Ivanhoe School (formerly Ivanhoe College) has a long history in the market town of Ashby de la Zouch. Opened in 1954 as a Community Middle School it served as a feeder school to the former Ashby Grammar School (now Ashby School) and was named after the historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, part of which was set at Ashby de la Zouch Castle.
In July 2012 Ivanhoe College became a stand-alone Specialist Technology Academy, remaining as a Key Stage 3 school.
In September 2022 the DfE gave approval to enable the secondary schools in the Ashby and Ibstock area to change the year groups taught in each of the secondary schools with a gradual transition from August / September 2022. Ivanhoe College became Ivanhoe School and Ibstock Community College became Ibstock School with both becoming 11-16 schools. Whilst Ashby School became an 11-18 school, with pupils only in Year 7 for the first year.
Extensive formal consultation on the proposals were undertaken by the three schools and all stakeholders. The results both for and against the proposals, were fully considered first by the schools and then by the DfE. It was agreed that the proposed changes should go forward and approval was granted by the DfE for the following:
● Ashby, Ivanhoe and Ibstock should transfer to LiFE Multi Academy Trust. The DfE agreed that the three single academy trusts would benefit from joining the Multi Academy Trust together to form a ‘hub’ of three collaborative schools. This is now known as The National Forest Hub.
● From 2022 Ivanhoe and Ibstock were to become 11-16 schools in line with other parts of Leicestershire so that Year 9 pupils can choose to stay at the same school to undertake years 10 and 11 there and that Ashby school will start to have an entry into Year 7 and so become an 11-18 school.
● That Sixth Form Provision for the area should continue to be offered at Ashby School.
From Autumn 2022 Ivanhoe College officially became Ivanhoe School
Then the gradual process of making the age range change meant that the first KS4 examinations for Ivanhoe were taken in Summer 2024. The year 9 cohort in Summer 2024 were also the last students to be given the choice of moving to Ashby School for their KS4 years.
Students who joined the school in Year 7 in August 2022 chose their school based on a 5 year journey.
Was the Age Range Process a Success?
Absolutely. The first set of GCSE results in 2024 showed that results on average across all 3 schools were better than when all students had to transition for KS4.
The careful planning and the support from the other LIFE Mat Schools ensured that the transition was smooth. The challenges of pupil number fluctuations during the process – which could have meant financial hardship for some schools was managed across the three schools, with shared staffing to manage the drop in student numbers in key year groups over the 5 years up to 2026-27 when the process of age range is complete.
Tel: 01530 412756
Email: office@ivanhoe.co.uk
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