About Us

Plume, Maldon's Community Academy is committed to providing a stimulating, supportive, respectful and ultimately, safe environment for all our stakeholders. Our vision lies in nurturing ambition, fostering respect, cultivating resilience, and strengthening the sense of community by inspiring students to reach for their highest potential​.

 

Plume, Maldon's Community Academy, also aims to empower our students to reach their academic, sporting, artistic and overall personal potential, and become articulate, confident, independent and resilient individuals.  They are encouraged to develop the resourcefulness to embrace the challenges of the future, to lead fulfilling lives and to flourish in society.

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As Maldon’s Community Academy (Converter, January 2012), Plume enjoys a unique position as the largest school in the Mid-Essex District and the only secondary school in the town of Maldon. At present, the academy is fully staffed and there continues to be an ongoing downward trend of teaching and support staff turnover, however, we also remain extremely pleased with the calibre, skills, experience and potential of the necessary replacement colleagues we work exceptionally hard to recruit.

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Our Year 7 student intake is from more than 30 primary schools and our Year 7 intake numbers remain extremely high and to the point where we have been oversubscribed for the last five years. Mid-year applications only continue to increase as well.

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Our sixth form provision, Plume College, offers a wide range of Level 2 and 3 courses to nearly 275 students of all abilities, is well regarded by students and parents/carers alike, and continues to attract a decent number of external applicants.

 

Plume Academy’s split site location has been maximised by developing three linked but distinct campuses: Years’ 7 and 8 at Mill Road, and Years’ 9-11 and the College at Fambridge Road.

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Prior attainment at KS2 is around national for most year groups and as a fully inclusive comprehensive, we offer a broad, balanced, rich and diverse curriculum to all our students.

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Trustees are experienced, committed and extremely rigorous in terms of their scrutiny of the academy’s work. As well as main Trustee meetings, there are sub-committees around all the main key indicators of performance as well as an overarching Academy Trust Executive Group. Trustees also visit the academy on a regular basis which is greatly appreciated as well as respected by the academy’s SLT and other staff members. The vast majority are also current or former parents and therefore, have a real vested interest in ensuring things continue to progress and develop over time, whilst also ensuring the monitoring and scrutiny of the SLTs work in relation the academy’s KIPs remains their key focus.

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Plume Academy continues to aspire to be at the heart of a growing and increasingly diverse community; we have built many excellent partnerships over the years ranging from being corporate members of the Rotary Club of Maldon and being actively involved in the world-famous Maldon Mud Race.

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Our students and staff continue to be recipients of Jack Petchey Awards, and we continue to conduct a whole Year 10 work experience programme alongside a Year 12 work shadowing scheme at the end of every summer term. These form part of an established, embedded and formally recognised CEIAG programme, and last year, we were also formally reaccredited with ‘Healthy Schools’ status again, after a great deal of hard work and of course, which we were immensely proud to receive.

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We also very much pride ourselves on our local and regional reputation as well as our distinctive ‘outward facing’ approach in working with other schools, external agencies, specialist providers, local businesses and a variety of other associated stakeholders. We are a founder member of the seven-strong ‘Consortium for School Improvement’, benefitting from shared INSET and disseminating effective local and regional practice. We are also an active member of both the Association of Secondary Headteachers in Essex and the Mid-Essex Secondary Headteachers associations, the countywide and regional secondary headteachers’ forums, and are currently working in partnership with several other Essex schools with the core objective of mutually beneficial support and continuing school improvement.

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We are also committed to developing teachers new to the profession – our strong and established links with TES Global and Mid-Essex ITT ensures that teacher training is given a very high priority, further contributing to our aim to become a validated ‘outstanding’ education provider.

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We are embracing the exciting, rapid changes in terms of routes into teaching and are a lead school for ‘School Direct’, again, working with TES Global. This we feel will widen the scope of our partnerships and ensure we recruit as well as retain high quality teaching staff.

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Plume staff are also fully committed and vastly experienced in terms of working with multi-agencies ranging from the Police to Social Care, and the Regional Schools Commissioners Office to the Local Authority and its many different representatives.