Walney School

Walney School
Address
Sandy Gap Lane Barrow-in-Furness , Cumbria , LA14 3JT England
Coordinates	54°06′17″N 3°15′31″W
Information
Type	Academy
Local authority	Westmorland and Furness
Department for Education URN	141041 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Head teacher	John Richardson
Gender	Coeducational
Age	11 to 16
Enrolment	715
Colour(s)	green, blue, grey
Website	www.walneyschool.co.uk

Walney School is a secondary school on Walney Island in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. As a result of the Education Act 1944, Walney Island needed to have its own secondary school. Today (2020) it is an 11 – 16 Academy with approximately 585 students currently on roll.

History

Vickerstown is an area of Barrow-in-Furness, 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, 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 Education Act 1944, Walney Island needed to have its own secondary school. The present Sandy Gap site was agreed in 1951 and the school built.^[1]

Lord Cavendish opened a new Sensory Garden in 2003.^[2]

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.^[3] Although to go along with the Specialist Engineering Status the £300,000 engineering innovation centre was built and completed in September 2011.^[4]

In September 2014 the school converted to academy status as part of the Queen Katherine School Multi-Academy Trust.^[5]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 and placed in special measures. It is sponsored by Queen Katherine School multi-academy trust.^[5] In 2016 the school was inspected by Ofsted and judged Inadequate.^[5] As of 2024^[update], the school's most recent inspection was in 2022, with an outcome of Requires Improvement.^[6]

Achievements

At General Certificate of Secondary Education and General National Vocational Qualification, the school is ranked 33rd out of the forty-seven secondary schools in Cumbria. It has no Sixth Form, so does not teach at 'A'-level.^[7]

References

1. Walney Island Comprehensive School at walney-island.com (accessed 11 April 2008)
2. Walney School's Garden at bbc.co.uk (accessed 11 April 2008)
3. "Bug-infested roof 'could be removed'". BBC News. 7 October 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
4. "Barrow Engineering Project". www.raeng.org.uk. Royal Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
5. "Ofsted Report 2016". ofsted.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2020. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright
6. Pennington, Michael (2022). "Inspection of Walney School". Ofsted. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
7. Walney School at BBC secondary school tables online (accessed 11 April 2008)

External links

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