The Hundred of Hoo Academy Context
The Hundred of Hoo is a large non-selective school for pupils aged four to 19. The secondary and sixth-form parts of the school were opened in September 2011, when the previous school became an academy sponsored by the Williamson Multi-academy Trust. In January 2019, the Academy joined Leigh Academies Trust. The primary phase of the school opened in September 2015. From this September it will have pupils in Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5. Our Year 7 cohort increases year on year, with 305 pupils being welcomed later this year. In 2018, following a two-day Ofsted Inspection, the Academy was graded Good with Outstanding Leadership, Personal Development and Welfare and Early Years Provision.
The Academy is located on the Hoo Peninsula, which separates the estuaries of the rivers Thames and Medway, as depicted on the Academy logo. The school is named after the Saxon Hundred and the parish of Hoo. Local links also include the famous author Charles Dickens and the Chatham Dockyard, also represented on our school badge. Two thirds of the school population arrive by Bus, with the journey from Grain taking around 50 minutes. Our increasing size and popularity means that our catchment area has also grown, now serving to educate 1500 number of pupils, and therefore we have a number of pupils who travel from Gillingham, Snodland, Strood and Rochester in order to attend our Academy. We have 48 feeder primary schools and the Primaries which are in close proximity to us on the peninsula also benefit from being a part of the LAT.
The Academy site is one of the largest in Kent, having been part of a three tier school system and including Hoo Middle School, which is now home to the English and Humanities Departments. We benefit from a comprehensive school library, with over 15,000 books; newly renovated Science classrooms; a bespoke examination hall; and recently updated computers across IT, Business, Art and Photography. A broadly average proportion of pupils are eligible for free school meals and a very small percentage of pupils speak English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils who receive support for a special educational need and/or disability is below the national average.
The Academy is highly inclusive and has a specialist resource provision called the SWC, which caters for up to 65 pupils who have Autistic Spectrum Disorder. All of the pupils in SWC have an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) and are referred to our provision by the local authority. As a result, the overall percentage of pupils in the school who have an EHCP is above the national average. The centre is currently oversubscribed and the school is working with the local authority to increase its capacity.