Robert Smyth Academy


Robert Smyth Academy is an upper school in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England for 11- to 19-year-olds. It is situated in the north of the town, on Burnmill Road, close to St Luke's Hospital.

History

Around 1570, Robert Smyth, from the town, walked to London. By 1598, he had become comptroller of the City of London. In 1607 he founded Market Harborough Grammar School. The building still exists in the Market Place. For the first 150 years, it was only open to boys who were of the Anglican faith. In 1909, Leicestershire County Council built a new school, called the County Grammar School of Edward VII, on the present location on Burnmill Road. In 1944, the school fees were stopped and it became known as Market Harborough Grammar School. In 1978, it became Robert Smyth School, and in 2011, it became Robert Smyth Academy
It used to be known as Market Harborough Upper School, being one of the few remaining upper schools in England. It is now one of the most rapidly improving schools in Leicestershire with an increase to Progress 8 of +0.25 signalling the best results attained by students since the inception of new accountability measures in 2016. The Academy is now well on track to becoming the only outstanding secondary school in the town.
With around 100 staff and 881 pupils, it provides a comprehensive education for pupils from Year 7 and then into Key Stage 4, for GCSE and Post-16. It has been awarded both an Investors in People award and an Artsmark Gold award. In 2006 a successful application was put forward for the school to become a dual status technology/arts college. The catchment area of the school covers both the town of Market Harborough itself and the surrounding South Leicestershire villages, primarily Kibworth, Fleckney, Great Glen, King's Norton, Foxton, the Langtons, Gumley and Laughton.
The school converted to academy status in September 2011.
In September 2017, the Academy became a member of the Tudor Grange Academies Trust. Since then, many changes have taken place, such as the new tutor groups, houses, lesson times, uniforms, dress code, IT infrastructure and more. The Academy has introduced several changes in September 2018 to maximise the quality of education experienced by students, with six 50-minute lessons changing to five 60-minute lessons, including different lunch times for Y7-8 and Y9-13. Additionally, bells will no longer be used to signal lesson times and instead students are trusted to rely on their own timekeeping to get to lessons on time.

Houses and forms

The school consists of four 'houses', Bragg, Logan, Moseley and Hammond. The houses are named after historical figures from the town and are mainly in existence for administrative purposes but inter-house sports are also popular activities. Two Year 12 pupils from each house are nominated by staff annually to become school prefects.

Sixth Form

Post-16, or sixth form as it's commonly known, is housed in the 'Sixth Form Centre', a separate building to the lower school, providing a cafeteria, computer suite and quiet work areas. Sixth form lessons are held throughout the school - the Sixth Form Centre has a few classrooms, but the majority of classes are still taught in the main buildings.
Both sixth form and main school pupils have access to the library, which also contains computers. Lower school pupils have a separate canteen.

Facilities

Other notable facilities of the school are the Main Hall - an assembly hall, in which assemblies are held, as well as concerts, proms and other large-scale events. The Old Gym, which previously allowed pupils can take part in activities such as trampolining and table tennis, has been converted into a performing arts hall - "The Max", named after governor Maxwell Corney. This has a highly flexible format with space for dancing classes, acting and small offset theory classrooms. A new/extended sports centre has been built adjacent to the existing one to modernise the sports facilities at the school. There is also a large school field, on which football, hockey and rugby are played, an outdoor basketball court and two tennis courts. The library offers the usual reference facilities plus a thriving lunch time chess club. The school has a number of IT rooms, all networked with internet access and several science labs.
A new canteen for years 10 and 11 opened on 18 February 2011. The £1 million facility was built to replace a Nissen hut style structure and contains a kitchen, dining room and new food technology classroom. Pupils voted for the name of the canteen, selecting 'Sixteen07' in honour of the school's founding date.

Alumni