Millbay Academy, Plymouth, achieves gold

The first thing that struck me about Millbay was the quality of the very solid furniture in the dining room. It looked more like what you would find in an Oxbridge college than a Plymouth comprehensive school. To pursue that analogy a little further, the individualised care that is given to new arrivals in very temporary accommodation and uncertain circumstances is also striking.  Families that don’t know how the system works are given support to access the services they need. In one instance, that meant rescuing the family from an involuntary move to the other side of the country.

Millbay is a school with 600 pupils and 40 languages, 33 of which have been translated for the buddy checklist. It also has a high turnover rate. 20% of the current Year 10 have joined since the start of the school year. It tackles challenges with determination and conviction. It is an institution in which the visual support that EAL students need especially is very central and culminates in the Photograph of the Day and the use of physical demonstrations of key concepts. The curriculum has been designed with a global perspective, whether it is about migration in History or the decolonised English curriculum.

What is the impact of all of this on pupils? The ones I spoke to were very confident, able to overcome the difficulties many of them experience with living in temporary accommodation and to speak articulately about the progress they are making and the difference the school makes to their and their families’ lives. In classrooms pupils often encounter a diverse staff who serve as role models.  One of the Year 10 lessons on Macbeth that I saw was taught by a Japanese teacher.

However, what struck me most strongly about Millbay was the abundant energy for learning that characterises what pupils and teachers do every day.