Message from the Principal

Dixons City Academy is a centre of educational excellence serving the whole community of Bradford.  Our students meet and work together in a well-ordered and harmonious and happy community drawn from all cultures and backgrounds across the city. We believe that our students have a key role to play in the economic development and social regeneration of our city in the next decade and beyond.

We are a high-performing school which takes students of all abilities. Our success is built on the traditional values of hard work and respect in a contemporary hi-tech learning environment. We are a genuine learning community in which all students are challenged and stimulated, cared for and supported. Our performance is regularly rated among the top ten state schools nationally both for the grades that our students achieve and also for the ‘distance that they travel’ from entering Dixons City to gaining their GCSES.

Opening in 1990 as one of only fifteen City Technology Colleges across the country, Dixons City has been at the forefront of the Specialist Schools movement which now accounts for 85% of all secondary schools. As a City Academy from September 2005, we now work much more closely with the Local Authority and other local schools, while retaining our independence and our own unique culture.

Dixons is committed to the individual achievement of each student. We work hard to make a success of the three-way partnership between the school, the student and the family. Students here are closely monitored while enjoying the freedom to develop as young adults and to take increasing responsibility for their own lives. We have a great emphasis on supporting students to become self-managing and independent learners.  Our students share a strong sense of identity and ethos, and students are expected to have a great deal of pride in their school, this is nurtured by high-quality tutorial, guidance and personal development.

Dixons City Academy has always had a focus on a relentless drive for improvement and its staff are entirely student focused with a real ‘can do’ attitude.  Currently we are entering a new phase of development with the extension of the Dixons family to now include 4 schools in Bradford.  I was appointed by the governors to the position of  Principal  in September 2011 after leading the school for many years in the position of Vice Principal with the previous Principal, Nick Weller who is now Executive Principal across the group.  We are all very excited about the new opportunities that the extension of our group brings, both to provide a Dixons education for more children in Bradford and also in the staff development opportunities that it brings.  My role, however, is primarily to focus on the achievement and well-being of the students and staff at Dixons City and this is a role that I take extremely seriously.

I am very proud to be the Principal of Dixons City Academy and have a healthy respect for its past as well as a keen eye on the present and the future.   I look forward to welcoming you soon.

Shirley Watson
Principal

Specialisms

Teaching and Learning