I visited the Telford academy that once united rival schools and today creates rising stars while impressing Elton John
Born from two struggling schools, New Road Academy has spent a decade rebuilding - and today it stands as a vibrant, ambitious community with a renewed sense of identity.
New Road is an apt name for this Shropshire secondary school, which has travelled quite a distance over the past decade.
Previously called The Telford Priory, the facility opened in September 2015 as a result of the amalgamation of two secondary schools: Wrockwardine Wood and the Sutherland School.
It was an ambitious project, taking on two schools with a historic playground rivalry which had both been deemed 'inadequate' by Ofsted.
But it looks like a fresh start is exactly what was needed, with the academy having recently celebrated a dramatic improvement in behaviour and the best GCSE results in its history.
Principal Andrea Bell, who joined the school in 2024 when it was taken over by the Learning Community Trust, said the school had enjoyed a "transformative year" under the new trust, with student happiness and staff morale "stronger than ever".
"New Road Academy is a fantastic place to be, the students are fabulous," she said.
