Darton Academy

Darton Academy is an exciting place to learn and as soon as you enter the building you can feel a buzz of enthusiasm. There is a sense of purpose, and the academy is calm and orderly, with state-of-the-art facilities. We are a close-knit community, and we pride ourselves on knowing our pupils well and doing our utmost to ensure everyone fulfils their true potential.

We aim to ensure that our pupils can learn in a safe and supportive environment, where everyone values academic achievement and has a positive attitude to learning. As a result of our journey of continuous improvement, our pupils secured an amazing set of exam results in the summer of 2023, with 55% of pupils achieving a grade 5 or higher in maths and English, and 75% achieving a grade 4 or higher. We continue to go from strength to strength and our unvalidated progress 8 score is 0.38 which far exceeds expectations for pupils of similar ability nationally. Darton Academy is yet again one of the highest performing schools in Barnsley. In February 2023 Ofsted graded us Good with an outstanding personal development offer.

We strongly encourage our pupils to take part in enrichment activities so they can discover all their strengths and talents, and run over forty clubs, as well as pupil support sessions and interventions. We also regularly organise whole school events and educational visits so that our pupils have a broad experience of learning beyond the classroom.

We believe in rewarding pupils for good behaviour, attendance and achievement and run a number of celebration events throughout the year, from “Super September” to our summer “DartFest”. We place learning at the heart of everything we do and use our core values of respect, responsibility, and resilience to build a positive ethos.

Ultimately, we understand that our pupils are most successful when they feel happy, valued, challenged, and supported to achieve their very best. We believe this also applies to our staff. We are passionate about giving people the chance to develop and progress their careers, and also offer an extensive range of opportunities, incentives and benefits.