The Leigh Technology, Wilmington and Longfield Academies

I was fortunate enough last week to pay a visit to all three of the Academies run by the Leigh Trust. The Leigh Technology, Wilmington and Longfield Academies are all overseen by the excellent Chief Executive; Frank Green. Each of the Academies are going from strength to strength and giving the pupils a sense of pride about their school which sometimes was lacking in the past.

Frank Green has appointed Principals who run the separate parts of each school. This creates a ‘school within a school’ which allows for healthy competition and prevents the pupils being getting overlooked in a big school environment. There is a high level of enthusiasm towards learning that has been generated by Frank Green’s approach and this has led to increasing levels of achievement in examinations. Parents have also responded to the changes that have been made at Longfield and Wilmington Academies with both schools now heavily oversubscribed. This is a huge vote of confidence and something that would have been unheard of just a few years ago. Meanwhile the Leigh Technology Academy holds the title of being Kent’s most oversubscribed school. Setting high standards for the pupils and giving them the belief that they can achieve these standards has been the hallmark of the Leigh Trust.

The transformation of the Academies is still ongoing, indeed there is still a lot of work that the Trust wants to carry out. There is though a huge amount of  satisfaction that the staff and pupils can take from their achievements. It has clearly taken a lot of work to get to this stage but Dartford now has three academies it can be very proud of.