Academy Context

• Park Lane Academy is a much smaller than average 11-16 mixed secondary sponsored academy, joining South Pennine Academies in October 2018.
• At Park Lane Academy we have 78.79% who are from a white British background.
• 56.24% of our students are eligible for FSM. This is much higher than the national average at 22.7%.
• Our SEND cohort is 31.24% which is significantly higher than 18.4% national comparator. (EHCP is at 7% vs 2.4% Nationally).
• The academy community has suffered significant turbulence in recent years having had 5 leaders in the space of 6 years. However, the current Executive Principal and Principal have been in post for over two years and the school leadership team is now stable.
• Parental / primary disengagement had meant that Park Lane Academy stopped being a school of choice in the area following the inadequate judgement in 2016. Since the last Ofsted inspection in 2022, it was noted that “PLA is an improving school’. Due to this and the school improvement journey, the local perception has changed and our student numbers have increased, leading to the academy being full in our Y7 and 8 PAN.