Don Valley School & Performing Arts College
Raising Expectations
Don Valley School is located three miles outside Doncaster, and is situated on an attractive and well maintained site near the pleasant suburban area of Bentley, Scawsby and Scawthorpe. Don Valley School was awarded Specialist School Status in September 2005 and is now a Specialist College in Performing Arts. This does not mean that other subjects will become less important or that they will offer a restricted curriculum but the College will specialise in the subjects of English, Music and Drama. In fact, the whole school benefits from the enhanced staffing and facilities derived from Specialist School Status.

There are nearly 1500 students in the school, and also excellent sixth form facilities. There is a strong sense of partnership between the students and staff and Don Valley has a long tradition of academic success, with the majority of Advanced Level Sixth Form students moving on to Higher Education.
Don Valley School is also participating in the government’s Aim Higher initiative. Aim Higher’s goal is to increase participation in Higher Education of ages 18 to 30 by the end of the decade. The pupils have already been involved in a number of initiatives, including ‘Advanced Extension Award Masterclass’ at Sheffield University, ‘Passport to University’ at Huddersfield University for Year 7 and an ‘Aim Higher Roadshow’ (post 16) at Doncaster College.
The staff of the school are hard-working professionals who are committed to providing quality education. A measure of the commitment of the staff of the school is the extensive extra-curricular programme, ranging from games, music and drama through to the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. The School has a strong music tradition, including foreign tours by the concert band. The sport activities available are wide ranging and include extensive use of the swimming pool. There are excellent Science and Technology facilities and the Expressive Arts department produces regular entertainment. Pupils are encouraged to use the newly refurbished library, careers suite and drama studio.
The school regularly takes part in the Doncaster Children’s Book Award. Students visit other schools involved in these schemes to discuss the books and to hear from authors, such as Melvin Burgess, who have already won the award. Another scheme is the Carnegie / Greenaway Shadowing, which is for picture books, and students visit a local primary school to work with pupils on Art-based projects.
Granada Learning are currently involved in an extensive trial of new media and technology in the school that includes Interactive Whiteboards and home to school access to e-learning through the internet. There are over 250 computers in the school, making it one of the best for ICT in the region. The school has been awarded City Learning College status under the Excellence in Cities initiative and has a City Learning Centre on site, providing state of the art learning technology to children and young people, local residents and businesses. (see page 55)
The last Ofsted report stated that Don Valley School provides a good education and good value for money. Many areas came in for praise after a very extensive inspection and the sixth form came under very close scrutiny and emerged with flying colours.
Mr R.F Johnson, Headteacher commented, “A clear message from the inspection was that pupils enjoy being at Don Valley. High quality teaching is central to our success and this was highlighted in the report, paying tribute to the excellent staff. The leadership and management of the school were described as good. There is no doubt that the school will continue to build on this success to be even more successful in the future.”

Jossey Lane, Scawthorpe, Doncaster
South Yorkshire, DN5 9DD
Telephone: 01302 781528
Website: www.donvalley.co.uk