It has been announced that when The John Bentley School closes its doors at the end of the school year in July, it will effectively cease to exist. When the school re-opens in September it will be with a new name, uniform and identity.
In 2018 Ofsted rated The John Bentley school as ‘requires improvement’ in categories of effectiveness of leadership, quality of teaching, behaviour and welfare, 16-19 study programmes and outcomes for pupils. Following this, a new leadership system was put in place and the school enjoyed greatly improved GCSE results with a 10% increase in good grades for English and mathematics.
The school have now partnered with The Royal Wootton Bassett Academy, the only school in the area with a grade of ‘Outstanding’. An announcement from the school stated:
Joining RWBAT provides us with an excellent opportunity to re-evaluate our current identity and how we best serve the young people of our community. This process has happened before, when The Bentley Grammar School amalgamated with Fynamore Community School in 1974. What is important is that any school should represent the community it serves and we are excited at the prospect of creating a new identity that best meets the needs of our young people.
The school have said that existing students will be provided with key items of the new uniform. Meanwhile consultations are taking place with staff and students on this aspect of the schools new identity.
