Passmores Academy


Passmores Academy is a 11-16 secondary school in Harlow, Essex.
The academy has an annual intake of 240 pupils in Year 7, and in the is approximately 1,000 pupils. It featured in the 2011 television series Educating Essex.
The current co-principals are Mr Vic Goddard and Ms Nat Christie, they have been in post since January 2007 and September 2018 respectively.

History

The school was originally Passmores Comprehensive School, later becoming Passmores School and Technology College, until its conversion to Academy status in September 2011 when the name was changed to Passmores Academy.
The school reopened for the 2011–12 school year on a new site which is approximately one mile from its old site. This new site is the home of a £25 million new building which was constructed over a two-year period from 2009 on the old Brays Grove Secondary School site.
The current co-principals are Mr Vic Goddard and Ms Nat Christie, they have been in post since January 2007 and September 2018 respectively. In November 2008 the school was graded as Outstanding by Ofsted, having been graded as Good in November 2005. It received a Good in May 2018.
In September 2013 Purford Green Primary School and Potter Street Primary School became part of Passmores Cooperative Learning Community as well as becoming feeder schools. In 2018 The Downs Primary School and Nursery joined.

Curriculum

There is a two year Key Stage 3, with French and Spanish being the only languages offered.

''Educating Essex''

The school played host to a seven part Channel 4 reality TV show, Educating Essex. The show follows a group of GCSE pupils, and the staff who teach them, as they face the most important year in their education. The school was fitted with 65 fixed cameras – from the corridors to the canteen, and from the headteacher's office to the detention hall. Recording with the fixed cameras lasted for seven weeks. This was used alongside occasional standard filming by camera crews from September 2010 to August 2011 and edited down into a seven part series.
The school is aware of the increased number of children that are suffering from bereavement in July 2019, and the need for the school and all the staff to be available to counsel the students. 23 pupils and two staff so far have been bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Colleagues will be encouraged to share the burden they face by working together to offer their pupils support.
“The first thing we’ll do is have a one-to-one with each child and try to unpick what’s gone on in their lives over the past few months. Then we’ll look at that information collectively, not individually, and go: OK, is there a group of young people who could do with extra support?” Goddard.

Staff have been offered training and there are the courses with Winston's Wish on counselling techniques.