Walney School 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 ...

on Walney Island in

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

. As a result of the

Education Act 1944 The Education Act 1944 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 6. c. 31) made major changes in the provision and governance of secondary schools in England and Wales. It is also known as the Butler Act after the President of the Board of Education, R. A. Butler. Histori ...

, Walney Island needed to have its own secondary school. Today (2020) it is an 11 – 16

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 ...

with approximately 585 students currently on roll.

History

Vickerstown is an area of

, is an example of a planned estate built for workers by a company needing to expand. It was constructed in the early 20th century by

Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (VSEL) was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, England that built warships, civilian ships, submarines and armaments. The company was historically the Naval Construction Works of Vicke ...

, on Walney Island; an island connected to the British mainland via Barrow Island, by a swing bridge. The school is on the edge of Vickerstown. As a result of the

, Walney Island needed to have its own secondary school. The present Sandy Gap site was agreed in 1951 and the school built. Lord Cavendish opened a new Sensory Garden in 2003. Walney School achieved Specialist Engineering Status in 2009, in Winter 2010 began to expand, by building a £6m redevelopment and extension. It will has 10 new classrooms, two music rooms, two art rooms and an additional science block. The single storey classrooms also have a Sedam turf roof, with plants growing on top to have an environmental and visual appeal. The work was meant to be undertaken in five phases, taking 65 weeks, for completion in August, the next year but due to bad weather was finally completed in summer 2012. Although to go along with the Specialist Engineering Status the £300,000 engineering innovation centre was built and completed in September 2011. In September 2014 the school converted to academy status as part of the Queen Katherine School Multi-Academy Trust. Since June 2022 George Hastwell School have been occupying four of the classrooms in Walney School during Thursdays and will be moving in fully as of September 2022.

Context

Walney School is an 11–16 academy with approximately 585 students on roll. It converted to an academy in September 2014, when the predecessor school was condemned by

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 ...

and placed in special measures. It is sponsored by Queen Katherine School

multi-academy trust Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or academy chain is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local aut ...

. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under th
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright In 2016 the school was inspected by Ofsted and judged Inadequate. , the school's most recent inspection was in 2022, with an outcome of Requires Improvement.

Achievements

General Certificate of Secondary Education 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 ...

and

General National Vocational Qualification A General National Vocational Qualification, or GNVQ, was a certificate of vocational education in the United Kingdom. The last GNVQs were awarded in 2007. The qualifications related to occupational areas in general, rather than any specific ...

, the school is ranked 33rd out of the forty-seven secondary schools in Cumbria. It has no

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 ...

, so does not teach at 'A'-level.Walney School
at BBC secondary school tables online (accessed 11 April 2008)

References

External links

Walney School
at dcsf.gov.uk (including location map)
School closed in April 2008 after petrol bomb

EduBase
Academies in Westmorland and Furness School buildings in the United Kingdom destroyed by arson Schools in Barrow-in-Furness Secondary schools in Westmorland and Furness {{Cumbria-school-stub