Sir Herbert Leon Academy (formerly Leon School and Sports College) is a coeducational comprehensive secondary academy school and sixth form located in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, England. It is currently sponsored by the Academies Enterprise Trust, having become an academy under this sponsorship. Originally founded as two separate boys and girls schools on Bletchley Road (Queensway), the schools unified as a coeducational senior school in 1937. In the 1960s it was renamed to Leon Secondary School, in honour of Sir Herbert Leon, and relocated to Fern Grove in 1971, becoming a comprehensive. The school specialised and became the Leon School and Sports College sometime between 1996 and 2001, and academized as Sir Herbert Leon Academy in 2012. Between 2011 and 2014, the school hosted one of two campuses for the Milton Keynes South Sixth Form, in collaboration with nearby Lord Grey School.
Currently the school is graded as requires improvement by OFSTED, previously being inadequate. Furthermore, it is one of the 100 schools identified by OFSTED as having dropped an OFSTED grade since becoming an academy, previously being graded as good when it was a specialist school and sports college. Of the school's students a third are ethnic minorities, 30.5% speak English non-natively, 50.4% are boys and 49.6% are girls. Overall, there are 538 students on roll (as of December 2021). The school is located in the Lakes Estate, which, according to the multiple deprivation index, was one of the "top 10 most deprived areas in England for crime, income and health deprivation" in 2015. Alongside the Lakes Estate, it is the main secondary school for Fenny Stratford and East and South Bletchley.
History
Early years (1890-1971)
In 1890 a new school was built on Bletchley Road (now known as Queensway) in order to accommodate the increasing population of Bletchley. The school's campus hosted the relocation of multiple national schools located on the town's then high street, including an infant school, girls school and boys school. Together on this site the schools were known as the Bletchley Road Schools. In 1937 the schools were reorganised into an infants school, county junior school and a coeducational county senior school. The senior school's headmaster was E. C. Cook, who retired in 1953.
By the 1960s the senior school was known as the Bletchley Road Secondary Modern School and in the early 1960s it was renamed to the Leon Secondary School after Sir Herbert Leon. The school during this period is often known as "Old Leon". After the new Lakes Estate was built the school relocated to its current Fern Grove site, replacing the Lakes Secondary School and being renamed to the Leon Comprehensive School. The relocated school opened its doors on March 10, 1971. It was opened by John Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead.
Leon School (1971-2012) After its opening in 1971, the Leon Comprehensive was led by Headmaster David B. Bradshaw. The school was segmented between a lower school and upper school. By the 1980s the school had a sixth form and Bradshaw was no longer head, being succeeded by Bruce Henry Abbott. The sixth form would be shared between a variety of local schools including Leon, due to its unsustainability.
Between 1996 and 2001 the school experienced a variety of challenges including temporary closure caused by asbestos removal, a period of time without a headteacher and repeated failure to recruit teaching staff. During this time the school specialised as a sports college, becoming Leon School and Sports College. By 2001 the school had finally found a headteacher, Stephen Pam, and in the same year OFSTED inspected the school. The school's standards were reported as being "still well below average" but OFSTED praised its progress since 1996, categorising it as an "improving school". The school's sixth form was graded as "satisfactory", with students "achieving well". At this time the school served 12-19 year olds, with year 7 being excluded from education.
In 2004 Grays School Deputy Head Simon Viccars joined Leon, replacing Stephen Pam as headteacher. In 2007 the school was graded with a 4 by OFSTED, making the school inadequate. Leon partnered with Lord Grey School in 2011 to create the new Milton Keynes South Sixth Form and it was graded as good by Ofsted in June of that year.