Harris City Academy Crystal Palace

Background

The new Harris CTC introduced new systems and structures and results steadily improved. In recent years the examination performance of the school has been excellent.

The conversion to Academy status in 2007 brought with it the promise of £10 Million for new buildings and facilities. The work on the new buildings was completed by November 2010, with a new sixth form blook, reception, internal walkways and classrooms now in use.

The Sixth Form results were also the best ever achieved by the Academy with 100% of students passing their A-level exams and 82% of all grades achieved resulting in a grade A, B or C.

In October 2009, under the new tougher Ofsted inspection criteria, the Academy became the first secondary school in the country to achieve an outstanding grade in each of the 30 categories. By Easter 2010, the Academy was still the only school in England to have achieved this result.

Over 2000 applications were received for 180 places in Year 7 for September 2009. The intake of the Academy is mixed ability.

The Sixth Form is part of a federated Sixth Form with Harris South Norwood, Harris Merton, Harris Purley, Harris Bromley, Harris Beckenham and Harris East Dulwich Girls. The Sixth Form at Crystal Palace delivers primarily AS and A level courses and around 400 students are based there. The other two sites offer some AS and A levels but also a range of vocational courses. Harris City Academy Crystal Palace is also a registered Cisco Networking Academy and offers the CCNA course to Post-16s throughout the Federation as part of the enrichment programme.

The Academy is a Gifted and Talented specialist school. Specific new opportunities for students include: an annual opportunity for three Post-16 students to visit NASA astronaut training facilities in Houston and Florida in the USA and many residential trips.

The Student Commission

The Harris Federation Student Commission is a project which involves 70 students from all the Harris Academies are working together with teachers and leading educationalists in order to explore ways of further improving teaching and learning. This Commission is supported by NESTA and is part of a national project called Learning Futures.

Year Structure

Each year group of the Academy, students are divided into four faculties:

In each year group, there are eight tutor groups (two within each faculty) consisting of approximately 20-25 students.

In Year 7, most lessons are taught in tutor groups, with the exception Design & Technology and Art, science, English and maths but in Year 8 the core subjects are mixed on ability between science and technology and arts and communications.

From September 2009 - all students started GCSEs in maths, science and English a year early, and from September 2009 all GCSEs are started in Year 9.

Faculties

There are four faculties at Harris City Academy Crystal Palace, identified by a colour typically displayed on the stripe of their students' ties. They are:
Arts (green)
Communications (blue)
Maths & Commerce (red)
Science & Technology (yellow)

The academy also has post-16 provision, which contains Year 12 and Year 13 students.

Harris Federation

The school was founded in 1990 as a City Technology College. In September 2007 Harris CTC was integrated into the HarrisFederation. This Federation was set up by Lord Harris of Peckham and has been set up as a coalition of several secondary schools in Croydon, Merton and Southwark. In September 2013, the Harris Federation of South London Schools consisted of twenty one schools.