Watling Academy

Watling Academy is a brand new, purpose built 11-16 secondary school on the rapidly expanding western flank of Milton Keynes, comprising of the Whitehouse and Fairfields developments. The Academy opened in September 2020 but due to a delay in the completion of the main build we initially opened on the top floor of Fairfields Primary school, approximately 1 mile away from the Academy building. The main build is now fully operational and we moved our first cohort of Year 7s into the main build in June 2021.

The Academy will have 1800 students when it reaches its capacity, taking year groups of 360. Our first cohort of Year 7 students, however, was restricted to 180 and we will fill up a year group at a time from that point onwards, our second cohort being 300 before we begin taking subsequent cohorts of 360 from September 2022.

Watling Academy will serve the communities of Whitehouse and Fairfields, which are currently expanding rapidly – there is currently 1 Primary school operating in each area, but this will increase to two in each area by 2025, each one of those having cohorts of 90 children per year.

In the first few years of operation, Watling will take students from further afield in Milton Keynes, but this radius will reduce year on year as the communities continue to expand. The projected numbers for students selecting Watling Academy as their first preference school in September 2023 demonstrates that there is more than adequate need for our planned 330 intake and that we are significantly oversubscribed.

Watling Academy was commissioned by the Local Authority as an 11-16 school and as such opened on that basis. The philosophy of the Trust, however, is that a community school should offer an education through from 11-18. We are currently in discussion with the Local Authority about how we secure sixth form provision from 2025, when our first cohort of students reaches the end of Year 11. Those discussions have proved positive to date, and we remain fully committed to providing a clear sixth form pathway for our students.

Core values and vision

The Trust’s mission – to provide the highest standards of Education, Care and Opportunity for all its students is underpinned at Watling by our core values of Respect, Responsibility and Kindness, which is an integral part of our language within lessons, extra-curricular activities and around the school.

The curriculum

Whilst the curriculum is broad and balanced and offers the complete range of subjects the three themes that provide the foundations for everything we do are based on STEM, sustainability, and the development of Milton Keynes. As the fastest growing city in the UK, we believe it is important that our students understand how Milton Keynes has developed over time, where its sits now as a centre for innovation and the latest technology and prepare them to have the skills and knowledge to be successful as the city continues to expand. We have a responsibility to work with our students to help them understand and contribute to tackling challenges around the environment and sustainability and this manifests itself not just within the formal curriculum but through the way we operate as an Academy.

The Academy is part of the Denbigh Alliance Multi-Academy Trust, which currently contains one other school – Denbigh School, approximately 1.5 miles away from Watling and from September 2023 will also include Watling Primary, a brand new 630 place Primary school, just behind the Watling Site.