Wood Green Academy


Wood Green Academy is a secondary school
with academy status located in Wednesbury, West Midlands, England. In 2009 Ofsted highlighted Wood Green as one of 12 outstanding schools serving disadvantaged communities.

Admissions

The head teacher is Mr. James Topham, who started the role in September 2014, taking over from Mr Pank Patel who after a successful 7 years at Wood Green has become the West Midlands Regional Schools Commissioner. Pank succeeded the retiring Dame Enid Bibby, who had been head teacher for eight years and became a dame in 2004 in recognition of her achievements at the school.
The school is situated on the A461 Wood Green Road which connects Wednesbury with Walsall, just south of the M6 motorway at and next to St Paul's and IKEA on the Wednesbury Retail Park.

History

Grammar school

The school's origins go back to the turn of the 20th century, when Wednesbury Boys' High School opened as a grammar school. It opened in Wood Green House, St. Paul's Road in 1924 under the headship of C. H. S. Kipping. The school was sometimes also referred to as Wednesbury Grammar School. The school motto was Arte Marte Vigore, which was also the motto of the Borough of Wednesbury. Many new school buildings were added in 1961. Former members of the school are known as "Old Wodens" and The Old Wodens Society still meets bi-annually.

Comprehensive

The buildings were expanded during the 1950s, and by 1970 the school had turned comprehensive.
In 1968 it joined with Wood Green Secondary Modern School to become Wood Green Bilateral School. The Wednesbury Girls' High School, a girls' grammar school, joined the sixth form. It became Wood Green High School in September 1969, serving pupils of both sexes.
The school includes a sixth form for pupils aged over 16.

Academic performance

Wood Green is one of the most successful schools in Sandwell, and has regularly topped the borough's GCSE tables since the year 2000, well above the England average. In 2006, it was the best performing of the borough's 18 secondary schools. The results in 2013 were excellent with 68% of students achieving 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C including Maths and English. 100% of students passed their A-levels.

Alumni

Wednesbury Boys' High School