The Spires Academy is a non-selective secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

, Kent. There is a sixth form. The school has dual specialist status in business and enterprise, and in visual, creative and performing arts. Spires is independently governed, but funded by the sponsors and the

Department for Children, Schools and Families Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education. DCSF was repl ...

. As a non-selective school the school does not insist on prospective pupils passing the

eleven-plus The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardised examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academi ...

examination for entry, and it is free to attend. The Academy is subject, like other schools, to regular inspections, but is managed by an ‘Academy Trust’ called Orion Education, rather than a local education authority. According to

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 ...

inspectors, boys do worse at maths at the school, and generally the school needs to improve (academically). The school has developed strong links with Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School in nearby Canterbury.

History

The school is located on the former site of Sturry Secondary Modern School, later renamed Frank Montgomery School, and is the only secondary school in

Sturry Sturry is a village on the Great Stour river situated northeast of Canterbury in Kent. Its large civil parish incorporates several hamlets and, until April 2019, the former mining village of Hersden. Geography Sturry lies at the old Roman j ...

. The academy replaced the former Frank Montgomery School building near Sturry in 2007, taking in the pupils from the former institution, and also replacing the former school which had been in

special measures Special measures is a status applied by regulators of public services in Britain to providers who fall short of acceptable standards. In education (England and Wales) Ofsted, the schools inspection agency for England and some British Overseas Ter ...

and judged by the government as failing. In March 2011, building started work on a new replacement building, this was carried out by

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...

(management) and Gallagher (construction). and completed in July 2012. The new £13.2m building was equipped with state of the art academic facilities and also included sports buildings and facilities. The predominantly naturally-ventilated design also uses

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

boilers as part of its heat source. The building achieved a

BREEAM The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), first published by the Building Research Establishment in 1990, is touted as the world's longest established method of identifying the sustainability of buildings. Ar ...

‘Very Good’ rating. The old building is in the process of being demolished.

Electronic learning

In 2012, Spires Academy spent £125,000 on

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

s for all its pupils, they were given to 450 youngsters, but the staff insisted it will not be the end of the traditional pen and paper being used in the classroom. However, it was claimed the gadgets would revolutionise teaching and boost grades and were bought using the school's IT budget and a government grant. The Kent school is the second to provide iPads to pupils, following Longfield Academy, near

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames Estuary, is Thurrock in ...

References

External links

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{{authority control Academies in Kent Secondary schools in Kent Educational institutions established in 2007 2007 establishments in England