About Parkside

Parkside Academy is a successful 11 – 16 school with an increasing cohort. We are located in the village of Willington, mid-way between Durham City and the Weardale market town of Crook. Most of our students come from Willington and Crook and the surrounding villages, with about 60% arriving by school bus. The area has significant deprivation with 41% of students eligible as disadvantaged students. A higher than average number of our pupil stay in education beyond 16 and study at a number of sixth form and colleges in the Durham and Bishop Auckland areas.

Parkside is an excellent school which prides itself on being consistently one of the most successful schools within County Durham. Our students are at the heart of everything that we do. All staff are dedicated to delivering an exceptional quality of education for each individual student. There is a calm and purposeful atmosphere in the school exemplifying our ethos of aspiration, hard work and achievement. This is achieved through students being valued, understood and celebrated.

As part of our values we strive for excellence in all areas of our provision. Our provision is student centred and our students are at the heart of everything that we do. In order to do this we believe in learning without limits with a no excuses culture in order to promote high aspirations in our students. We want our students to have a commitment to their own learning and leadership opportunities for all students. We offer a full curriculum to all students with the opportunities to study academic subjects, such as separate sciences and modern foreign languages as well as vocational subjects such as Business Studies, Health and Social Care and Sports Studies. We aim to build a personalised curriculum for every child.

Outstanding GCSE results over the past 8 years have confirmed Parkside is not just an excellent school but is exceptional in the education it affords its students whatever their ability.