Sutton Community Academy

Sutton Community Academy (formerly Sutton Centre Community College) is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, England.

Early plans
Sutton in Ashfield Urban District councillors in 1966 looked at the possibility of a technical-grammar school between Sutton and Huthwaite. By 1969, the school was to be an eight form comprehensive, but the councillors still preferred and expected a technical grammar school, due to the town's textile industry. Quarrydale Comprehensive had opened, but the Sutton Urban councillors saw this type of school as more of an up-to-date secondary modern school with improved buildings. The councillors did not believe that comprehensive schools offered the relevant technical knowledge which they were mostly looking for. Comprehensive school plans in the 1960s were much more favoured by radical city councillors, but in towns such as Sutton-in-Ashfield, the local councillors were more traditional. The local Sutton councillors had also wanted a campus-type school on Leamington Drive, with grammar school, secondary modern school, and a secondary technical school, in the early 1950s.

The Nottinghamshire deputy director of education, James Stone, had joined from Leicestershire, which itself had adopted the community college idea in 1956. This idea was itself borrowed from the village college idea in Cambridgeshire, with joint-use buildings with adult education.

Opening
The county council built schools, and the district council built sports facilities. On 15 September 1970, both councils met and agreed to develop a joint-use school. Another meeting was held in February 1971, between the Labour district and the Conservative county council. At the end of April 1971, the scheme was approved by Nottinghamshire Education Committee. £30,000 came from the district council for the building, and construction started in January 1972 by Searsons Ltd, under the CLASP building technique. The headteacher was the former head of Geography at Rushcliffe Technical Grammar School for Boys.

Attainment
The school (intentionally) only offered CSEs, not O-levels. By the 1990s, it was a failing school.

Academy
The school was awarded dual Specialist Business and Enterprise College and Arts College status, before becoming an academy in January 2013.

School performance
In 2019 the school was inspected by Ofsted and judged Inadequate. A new principal and senior leadership team were put in place in 2021, and Ofsted found that the school was improving. In 2022 the school was inspected again and judged Good.