On the 29th and 30th April 2009 Darrick Wood had a full Ofsted inspection and judged the School to be “outstanding”, the highest of educational accolades. In her report HMI Mrs Wood surmised, “the School provides an inspirational learning environment,” “students display respectful and exemplary behaviour” and “teaching and learning are excellent.” In each of the report’s 14 key judgements the School was given a Grade 1, “Outstanding”.

After a year of inconvenience a Sixth Form building began to take shape and was completed in November 2010. Member of Parliament for Orpington, Mr J Johnson, performed the official opening ceremony in December, saying that such state-of –the –art facilities would only further enhance Darrick Wood School’s excellent reputation in the area.

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The School changed its status to become an Academy on 1stDecember 2010, giving us greater autonomy over use of resources and curriculum issues. In addition to this the School consolidated a number of valuable partnerships; most notably with the Leading Edge, Challenge Partners and PIXL organisations. The School maintained its excellent work within the State independent partnership with 6 other schools including Eltham College.

In January 2011 Ofsted again visited the School, this time to inspect the Mathematics provision. We were again delighted to be informed that all aspects of Mathematics were judged to be outstanding.

Early in 2013 we were delighted to learn that Darrick Wood School had been selected for an important new role aimed at further raising standards and was one of only 150 schools in England to be granted Teaching School status in the latest application round. The designation by the National College for School Leadership entitles the School to lead the training and professional development for staff across a range of schools.

A single storey building near the Physical Education department was completed in April 2014. It has three classrooms and a conference room. It has been built to support two additional floors when funding becomes available.

Mrs Rhymaun retired in April 2015 after 14 years as Head Teacher. During this time her hard work and dedication ensured the School became very successful. Dr Airey was subsequently appointed as the School’s fourth Head Teacher. During 2015, representatives from all year groups, led by the Senior Prefects were set the task to achieve the World Class Schools Quality Mark (http://www.worldclass-schools.org/). They completed a wide ranging audit of the School and created a video evidencing the world class characteristics of Darrick Wood students.

In 2016-17, the School secured emergency funding from the DfE to improve the roofs of the Barker Building, Main Hall and Dance Studio. Several months of scaffolding and replacement hip and ridge tiles were necessary to make the roof safe after it was discovered in a survey that the original mix of mortar and sand used when securing the roof 20 years previously was inadequate.

Towards the end of 2017-18 the School received news that it had been re-designated as a Teaching School for the duration of Dr Airey’s headship. The School was also informed that a bid for £2.4million to expand the Dining Hall, build new music and drama rooms above the block completed in 2014 and to expand the Dining Hall had been successful. Work would start late summer/early autumn 2017.

Work finally started before Christmas 2017. This necessitated the building of a temporary changing area for PE and Darrick Sports (the School’s Sports Centre open to the public during evenings,weekends and the holidays).The new Movement and Performing Arts Building opened just in time for pupils and staff returning from the summer break 2018.

In 2019, the school was re-inspected for the first time since 2009 and received an Ofsted rating of Good. The report commented that parents and carers are highly supportive of the School. It also commented that pupils are well behaved and polite. They treat each other with respect and dignity. Staff ensure that pupils are safe in the school.

“The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is strong. Pupils have positive attitudes towards their work. Teachers plan in a structured way that ensures pupils remain busy throughout their lessons. There is very little disruption of any kind.”

During the spring term of 2020 and in particular around half term, news came through of a new virus (coronavirus/COVID-19) which had the potential to develop into a full-blown pandemic. Guidance to schools in March 2020 was to encourage students and staff to wash their hands well for 20 seconds (sing Happy Birthday twice). The School responded by installing hand sanitiser in corridors along with signage to encourage COVID-safer behaviours. By Friday, 20th March it had been announced that schools across the nation would close as the country went into Lockdown to try to reduce the spread of the virus. By Monday, 23rd March, only children who were vulnerable or those of key/critical workers were allowed into school. Most staff worked from home, setting work using Microsoft Teams with others on a rota to look after the small number of children in school. Public examinations were cancelled and a scheme devised for the awarding of grades through the submission of a Centre Assessed Grade and ranking for each student in each subject along with a national moderation exercise. August 2020 saw much publicised outrage as students received grades much lower than anticipated. Eventually students were awarded either their original grade or their CAG, whichever was highest as this was seen as the fairest for all. Late in the summer term Years 10 and 12 were able to attend in socially distanced classrooms (usually 7 in each) and Year 7 were invited in to meet with their tutors. The School was far from back to normal and throughout this period the focus was principally on improving methodology for Home Learning via Microsoft Teams. It was a steep learning curve for all.

By September 2020, schools were able to open but with many restrictions in place (e.g. enhanced one-way systems, eating allowed outside only, year group ‘bubbles’, consistent groupings in KS3 to minimise mixing) and assemblies only held virtually. September and October progressed with most staff and students being able to attend daily. However on returning from half-term COVID-19 cases locally and nationally were on the increase and it was not long before students and staff were having to isolate. As we were notified, members of SLT were dispatched to classrooms to tell pupils to move to the isolation space (in the Bungalow) from where their parents could pick them up. The situation reached a very difficult point during the last few weeks of term and with insufficient staff in a position to attend school, whole year groups had to revert to home learning. News from the government was that schools would be open after Christmas but instead of isolating, those who were deemed proximity contacts with positive cases would attend only if they were tested daily on site and their results remained negative. An additional day when only staff attended was arranged for the first day of term so that the test site could be set up. On this day it was then announced that schools would in fact be closed and only vulnerable children and those of critical workers would attend.

The School was better placed than during the previous lockdown to provide meaningful home learning experiences for the pupils and made good use of Microsoft Teams to deliver teaching and learning in synchronous (live) and asynchronous (recorded) ways. Parents’ evenings were held remotely using new software purchased for this purpose. Both staff and parents felt this worked very well and would be something to perhaps keep post-pandemic, as it is more efficient.

During the spring term as news came through that schools would be re-opened shortly before the end of term, but on their return all students would need to be tested on site, work began to increase the size of the Asymptomatic Test Site located in the new Dining Hall. The team of staff working in the ATS was expanded and plans made for the tests. Staff who had been attending during lockdown out of choice because they were supporting in the Schools’ vulnerable/critical worker provision, were used to being tested twice a week. However, nearly all students on their return consented to be tested and the School invested in systems to support this process. The students returned in phases over a week and school returned to its pre-lockdown ways of working. In January it had been announced that public examinations would once again be cancelled and there was a consultation on
how qualifications would be awarded. Plans were agreed for how assessments would be used to inform Teacher Assessed Grades to be submitted to boards later in the summer. The quality assurance process was agreed to ensure grades were awarded fairly and based on evidence only.

To be continued…