STATIONERS’ CROWN WOODS Academy

LAT South East London and North West Kent

Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy opened in September 2014 when Crown Woods College became a “converter” academy and joined Leigh Academies Trust. The Academy is the latest incarnation of a school that first opened in 1958 as a flagship London comprehensive.

Crown Woods College was built and opened for pupils in May 2011. The College was a radical departure from the traditional concept of a school and was based on the principle of human-scale education: instead of one large school, the campus includes four small “home” schools, each designed for 450 pupils. The new college was conceived by educationalists and designed by architects and, because educationalists had the upper hand, it is fit for purpose and highly effective. The design and structure had an immediate impact on standards: behaviour and outcomes improved significantly and the college became heavily oversubscribed. Since 2012, it has gone from strength to strength and we now attract some 1,300 applications for 270 places, reflecting parental confidence in what we do.

In 2013, we were given the opportunity to convert to academy status, join Leigh Academies Trust and become a Stationers’ school. The Stationers’ Company is a major City of London livery company, based in a beautiful 17th-century hall just around the corner from St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Company supports the interests of the print, newspaper, paper, packaging and publishing industries. They have a tradition of educational support and, up until the 1980s, sponsored the Stationers’ School in Haringey.

Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy came into being in September 2014. We are now in the process of integrating the latest digital technology into our curriculum and developing a multimedia centre to both enhance opportunities for all our pupils and to develop the skills necessary in those young people who wish to take up careers in the Stationers’ industries.

Our objective is to be a flagship academy in which every pupil not only achieves their full potential but also feels an integral part of the organisation; an academy where no child feels lost and no child is left behind; an academy where the bonds between parent, teacher and child are so secure that failure is not an option. The unique community that we have built ensures that young people achieve their ambition in a caring environment, where they are at the centre of all that we do.