David Young Community Academy

David Young Community Academy

Motto	Building your career and community
Established	2006
Type	Academy
Religion	Anglican
Principal Designate	Mrs. Lynne Frost
Location	Bishops Way Seacroft Leeds West Yorkshire LS14 6NU England Coordinates: 53°49′13″N 1°28′36″W / 53.82018°N 1.47655°W / 53.82018; -1.47655
Local authority	City of Leeds
Staff	180
Students	1050
Ages	11–18
Houses	6
Website	www.dyca.org.uk

David Young Community Academy (also known as DYCA) is a state-funded academy sponsored by the Church of England^[1] in Seacroft, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

The school is named after David Young (1931–2008) a former Bishop of Ripon. The academy is named in recognition of Bishop David Young's extensive work in education both nationally and in the Leeds area. The school was established on 18 September 2006 with pupils from Agnes Stewart Church of England High School and Braim Wood for Boys High School.^[2] Before the building of the Academy the largest secondary school in Seacroft was the nearby East Leeds High School (formerly Foxwood School), which was demolished in December 2009.

In June 2009 it was announced by School Secretary Ed Balls that £3.3 million would be spent on the school to create a purpose built base for army and air cadets.^[3]

The school is divided into six houses: Brunel (after Isambard Kingdom Brunel); Da Vinci (after Leonardo da Vinci); Hadid (after Zaha Hadid); Hopper (after Grace Hopper); Telford (after Thomas Telford); and Whittle (after Frank Whittle).

DYCA is part of the LEAF (Love Enterprise Aspiration Faith) Academy Trust. The trust consists of primary and secondary academies and the Diocese of Leeds, who work together to serve local communities by providing innovative educational practice within traditional values.

Academic performance

The school's population in January 2008 was 920, with a sixth form of 65.^[4] At the same time the school had one of the worst attendance records in the country, and was 25th from the bottom for GCSE results.

In the last full Ofsted inspection of David Young Community Academy inspectors rated it inadequate in all four assessment criteria.^[5] Further to this they found that 'Leaders of the school and the academy trust have failed to fulfil legislative requirements relating to safeguarding and to health and safety'.^[6]

In a follow up inspection by Ofsted in May 2016 the lead inspector 'strongly recommend[ed] that the academy does not seek to appoint newly qualified teachers' to reflect the poor nature of the school's academic performance.^[7]

References