Our Journey

Housed in a £27 million building which opened in 2008 with state-of-the-art technologies across all departments.  The academy is equipped with state-of-the-art SMART digital screens in every classroom, one of the first schools in the country to embrace such technologies.  The other facilities include a dance studio, two gyms, recording studio, lecture theatre and top quality outdoor sports areas.  We are extremely proud of our sporting excellence and have developed elite Rugby Union and Netball Academies who have competed on a national level regularly beating many of the top private schools in both disciplines. We now take 10% of our year 7 entry based on sporting aptitude.

Our journey since 2008 has without doubt been one of transformational school improvement. In 2007 19% of students gained 5 A*-C including English and Maths; in 2013; this rose to a record breaking 76% in 2016. This led to Rodillian Academy being recognised as the most improved school in the North of England. In 2017 Rodillian’s Progress 8 score was +0.97 which placed it as the highest comprehensive school in the country. This high level of performance has been maintained since then with Rodillian continuing to get outstanding results.

Behaviour in the academy is exceptional and something of which we are very proud. Our judgement was supported by Ofsted in 2012 and again in 2016 where we gained an ‘Outstanding’ for ‘Personal development, behaviour and welfare’. At Rodillian we believe that traditional values of discipline and respect are sacrosanct. We do not tolerate bullying, defiance or rudeness to staff and this has made for a harmonious and safe learning environment for our young people and a supportive environment for staff, where they can concentrate their efforts on teaching and their own continuing professional development. Our academy is also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

Though we may be traditional in our approach to discipline, our curriculum is as modern, innovative and personalised as we can make it. For students in Year 7 we have introduced our Resilience curriculum, where students are taught the essential skills for learning and life. In Year 8 and 9 our students can access our Applied Resilience curriculum, where they have a raft of opportunities that they may not have had, including, skiing, water sports, horse riding, cake decorating, photography and stage makeup. This is also when our Rugby and Netball academies train.  Further to this, we have now introduced the Aspire curriculum in both Year 7 and Year 9 which focusses on opening the eyes of our students to the opportunities that are out there if they work hard and show resilience.