A NORTH Somerset school has had a busy month since it closed its doors to pupils for the summer holidays.

Nailsea School, which congratulated sixth form students’ on their ‘excellent’ A-level results on Thursday, as well as handing out 65 certificates to teenagers who passed a BTEC in Driving and Driver Training, officially converted to academy status on August 1.

Headteacher David New, who announced the new status the same day as the A-level results, said: “Our newly achieved academy status provides the freedom, and resources, to innovate further, as we have done with the driving and road safety qualification.

“It means we can continue to provide excellent education with extra resources hopefully, because we can look for the best value for services which would previously have come via the local authority.

“We will mostly maintain things as they are though, we feel there is no need to change as we are already a successful and popular school.”

The Times reported in April governors voted unanimously in favour of the Mizzymead Road site becoming the eighth academy school in North Somerset.

Chair of governors Sally-Ann Hancock said at the time: “Being able to prioritise spending on the needs of the students of Nailsea School, rather than the needs of the local authority, means we can be far more effective in putting the resources where they will have most impact.”

The school is looking forward to celebrating more successful results with GCSE students when they find out how they performed tomorrow (Thurs).