Ossett Academy and Sixth Form College is the only high school in Ossett

Ossett

Ossett is a market town within the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It is located on junction 40 of the M1 motorway, half-way between Dewsbury, to the west, and Wakefield, to the east. In the 2001 census, it was classified as part of the West Yorkshire...

, a town in the county

County

A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...

 of West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Academic performance

Ossett School, at 2006, was in the top 10% of schools in the country. In the last 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 ....

 Report, Ossett School came in at Outstanding, Grade 1. The school is a state school, meaning no tests need to be passed to be allowed in, and is not restricted by faith.

Over the last five years, its results have improved significantly and it is now consistently near the top of the league tables for comprehensive schools in the Wakefield district

City of Wakefield

The City of Wakefield is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. Wakefield is the district's administrative centre. The district includes the "Five Towns" of Normanton, Pontefract, Featherstone, Castleford and Knottingley. Other...

. This has contributed to the town's boom in house prices.

Specialist school

As of Spring 2006, Ossett School became one of the few state schools to be awarded a dual Specialist School

Specialist school

The specialist schools programme was a UK government initiative which encouraged secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum to boost achievement. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust was responsible for the delivery of the programme...

 status. The school will now be known as a Specialist Technology

Technology College

Technology College is a term used in the United Kingdom for a secondary specialist school that focuses on design and technology, mathematics and science. These were the first type of specialist schools, beginning in 1994. In 2008 there were 598 Technology Colleges in England, of which 12 also...

 and Sports College

Sports College

Sports Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enables secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, PE, sports and dance. Schools that successfully apply to the Specialist Schools Trust and become Sports...

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Ossett School has a particularly successful Mathematics and English departments (72% of students achieving a grade A* to C in Mathematics and 74% in English in the summer of 2010) led by Mr Richard Clifford and Mr Philip Dore.

Drake building

In 2005 a new building, christened the 'Drake' building after school governor David Drake, was completed. It is home to the music department and includes practice rooms and recording studio. The sixth form department moved to this new building too. The building was constructed on old tennis courts and is now neighbour to a brand new multi-purpose sports courts for netball, tennis and football using all weather materials.