Harris Academy Falconwood (formerly Westwood Secondary School and Westwood College) is a city academy in Falconwood, London, England. The school is a mixed gender school and accepts students based on various mental attributes.
History
In September 2007 Harris CTC was integrated into the Harris Federation. This Federation was set up by the same Lord Harris of Peckham and has been set up as a coalition of several secondary schools in London and Southeast England. Harris Academy Falconwood is part of the Harris Federation Sixth Form.
In 2013, a number of staff lost their jobs at the school following evidence that BTEC science coursework (GCSE-level) for 69 pupils had been written by Year 12 students.[1]
In 2019 numerous Harris Academies were accused of 'gaming' the system through the practice of entering entire cohorts for the ESOL qualification, which is aimed at students who have English as an additional language (EAL), Harris Falconwood entered the whole of their Year 11 cohort (177 students) despite only having 15 EAL students. This was shown to be common practice across the Federation.
[2].
From September 2020, Ms Terrie Askew will retire as Principal, having led the school since 2008. Mr Tom Street, a long-serving employee of the Harris Federation, will take up post as Head of Harris Academy Falconwood.[3]
Academics
Academics
Virtually all maintained schools and academies follow the National Curriculum, and are inspected by Ofsted on how well they succeed in delivering a 'broad and balanced curriculum'.[4] Schools endeavour to get all students to achieve the English Baccalaureate (EBACC) qualification- this must include core subjects a modern foreign language, and either History or Geography.
Students explore as many subjects as possible at Key Stage 3 before specialising at [[[Key Stages 4|Key Stages 4]] and 5. To achieve this, students study French or Spanish and humanities subjects such as Art, Drama, Photography or Criminology in Key Stage 3.[5]
Students are guided in their year 9 option choice of GCSEs and A-level allowing for Russell Group university ambitions, another universities or for entering into employment or training. A co-curricular enrichment programme is provided. As of 2020 there is an obligation to teach British values; this is done through tutor programme (which explore current events in the world), enrichment activities, charity events and external speakers.[5]
Key Stage 3 Curriculum
The Key Stage 3 curriculum is followed by Years 7 and 8 as of 2018, though is changing to ensure that Key Stage 3 is for the full three years. GCSE courses start in Year 9 but will start in Year 10 when the changes have filtered through. The current curriculum gives appropriate time to Mathematics, English and Science. Literacy and numeracy skills are developed in every subject and across the curriculum.
All students in Year 7, 8 and 9 study a language which they continue to study until GCSE. Students may pick up a second, additional language in Year 10. [5]
Key Stage 4 Curriculum
The current Key Stage 4 curriculum is followed by years 9-11, in 2020. All students will study Mathematics, English, Science, PE and Religious Education and to obtain a EBacc they are advised to study a humanities subject and a modern foreign language. They choose two further options from an extensive list.
[5]
The Harris Federation of South London schools is a federation of academies in over five South London boroughs. There are 48 schools in the federation As of September2020[update] The schools are all sponsored by the Lord Harris of Peckham, who is investing around £2 Million into them to make new facilities and for re-development of certain schools. The boroughs included are Southwark, Croydon and Merton.
Alumni
Former pupils at Westwood Secondary School include dance instructor and television presenter Len Goodman, who lived at Blackfen and who was a member of the school cricket team.[6]
The trust champions the right of students with special educational needs. It is committed to helping to develop into:
confident individuals who are positive about who they are and what they can do,
successful enthusiastic and motivated learners,
positive participants in the local and wider communities.
It will do this by quality, expert teaching, providing a range of teaching and non-teaching professionals who have a comprehensive skill set and flexible teaching to enable the student to successfully move on to the next learning stage and personal independence. [3]
History
The trust was founded in 2013, growing out of the Abbey Hill single academy trust. [3] It was joined by the other academies the following years.
