Model for schools around the UK

The David Nieper Academy featured in an in-depth article in The Sun on Sunday. The Sun visited with Labour MP for Amber Valley, Linsey Farnsworth, and Pat McFadden, the Work and Pensions Secretary and spoke to past and present students and staff.

The pupils described how the school emphasises employability skills alongside academic attainment. 

Former pupil Aaron Meyrick, 21,  told The Sun: “I owe everything to that school.

I wasn’t a high achiever but the teachers said that no matter what level you’re at academically, there is a career for you. Companies talk to the school about job opportunities — and one of them, TC Harrison, was looking for an apprentice.

I started when I was 16 on a low apprentice wage in the workshop. Now I have my own van and travel the country fixing JCBs as a mobile service engineer.l have a great wage and I have a meaningful and important job.”

The article adds:  ‘The Academy was in the bottom two per cent of schools in England before local businessman Christopher Nieper took it over in 2017.

It now has around 800 pupils, is oversubscribed and is being seen as a model for schools around the UK.’ 

‘In the past two years all the 18-year-olds at The Academy have gone on to jobs or education, and just one 16-year-old has become a NEET — giving it a 99 per cent success rate.’

Image credit: Paul Tonge