Principal’s welcome
Haberdashers’ Aske’s Crayford Academy is an all through, 3-18 academy which serves the local Crayford and Slade Green communities in the London Borough of Bexley.
The academy opened in September 2009 from its predecessor Barnes Cray Primary School with a one form entry primary cohort. Subsequently, the secondary cohort has expanded year on year and Key Stage 3 is now complete with 3 year groups of 180 pupils. In total, the academy now has 820 pupils who are taught and supported 49 teachers and 57 support staff.
It is the aim of the Haberdashers’ Federation to increase the primary cohort to 50% (i.e. 50% of each secondary year group will be from our own primary phase) and plans are now very advanced to increase the primary phase of Crayford Academy. This will be achieved by incorporating Slade Green Junior School into the academy in September 2013. By September 2014, as the school continues to grow, we will have approximately 1500 pupils on roll. The school will be at its full capacity by September 2016 with the addition of a 6th Form of 250 students thus taking the total number of pupils and students to 1750.
At Crayford, we have a fully comprehensive, mixed ability pupil body which has a very positive attitude to the school. This is evidenced by pupils’ very good behaviour in lessons, around the school generally and going to and from school (‘Students behave well both in lessons and around the buildings and grounds’ – OFSTED March 2012).
We know that all Crayford Academy pupils have the potential to be successful and the curriculum is designed to ensure that all pupils have the opportunity to develop their skills and talents in a meaningful way, often outside the confines of traditional subjects and classrooms. We offer specialism in both Technology and Music but all subjects are regarded as important for a well-balanced education. There are very close links across departments and between the primary and secondary phases of the academy. There are many occasions during the school year when pupils work across subjects and phases, very often as part of the established house system which operates across the academy.
It is the aim of the Crayford Academy, along with the other Haberdashers’ Federation schools, that our pupils leave with the skills and resilience needed to be happy and successful in a modern society throughout their adult lives. To this end Crayford Academy offers pupils a range of learning outside the classroom, leadership, school community and careers opportunities which are needed to develop the basic life skills required. With this in mind, Crayford Academy provides a safe, rigorous and challenging learning environment for pupils of all abilities and backgrounds to develop as well adjusted young adults.
We strongly believe that good quality teaching is the key to success and we are committed to ensuring that every lesson taught in the school is at least good and often better than that. This year’s OFSTED inspection confirmed that we have excellent teachers here at Crayford and every secondary lesson observed was judged to be good or better. (‘Teaching is strong in KS3. Inspectors saw several outstanding lessons. There is outstanding teaching in the primary phase’ - OFSTED March 2012). Our expectations are extremely high in terms of pupil achievement and the quality of teaching they receive will help ensure that these expectations are met.
High standards of pupil behaviour and uniform are also very important to us and we insist that pupils behave respectfully towards others and their environment.
I firmly believe that Crayford Academy has a great deal to offer and I hope that you agree. We have made massive strides since the opening of the academy in 2009 and following a very good OFSTED inspection in March 2012, where the overall judgement was good in all areas, I feel that we have the right platform to drive the school forward into becoming an outstanding school for Crayford and the surrounding area in the near future.