Our School
Welcome to Thomas Clarkson Academy
Thomas Clarkson Academy serves the needs of our 1,300 students, their families and the local community as an increasingly successful, vibrant, welcoming and inclusive, non-selective 11-18 academy. Our motto is ‘Transform, Challenge, Aspire’ and we aim to provide our students with the best opportunities to achieve the academic qualifications and skills to progress to university or the career of their choice. We want our students to realise their potential.
Statement of values and ethos
Thomas Clarkson Academy places 'Ambition for All' at the heart of everything it does and we aim to provide our students with the best opportunities to achieve the academic qualifications and skills to progress to university or the career of their choice. We want all our students to realise their full potential.
Our motto is ‘Transform, Challenge and Aspire’ as we strive to transform the opportunities of young people in Wisbech by providing them with the best opportunities to achieve the academic qualifications and skills to progress to university or the career of their choice. We will also consistently challenge them to be the best version of themselves and expect students to
challenge themselves and aspire to achieve the best they can. In turn we will do all in our power to nurture their ambitions and provide students with a ‘ticket for life’.
At Thomas Clarkson Academy we are about providing an outstanding quality of education with a relentless focus on improvement and continually asking ourselves, 'what else can we do for students to achieve more?', whether that is through engagement in their curriculum studies or through the range of cultural, sporting or creative activities we undertake.
We pride ourselves on knowing and understanding our community and therefore knowing what we need to do to best support the young people in our care. We recognise that some students face barriers but we always look to identify these and work to overcome them, yet we are also clear that there are no excuses for underachievement.
We ascribe to a culture that retains a single-minded focus on high standards in all aspects of the school: learning, behaviour, attitude, uniform, attendance and punctuality. Also, as a community we insist on a commitment to shared values of inclusion and tolerance by all individuals and will always challenge when these principles are not upheld.
We see every adult and student as a role model who grasps every opportunity for self-improvement but also always seeks to have a positive impact on the lives of others. We pride ourselves on showing trust and respect for all and a determination to create a culture of success that can be celebrated by the whole community.
TCA was graded as Good following our most recent Ofsted inspection (January 2020), with inspectors commenting on the quality of leadership, positive relationships between staff and students, a curriculum ‘that helps pupils to succeed’ and a Sixth Form ‘where students have the support required to be successful.’ Read the Ofsted report here and our full statement here.
The summer of 2020 saw more students going on to Russell Group universities, including the University of Cambridge. Our GCSE results in recent years have been the best in the school's history and we are confident this upward trend will continue. Our staff have high aspirations for all of our students and want them to grow into confident, ambitious and high achieving individuals. This year, we have seen applications to join our school increase by almost 20%.
This year we have a focus on raising our standards; particularly literacy, good behaviour, and progress and high achievement for all students, and we expect parents to want the same for their children. We want our students to wear their academy uniform with pride and be ambassadors for the academy in the local community. Whilst at the academy students can also expect to develop the important skills of leadership, teamwork and co-operation through participation in a broad range of opportunities beyond the classroom such as sport, art, drama and community projects. As part of the Brooke Weston Trust, there are also further opportunities for students to develop, including Trust-wide competitions and events. Please do take a look at the News section of this website to get a taste of life at our Academy and read more about our students’ successes and achievements.
Thomas Clarkson Academy is a wonderful school and we are extremely proud of our young people.
Matt Dobbing
Associate Principal
Click on the video below to get a taste of life at TCA: