Backwell School is an academy in Backwell, North Somerset, England. The school, which has had academy status since May 2011, is a specialist Arts College

Arts College

Arts Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the now defunct Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enabled secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, the performing, visual and/or media arts...

, and includes a sixth form

Sixth form

In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...

 and takes pupils from the age of 11 (Year 7) to the age of 18 (Year 13). The school's catchment area includes the villages of Backwell

Backwell

Backwell is a suburban village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It falls within the Unitary Authority of North Somerset and has a population of 5,455.It is south west of Bristol, on the A370 to Weston-super-Mare...

, Yatton

Yatton

Yatton is a village and civil parish within the unitary authority of North Somerset, which falls within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located south-west of Bristol. Its population in 2001 was 9,176...

, Claverham, Cleeve

Cleeve, Somerset

Cleeve is a village and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is situated within the unitary authority of North Somerset, south west of Bristol and has a population of 941 .-History:...

 and Kingston Seymour

Kingston Seymour

Kingston Seymour is a small village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated within the unitary authority of North Somerset, between Clevedon and Weston-super-Mare on the North Somerset Levels. The parish has a population of 338...

, although several hundred of the schools students come from locations outside of its official catchment area from locations such as Nailsea

Nailsea

Nailsea is a town in the unitary authority of North Somerset within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England, approximately to the southwest of Bristol and about to the northeast of the seaside resort of Weston-super-Mare. The nearest village is Backwell, which lies south of Nailsea on the...

 and Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

. The local education authority

Local Education Authority

A local education authority is a local authority in England and Wales that has responsibility for education within its jurisdiction...

 is North Somerset Council. The original secondary modern school

Secondary modern school

A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...

 at Backwell became a comprehensive school in 1976 when the tripartite education system

Tripartite System

The Tripartite System was the arrangement of state funded secondary education between 1944 and the 1970s in England and Wales, and from 1947 to 2009 in Northern Ireland....

 was abolished in the area.

The school's original building dates from 1954, when Britain was in the midst of a post-war school-building boom.

In 2009, 71% of GCSE students achieved at least five GCSE

General Certificate of Secondary Education

The General Certificate of Secondary Education is an academic qualification awarded in a specified subject, generally taken in a number of subjects by students aged 14–16 in secondary education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is equivalent to a Level 2 and Level 1 in Key Skills...

 passes above grade C including English and Maths. This is 21% above the national average that year. It is the highest performing state secondary school in North Somerset.

In November 2008, Backwell School was rated as outstanding by Ofsted

Ofsted

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools In England ....

.

Notable former students

• Richard Ottaway
  Richard Ottaway
  Richard Geoffrey James Ottaway is a British Conservative politician, and Member of Parliament for Croydon South.-Early life:...
  
  , member of Parliament
  Member of Parliament
  A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
  
   for Croydon South
  Croydon South (UK Parliament constituency)
  Croydon South is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
  
  
• Joel McIver
  Joel McIver
  Joel McIver is a British author. The best-known of his 20 books to date is the bestselling Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica, first published in 2004 and selling close to 50,000 copies in nine languages since then. McIver's other works include biographies of Black Sabbath, Slayer, Ice...
  
  , author