins at 8.30 am and ends at 3.00 pm. Prior to this date, the school day finished at 3.15 pm. The 2015/16 academic year saw the introduction of a reduced Tuesday (starting 8.30 am and finishing 2.45 pm) to allow teachers to cope with changing specifications. But that early finish stopped in the 17/18 academic year. In September 2020, a new reduced school day was introduced due to the

, with it starting at 8.30 am as normal but finishing at 3pm, it was retained for the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic years. Also in the 2022/23 academic year, "Movement Time" was introduced, a 5 minute gap between the ends of Periods 1 and 2 and Periods 3 and 4 for movement across the school, it was introduced due to students frequently being late to lessons.

Catchment area

The catchment area for Sharnbrook Academy includes the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es of Bletsoe,

Bolnhurst and Keysoe Bolnhurst and Keysoe is a civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 734, reducing to 719 at the 2011 Census. The parish includes the villages of Bolnhurst and Keysoe, ...

Carlton and Chellington Carlton with Chellington is a civil parish in the historical Hundred of Willey in Bedfordshire, England, and is within the Borough of Bedford. The parish is situated on the South bank of the River Great Ouse The River Great Ouse ( ) is a ...

Clapham Clapham () is a district in south London, south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (including Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Ea ...

, Dean and Shelton, Felmersham and Radwell, Harrold, Knotting and Souldrop,

Little Staughton Little Staughton is a small village and civil parish located in the north of Bedfordshire. The parish church, All Saints, is set apart from the present village – the previous village having been abandoned following an outbreak of the Bubonic ...

, Melchbourne and Yielden,

, Stevington, Milton Ernest, Oakley, Odell, Pavenham, Pertenhall,

Podington Podington is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, United Kingdom. The village is within the Wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ward of Harrold, Bedfordshire, Harrold in the Borough of Bedford. Podi ...

Hinwick Hinwick ( ) is a hamlet in northwest Bedfordshire, England, United Kingdom; it is around nine miles north west of Bedford and is about east of the county border with Northamptonshire which is also the postal county. The hamlet is in the paris ...

and Farndish,

Thurleigh Thurleigh is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford, north Bedfordshire, England, situated around north of Bedford town centre. History Excavations have shown evidence the locality was occupied in the Iron-Age, Roman and Saxo ...

, Turvey, Riseley, Swineshead and Wymington.

Trust

Sharnbrook Academy, along with 24 other schools, form part of the Meridian Trust (formerly Cambridge Meridian Academies Trust (CMAT)). The school formerly formed part of the Sharnbrook Academy Federation (SAF) until 2021.

Notable former pupils

* Jack Collison, professional footballer * Shaunagh Craig, Northern Ireland netball international * Jane Elliott, sociologist and academic *

Oliver Gavin Oliver Benjamin Gavin (born 29 September 1972) is a British racing driver who joined Corvette Racing in 2002. He has won five American Le Mans Series class championships, five 24 Hours of Le Mans class wins, six 12 Hours of Sebring class wi ...

, Corvette Racing Driver * Cal Henderson, software architect and web developer (Yahoo, Flickr, Slack Co-founder and CTO) * Matt Jackson, professional footballer * Sean Longden, historian and author of ''To The Victor The Spoils'', ''Hitler's British Slaves'' and ''Dunkirk, The Men They Left Behind'' *

Paula Radcliffe Paula Jane Radcliffe Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 17 December 1973) is a British former long-distance runner. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon (2002, 2003, 2005), three-time New York Marathon champion (2004, 2007, 200 ...

, marathon runner and world record holder *

Nick Tandy Nicholas Tandy (born 5 November 1984) is a professional British racing driver currently racing for Porsche Motorsport as a factory driver in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Tandy is the only person to have completed the Grand Slam of overal ...

, Porsche Factory Racing Driver & outright winner of the 2015 24 Hour of Le Mans *

Giles Scott Giles Lyndon Scott (born 23 June 1987) is a British competitive sailor and four-time Finn Gold Cup winner and two-time Olympic gold medallist who won the gold medal for Team GB in the Finn Class at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro ...

, Sailor. Rio 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist in the Finn Class and 4 time World Champion. * Alfie Templeman, singer songwriter & multi-instrumentalist. *

Matt Berry Matthew Charles Berry (born 2 May 1974) is an English actor, comedian, musician, and writer. Noted for his distinctive voice, he is best known for his television roles in comedy series such as ''The IT Crowd'', ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'', ' ...

, actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, musician. Famously played Douglas Renholm in Graham Linehan's IT Crowd. * Henry Luxemberg, actor. * Martyn Burdon, artist. *

Alistair Strathern Alistair Luke Strathern (born 5 March 1990) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hitchin since 2024. He previously served as MP for Mid Bedfordshire after winning a by-election in 2023. E ...

, Labour MP for

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district of Hertfordshire, England. The town dates from at least the 7th century. It lies in the valley of the River Hiz at the north-eastern end of the Chiltern Hills ...

.
Steevan Glover
actor and writer.

References

External links

Official website

Ofsted Report June 2006

Ofsted Report March 2009

Ofsted Report 2013

VerticalTutoring.org
a website created by Sharnbrook's former Principal, Peter Barnard {{authority control Training schools in England Secondary schools in the Borough of Bedford Academies in the Borough of Bedford Educational institutions established in 1975 1975 establishments in England

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...