North Cambridge Academy

North Cambridge Academy is a small secondary school with academy status, located in North Cambridge, England. Founded in 1959 the school has also been known as Manor Community College, and The Manor. It is currently undergoing building work, which is aiming to be finished by February 2016.Partner schoolsAssociate primary schools are: Shirley Infant and Primary School, Kings Hedges Primary School, The Grove Primary School and Orchard Park Primary School. The Sister Schools of this establishment are Swavesey Village College and Nene Park Academy.HistoryThe school was built as Manor School around 1959 based on a design by the architects W. Doig and M.R. Francis and, at that time, was a flagship school in Cambridge City. The school was named after Manor Farm which was in the area and was owned by Cambridgeshire County Council, who bought the farm in 1909 from the Benson family of Chesterton hall.The Council split the farm into smallholdings, and the name of one of the smallholders, William Downham, is commemorated in a nearby road called Downham's Lane. The school was due to have funding for refurbishment, but this was removed by Cambridgeshire County Council in 2009. It has recently been selected as part of the Coalition Government's Priority School Building Programme.In 2007 the school appointed Ben Slade as Principal. In October 2012 Slade resigned in order to take up a post in the independent schools sector. The school improved during his 5-year tenure despite 2012 results being the lowest since he was appointed exacerbated by the national grade boundary change scandal. In 2007 results were 23% 5 higher grades including English and Maths. These rose to 49% in 2010. At 5 higher grades results rose from 32% in 2007 to 60% in 2010 "a remarkable turnaround" (Ofsted, 2010).