There is a certain kind of ambition that doesn’t make itself known. In the little things, like a choice made at the planning table or a community ready to try something most wouldn’t, it shows. Bridgwater College Academy, which is on the eastern edge of Bridgwater in Somerset, is a real-life example of that kind of goal.
Five schools came together to form the academy in September 2012. They were East Bridgwater Community School, Sedgemoor Manor Junior School, and Sedgemoor Manor Infants School. That’s not a small change in the way things are run. It’s really hard work to merge schools that have different cultures, student bodies, and expectations for staff. In spite of that, it worked by most measures.
Bridgwater College Academy is different in more ways than just its size and layout. It’s the age range. This school is for kids from three years old up to sixteen years old. There is one sponsor, one vision, and one set of shared values for both primary and secondary education. Britain still doesn’t have a lot of these kinds of models, and Bridgwater committed to it at a time when many other towns were still debating whether it made sense.
It’s worth taking a moment to think about why the all-through approach makes sense. At different times, each of the schools that came before had trouble getting consistent “Good” ratings. As I think back on the choice, I get the feeling that the merger wasn’t just about saving money. It was about getting rid of the trouble that happens when kids switch schools. When kids move from primary to secondary school, they might fall behind, lose their momentum, or just feel lost in a bigger and new place. Part of the point of Bridgwater College Academy was to erase that moment.
It’s still not clear if there is a single factor that affects student progress more than keeping things the same. But what happened at BCA shows that something is working. The academy got Progress 8 scores in the top five percent in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Progress 8 is a national test that measures how much students improve from where they started. That is a big change for a school that came from institutions with a mixed past. It wasn’t a miracle, but there was a steady and quiet improvement that didn’t happen by chance.
The school is right in the middle of Sydenham, which is more important than you might think. In established residential areas, schools have a special significance because they are a part of everyday life and can be seen on morning walks and afternoon pick-ups. That duty lies with Bridgwater College Academy.
Bridgwater was the first town in the South West to be chosen for the Building Schools for the Future program, which is run by the UK government and aims to renovate almost all of England’s secondary schools. Goals and plans were made, and it was estimated that the Bridgwater schools alone would cost around £100 million. Then, in July 2010, some parts were taken away. Others talked about it for years. It’s possible that those messed-up plans helped lead to the eventual academy model. When bigger plans fail, communities often figure things out on their own.
In the end, Bridgwater College Academy is a real-world solution to real problems. It won’t be a big change that makes headlines or a radical experiment in a general sense. It will just be a careful rethinking of how kids learn. As you look at how it has changed over the past ten years, you get the sense that this is what real school improvement looks like: patient, grounded, and built on more than just hope.
