The Dukeries Academy

The Dukeries Academy is a secondary school, community college and leisure centre situated in Ollerton, Nottinghamshire. It offers education for students aged 11–19 and is a specialist technology college. Adult education and Whitewater also offer a range of level 2 and 3 courses, including GCSEs and BTECs. Opened in September 1964 as, with Kirkby in Ashfiled Comprehensive School, the first Nottinghamshire County Comprehensives - Fairham Comprehensive School in Nottingham had preceded them, then the School immediately proved to be a high quality "Community Provision" at a time when the village and neighbouring Edwinstowe and Bilsthorpe - who provided young people as pupils at the school - were thriving mining communities. The School/College/Academy therefore celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2014. The Dukeries has been visited by Ed Balls, Sebastian Coe and Gordon Brown. Balls described it as "a school of the 21st century". The school received a "satisfactory" grade after an OFSTED inspection.The school became an academy on 1 January 2013, and was renamed The Dukeries Academy.