NEW College, Pontefract


NEW College is a coeducational, sixth form college in Pontefract, near Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. NEW is an acronym for North East Wakefield.

History

The school on the site was originally built in the Victorian era as a slaughter house before being demolished, later it became the Pontefract Girls' High School, before finally opening as the college in 1987. In 1987 it became north east Wakefield's sixth form college known as NEW college. Previously the Motto of the college was nos excellentia per nostrum discipulus primoris.
The college is now part of an academies trust named the New Collaborative Learning Trust. The CEO, Richard Fletcher, was previously the Principal at the college.
In 2014, colleges in the New Collaborative Learning Trust gave 'academic scholarship' to students to attend their school if they achieved more than 5 A grades at GCSE. They would give £500 to any student that applied for it with these said grades. Fletcher, the then vice principal, said all eligible students would be paid the £500, but 'we wouldn't know how many students would receive this until we opened.' This was labelled 'bribery’ by critics, and not an ‘ethical’ use of public funds, as it was widely reported that New College was the first free school to offer public money in this way.

Academics

NEW College had a 98.3% pass rate in 2011. It has a Careers and Higher Education service providing advice and guidance, has visiting speakers and offers visits and work experience. The College's overall points score per candidate rose to 316.9 in 2006, putting NEW College in the Top 20 colleges in the national table published in The Guardian newspaper.
In the academic year 2013-14 NEW College Pontefract was Ofsted Outstanding.
In September 2016 a new New College Doncaster was opened by the NCLT with New College Bradford opened in September 2019.

Notable alumni