Castle Academy Astrea Academy Trust
Welcome to Castle Academy.
Castle Academy is located in Conisbrough within Doncaster in the county of South Yorkshire, close to Barnsley and Rotherham. We have 140 pupils on our roll aged between 4 and 11 years. For more information about our school please click on the prospectus link at the end of this page.
Castle Academy is a proud member of Teach First’s Leading Together programme. Leading Together is a two-year programme to help schools build a strong leadership team through expert coaching, learning and collaboration. The programme works to support a school’s own improvement journey by building leadership capacity across the team and beyond. The programme helps schools create a culture and environment where all teachers and pupils can thrive. To find out more please visit www.teachfirst.org.uk/leadingtogether
We are also part of the Challenge Partnership. This is made up of schools across the UK who work together to support each other’s development. Comments made about our school at the recent Challenge Partnership review (December 2018):
Teachers know their pupils well, use effective classroom management techniques and lead by example by modelling care and respect at all times. As a result, pupils are enthusiastic about learning, eager to share ideas with their peers and talk confidently about their work with adults.
All pupils work well collaboratively and enjoy learning new things as “it makes them feel smart”.
We are delighted to be a part of the Astrea Academy Trust. The Astrea Academy Trust has the highest expectations of pupil attainment in national assessments, but our aspirations take us beyond the concept of “schooling.” We believe in “Inspiring Beyond Measure.”Astrea academies are committed to ‘educate, not just school’, promoting the development of resilience, empathy, aspiration, contribution and happiness. You will see this at Castle Academy within our school REACH Golden Rules.
The Astrea Academy Trust logo also communicates the importance we place on collaboration, development and aspiration: The three figures coming together in the shape of a tree, which represents growth, whilst the tallest figure reaches upwards, towards a star, which is above and beyond the highest branch of the tree.
This is a hugely exciting time for our family of schools. Astrea has been recognised by the Department for Education as being well placed to raise standards and achieve excellence for pupils in a growing number of schools nationwide. We are presented with a rare opportunity to make a real difference to the lives and life chances of school children – many of whom haven’t previously received the educational opportunities they deserve.
To tackle this inequality, a Northern Sponsor fund, amounting to £10 million, was created in order to attract and encourage the best sponsors to take on schools in the north of England. Astrea Academy Trust is one of the first to receive a share of this fund and has been trusted with setting up high-performing academy hubs in areas with some of the greatest need.
The Astrea vision enables individual academies to flourish with real autonomy, whilst also ensuring a strong ethos of support and collaboration across our schools. This balance is necessary in order to achieve long term sustainability for our schools.
“Reach for the top of the tree and you may get to the first branch but reach for the stars and you’ll get to the top of the tree.”
Lemn Sissay, MBE