Dudley Academies Trust
Welcome to Dudley Academies Trust
Dudley Academies Trust was established to ensure a first rate education for the young people of Dudley and the surrounding areas. It is important to us that all our young people have a high-quality education that will give them the foundations they need for a fulfilling life and a rewarding future career.
Following three successive years in which our academies improved their GCSE results, they achieved their best set of results ever in 2022. By 2023, all four of our secondary academies were on or above the national average for the progress made by learners. All four are above the average for Dudley; in fact, since joining the Trust, they are the four most improved secondary schools in the Borough for progress and one of them is the most improved for grades achieved.
Our aim, for every child who joins one of our academies, is to see their potential, inspire their dreams for the future and make their ambitions possible. Each of our academies has been judged as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ for Personal Development by Ofsted, and we are determined to continue making a huge difference to the prospects for local youngsters.
We are able to accomplish these and many other advances because we have a large and experienced Central Team that supports each academy with its leadership, teaching, building programmes, sports and activities, financial management, staff training, IT and – most importantly – the progress and wellbeing of your children.
We have recruited numerous, excellent staff to our academies and made some outstanding appointments to their leadership teams. We have introduced a proven system of rewards and behaviour management that has changed the culture of our classrooms, accompanied by a raft of new approaches to teaching. An inspiring curriculum offers a rich variety of subjects with strong emphasis on basic skills in English and Mathematics and the digital technologies that are now so important. Over £15 million has already been invested in improving the buildings, facilities and computing equipment of our academies, and much more is being spent this year.
I am confident that St James Academy will continue to make great strides forward over the coming years and that your child will find every opportunity to thrive there and to develop as a rounded and confident young person. We want your child to ‘Dream Big’ and to know that many positive life choices are within their reach.
Our learners are a fantastic group of young people who tell us they feel happy, safe and well cared for in our schools. We are delighted that you have taken the time to read this prospectus and we encourage you to visit one of our open events and meet some of our learners, or book a personal tour of the academy, so you can see for yourselves what we have to offer.
Jo Higgins - Chief Executive