A secondary academy based in Stockton-on-Tees is celebrating after it was awarded a nationally recognised award for its work on inclusion.

Outwood Academy Bishopsgarth, based on Harrowgate Lane, was awarded the Inclusion Quality Mark Award by IQM. The award provides UK schools with a nationally recognised validation of their inclusive practice and ongoing commitment to developing educational inclusion.

The academy’s success comes after a long assessment process, which was split into two phases beginning with a self-evaluation followed by a virtual assessment by the IQM team.

Gemma Trattles, Lead Principal at Ofsted Good-rated Outwood Academy Bishopsgarth, said:

“We are thrilled to have been accredited with the IQM Award, which we believe highlights our commitment to inclusion at all levels. 

“At Outwood we believe that every child deserves the best education, no matter their start in life, and we work tirelessly to deliver on this belief.”

The award criteria for Outwood Academy Bishopsgarth was broken down into five sections, focusing on inclusion values and practice of the school, the learning environment, resources and ICT, learner attitudes, values and personal development, learner progress and impact on learning, and learning and teaching.

The assessment report praised the academy’s ‘considerable progress and improvement in the culture and standards’ since it joined the Outwood Family 2016, outlining that there is a ‘very clearly detectable energy and commitment among staff to continue to improve provision and increase opportunities for their community by enabling students to make as much progress as possible and to achieve highly.’

This positive change and improvement has been recognised by parents, the report said. It noted that parents ‘have confidence that staff will do their very best. Consequently, they are now much more consciously making Bishopsgarth their first choice for their children and numbers are rising.’

The positive findings led to the IQM team recommending Outwood Academy Bishopsgarth to apply for Centre of Excellence status, which it subsequently did and was successful in becoming an IQM Centre of Excellence.

Fewer than 300 schools in the UK have currently achieved this status, and to do so schools have to successfully have demonstrable plans to sustain and develop internal inclusive practice, amongst other things.

Mark Robinson, Head of School at Outwood Academy Bishopsgarth, added:

“We were delighted to have been recommended for IQM Centre of Excellence Status and are proud to have achieved this status too. We are confident that if we continue with our hard work and maintain our determination to always be improving, we will be successful.”