About the School

Whitcliffe Mount is a Specialist Business and Enterprise College and provides a broad, balanced and wide-ranging curriculum along with extensive extra-curricular activities. In its recent history as a 13-18 comprehensive school the school has been through three distinct phases in its development.

The school's profile in the local community improved markedly during this period, as did standards of attainment at all key stages. The school became significantly over-subscribed and staff, governors and parents welcomed the buoyant mood in the school and the community, which was endorsed by very positive OFSTED reports in 1994 and 1998.

The school's popularity in the community increased further leading to record levels of over-subscription and significant investment in building extensions and refurbishment. Standards of attainment however remained relatively static; the school had "plateaued" to some degree.

In recent years the school has again progressed substantially. It achieved Specialist Status in 2004 and standards of attainment and value-added rose spectacularly at all key stages. The GCSE 5A*-C% rose from 40% in 2004 to 51% in 2006 and in 2009 the school achieved 57%, which is the highest % since the school became a comprehensive over 20 years ago.  The A Level pass rate in 2009 was 92% and the value added level of student progress between GCSE and A Level was judged very good for the last three consecutive years. 

There are several reasons which help explain this "second kick" in the school's progress. New staff appointments and key support staff have all undoubtedly helped. A focus upon teaching and learning, professional development and performance management for staff, precise use of data, a strong pastoral system and a more appropriate curriculum supported by effective raising attainment strategies have all played their part. Consequently, Governors and Kirklees LEA are very supportive of Whitcliffe Mount and hold it in high regard given recent spectacular improvements in examination results.

The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust has welcomed Whitcliffe Mount into its "Most Improved Schools" club for 2005 and 2006 on the basis of its rapid improvements in the 5A*-C% at GCSE in recent years. Academically the school goes from strength to strength and its rate of progress significantly exceeds national progress.  In 2008 the school was re-designated as a Business and Enterprise college.

During the past year Whitcliffe Mount has supported the work of its four feeder Middle Schools more closely by forming an Education Improvement Partnership. This is paying particular attention to provision and standards of attainment in Years 7 & 8 and our Advanced Skills Teacher conducts her outreach work in the Middle Schools.

Two of the feeder Middle Schools have faced very specific challenges recently and consequently a Federation of three schools was developed with Whitcliffe Mount as the lead school in this relationship.  The concept of the Federation emerged during the summer term 2006 and was approved by all three Governing Bodies in September. In Summer 2008 Grylls Community Middle School closed and from September this year Whitcliffe Mount has accepted Year 7 and 8 pupils from the Grylls catchment area into its "School within a School".  In 2009 Gomersal Middle School received a good OFSTED report and in August 2009 the Federation came to an end, having successfully fulfilled its purpose.

The school has approximately 90 well-qualified teaching staff who are ably supported by a team of support staff. Many young teaching staff who have joined us in recent years have already been internally promoted. Our support staff team is being expanded annually as one outcome of workforce remodelling. The school values training and provides a structured induction programme for all new appointments. The school has a no smoking policy, which applies to its buildings, grounds and immediate boundaries.

Whitcliffe Mount is poised at an exciting time in its development with a clear ethos based upon achievement and high standards of behaviour. All staff are involved in the creation and annual review of the School Development Plan. An annual self-evaluation process involves the school and departments in assessing the quality of work in each team with a periodic external inspection built into the process. This helps to identify future training needs for teams and individuals. 

In May 2009 the school received an OFSTED progress visit and was judged good in all categories.

We are now involved in an exciting remodelling programme whereby the school will receive in excess of £20 million of building refurbishment to make Whitcliffe Mount a dynamic 21st Century centre of learning.

Over the next three years our four feeder middle schools are scheduled to close and Whitcliffe Mount will change its admissions age from 13 to 11.

The extra-curricular life of the school is rich and diverse. A community Sports Centre is attached to the school, as is the Cleckheaton Music Centre. The following page gives a flavour of the extensive curricular enhancement of extra curricular opportunities made available to our pupils over the last twelve months. We are keen to develop confident, independent students who achieve success and enjoy school life.

John McGee
Headteacher