The Premier Academy

As a member of FASNA we believe in maximising school autonomy. We believe that schools in control of their own destiny serve their pupils best which results in us having the flexibility to operate in a more businesslike manner. Forging links with external partners, often big business, employing our staff directly and acting as our own admissions authority gives us a degree of flexibility unavailable to Local Authority controlled schools.

In achieving the National Healthy Schools Award we have proved that we are committed to taking a systematic and constructive approach to some of the more difficult issues surrounding school life such as drug education, emotional health and well being, healthy eating, physical activity and sex and relationships education. The school was accredited with the highest achieveable standard within the Healthy Schools framework in December 2007.

We were proud to be re-accredited with ActiveMark in September 2006. This is a national award which rewards a school for commitment to promoting the benefits of physical activity and offering good physical activity provision. During the last academic year Eaton Mill offered the children twenty different Out of School Hours Learning clubs and exceeded the target of 90% of all children attending. This year we are able to offer even more OSHL due to the fact that the Friends of Eaton Mill Association has recently purchased two seventeen-seater mini-buses.

In addition the school operates before and after school care and holiday club which effectively means we are open from 7:45am to 6:00pm all year round.

None of the above could have been achieved without the dedication and commitment of a thoroughly professional staff who are constantly challenging perceptions.

Through the IIP accreditation system we have proven that as an institution we are fully committed to developing our people in order to achieve our very clear personal and whole school aims and objectives. By understanding the importance of setting clearly defined, specific and achievable targets we are ensuring that the school's performance improves. We are proud to have been acknowledged as one of the best run businesses in the country. And we are only a school!

The Basic Skills Agency is a national organisation committed to improving standards of basic skills in English and Maths.
In July and 2002 we received the Basic Skills Quality Mark in recognition of our whole school commitment to raising standards in English and Maths. We were delighted to be the first school in Milton Keynes to receive the revalidation of this award for the third time in July 2008. Our particular focus for the Quality Mark has been to raise the National Curriculum level of the lower attaining pupils in the school. In order to do this, we provide focused basic skills teaching of small groups or individuals for English and Maths.
Through our teaching, we aim to motivate all children to improve their basic literacy and numeracy skills. We regularly review the progress of all children in the school through our target-setting work, which is an important aspect of our teaching.
To be awarded the Quality Mark we have to be able to show evidence of all of the 10 areas below.

1. A whole school strategy, including an action plan, to improve performance in basic skills.
2. An assessment of pupil performance in basic skills in the school.
3. A target for the improvement of the school’s performance in basic skills.
4. Basic skills improvement plans for pupils under attaining in the school.
5. Regular review of the progress made by each pupil under-attaining in basic skills.
6. A commitment to improving the skills of staff in the school to teach and extend basic skills.
7. The use of a range of teaching styles to improve basic skills.
8. The use of appropriate teaching and learning material to improve basic skills.
9. The involvement of parents in developing their children’s basic skills.
10. An effective procedure for monitoring the action plan and assessing improvement in performance in basic skills.

Living Archive is a child of the city of Milton Keynes. Conceived as an antidote to the assertion that ‘new towns have no history’, it has been nourished and developed by a continuing source of wonderful stories from its citizens that can astound you, amuse you, and move you to tears. Such stories have inspired multifarious high-quality artistic, creative and educational activities. The most powerful expression of such social history has been created at Living Archive over the past quarter of a century through the arts - community documentary plays, films, sculpture, song-writing, books, dance, videos, photographic and textile exhibitions. We are fortunate to have close links with the Living Archive which means our children have access to people and projects ensuring that our history isn’t forgotten and that our future is in safe hands.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families Playing for Success initiative is establishing out of school hours study support centres at football clubs and other sports’ grounds. The centres use the environment and medium of football, rugby and other sports as motivational tools, and focus on raising literacy, numeracy and ICT standards amongst KS2 and KS3 pupils who are struggling a little and often demotivated.

Warren Harrison, our Head teacher was a founder member of a team instrumental in bringing PFS to Milton Keynes and was responsible for the appointment of Angie Ward, Milton Keynes’ PFS manager. The children at Eaton Mill have already benefitted from the resource and the feedback was outstanding.