The Ruth Gorse Academy: Meet the headteacher behind one of Yorkshire's top state secondary schools

• The Ruth Gorse Academy in Leeds was our top ranked West Yorkshire secondary school.
• As well as being found ‘outstanding’ across the board by Ofsted, it boasts one of the highest ‘Progress 8’ scores in the whole region.
• Nearly four out of five of its pupils are from more areas considered among the UK’s most disadvantaged.
• The school’s principal says its staff have a ‘moral obligation’ to give these young people choices, for sixth form and beyond.

Big city secondary schools frequently take in young people from all walks of life, and academic starting points. But one Yorkshire secondary school is proving that by lifting its learners up, diversity is no barrier to achievement.

In our regional league tables measuring the performance of state-funded secondary schools across the UK, the Ruth Gorse Academy - in Leeds - took out the top spot in West Yorkshire. It was also second overall in Yorkshire as a whole.

In the 2022/23 school year (the most recent data available, until this year’s data has been finalised and published), it had an excellent Progress 8 score of 0.92, placing it in the ‘well above average’ band. The academy has also been rated ‘outstanding’ across the board by Ofsted, the government’s education inspectors, which measure quality of education, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and student safeguarding.

We caught up with Principal Ben Mallinson about what makes the Ruth Gorse Academy a special place to learn, and why it’s an integral part of the Leeds community. Here’s what he had to say:

The Ruth Gorse Academy and its pupils

Situated on Black Bull Street right in the heart of Leeds, the Ruth Gorse Academy is “a true city centre school”. Part of the Gorse Academies Trust, the school is named for a teacher at another of the trust’s secondary schools, who died of cancer in 2007.

The school has a large roll size of about 1,270 pupils which it teaches up until they sit their GCSEs, after which many move on to sixth form colleges. The academy serves what is considered a “very deprived” catchment area - with 79% of its pupils living in the top 10% of most deprived areas in the UK, according to school figures.

A high proportion of children entering the school in Year 7 have key school skills below what is typically expected for their age. Nearly one in five of its pupils (18%) also have special educational needs or disability (SEND) support in place.

But despite what some may consider challenges, the Ruth Gorse Academy boasts consistently excellent results, especially when it comes to its Progress 8 score each year - a unique figure based on GCSE results and other student achievements, which helps the government to measure how quickly a school’s pupils are learning and progressing compared to peers from a similar starting point nationwide.

The fairly new school celebrated its tenth anniversary in September, and Principal Ben Mallinson has been its head for four of those years now. He had previously been vice principal in 2016 and 17, and his teaching background before that was in PE.

Standing out

Being a large city school, the academy is also very diverse. At least 30 different ethnic groups are represented in its student body, and more than half of its pupils have a first language other than English. Over the past few years, the academy has also seen an increase in refugee students.

To Mr Mallinson, this is part of what sets the school apart. “We are based right in the heart of the city and students come from all over the south region of Leeds,” he said. “We're really privileged to have such an eclectic mix of young people come together with one common goal and that's to ensure that they're able to achieve their life ambitions.”

He described the Ruth Gorse Academy as “a magical place”, adding: “I think we're exceptionally unique. Maybe that is potentially biased. But I believe that if you are going to work in a true city centre school, you have to buy into the ethos and what the school stands for.

“The school is named after Ruth Gorse, and she was a colleague within the Gorse Academy Trust who really went above and beyond. And that is our school motto, which is dare to achieve beyond what you are today. And that's truly embodied in all that we do in memory of Ruth Gorse herself.”

Priorities

According to data from the official Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), the Leeds City Council area ranks 33rd out of 317 local authorities across England, when it comes to the proportion of neighbourhoods in the most deprived 10% nationally. “We have high levels of disadvantaged students at our academy. And what's really important for us is that every member of staff, our teaching and non-teaching profile understand our moral obligation imperative to support those young people,” Mr Mallinson said.

“We recognise that students from disadvantaged backgrounds, if they are unable to access an exceptional education, may well go on to lives that are characterised by privation, that actually their life chances and life expectancy may well be diminished as a consequence of their childhood experiences.”

In general, the school adapted its priorities to the different cohorts that joined it each year. But making sure pupils with SEND reached their full potential was another big priority for them, with the Ruth Gorse Academy last year winning a NASEN award for its SEND provision.

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Another of its other key priorities was boosting literacy. “We do recognise that nationally, reading and reading ability is something that hinders a young person's progress. So we put a large emphasis upon young people being able to read for pleasure,” Mr Mallinson said.

“Reading is an exceptionally powerful tool,” he added. The school focused on recognising when young people needed extra help, and supporting them as their reading abilities caught up to their peers.

Community

The academy’s pupils travel in from all sorts of neighbourhoods across Leeds, and different communities of their own too, Mr Mallinson said. “We want to make sure that the academy is a beacon of hope for our young people, that irrespective of their backgrounds, the communities in which they live, all the barriers to their learning, that we unlock their potential.”

But he said that the school’s mission was not only to provide that hope to its young learners, but to their family members as well. “I talk to families when they join the academy that not only do their children join our academy and our school community, but so do our families as well,” he added.

“This is about young people, their families and support network, and ourselves as professionals, working together with one common goal. And that's for young people to flourish as a consequence of attending the Ruth Gorse Academy.”

You can find out more about Yorkshire’s highest-performing secondary schools, and how they did in our regional rankings, online here.