Whitcliffe Mount, A Share Academy Review 2026: A community-focused secondary with a clear personal development spine

A modern, purpose-built secondary for students aged 11 to 16, Whitcliffe Mount combines a large-school scale with deliberate structures designed to help students feel known and supported. The current building opened in 2017, and leadership now sits within SHARE Multi-Academy Trust, which the academy joined in September 2022.

The school’s idea of culture is expressed in practical routines, including a dedicated Personal Development slot at the start of the day, and a house system that links students to a longer institutional story, with houses named after five early figures connected to the school’s development.

The most recent Ofsted visit was an ungraded inspection on 4 and 5 March 2025, confirming the school had taken effective action to maintain standards identified at the previous inspection.

This is a school that puts “belonging” into systems, not slogans. Students are expected to work through a staged personal development pathway, the BELONG Accreditation, with regular milestone points through Years 7 to 11. It is deliberately tied to participation, including clubs, trips, productions, councils and fundraising, with the intention that students build a record of contribution alongside academic work.

The house system adds a second identity layer. Introduced in 2010, it asks students to compete and collaborate within houses named for John G Mowat, George Whiteley, J Walter Wadsworth, Reginald M Grylls and Will H Clough. This is not just a naming exercise, it is explicitly presented as a way to keep the school’s early history present in daily life.

Leadership messaging is consistent about a calm, orderly learning environment, with clear responsibility lines for pastoral oversight and safeguarding. The Senior Leadership Team structure includes a Deputy Headteacher (Pastoral) with explicit remit across behaviour, attendance, safeguarding, inclusion and special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Headteacher continuity is also clear. Mrs Rebecca Hesmondhalgh states she joined as Headteacher in November 2022, and the school positions this as the start of the next stage of its journey.

For parents, the most useful headline is how this school performs relative to peers in England, and how reliably it converts teaching into outcomes.

Rankings context (FindMySchool ranking based on official data)

Ranked 1,796th in England and 2nd in Cleckheaton for GCSE outcomes. This places performance broadly in line with the middle 35% of schools in England (25th to 60th percentile).

On the headline measures provided, the picture is one of steady, above-midrange performance, rather than extremes. The school’s average Attainment 8 score is 47, and Progress 8 is 0.13, indicating students, on average, achieve above expectation from their starting points. EBacc average point score is 4.12, and 17.5% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in the EBacc measure reported here.

A sensible way to interpret this combination is: students are making positive progress overall, outcomes are competitive locally, and the school appears to be pushing academic ambition through curriculum choices. Ofsted’s recent report also notes that an increasing number of pupils study the English Baccalaureate suite, which aligns with that direction of travel.

If you are comparing several local schools, the FindMySchool Local Hub comparison tool is the quickest way to place these figures alongside nearby options on a like-for-like basis.

Teaching and curriculum are described, in official reporting, as structured and intentionally sequenced. The 2025 inspection notes an ambitious curriculum that has been refined to identify the specific knowledge and skills students need, with staff building from what pupils already know and returning to prior learning so that students form connections over time.

Reading is positioned as a priority lever for access across subjects. The school is described as quickly identifying students at early stages of reading and putting bespoke interventions in place, with a visible progression point when students complete the programme. Text choices are also framed as purposeful, including material intended to help students understand difference and topics such as prejudice.

Support for SEND is described in practical classroom terms, including staff modelling how to respond to tasks so students can structure effective answers. This matters because it signals a mainstream classroom strategy, not a separate-track approach.

The school also frames personal development as curriculum, not add-on. A timetabled Personal Development slot appears daily on the published academy day structure, which makes this a consistent experience for students rather than something that happens only in themed weeks.

Where Students Go Next

As an 11 to 16 school, the main transition is post-GCSE. The school positions careers and future planning as an embedded programme from Years 7 to 11, aligned to the Gatsby Benchmarks and Department for Education careers guidance expectations.

The 2025 Ofsted report states that students receive effective support to explore options for their future, with staff linking subject choices to next steps. That tends to benefit students who need clearer lines between “what I am studying now” and “what it could lead to later”, particularly in the GCSE option years.

Because published destination percentages are not provided in the supplied dataset for this school, parents should use open evenings and the school’s careers information to ask practical questions: which local sixth form routes are most common, how the school supports vocational pathways alongside A-level routes, and what employer encounters look like in practice.

Year 7 places are allocated through Kirklees coordinated admissions for September entry.

For September 2026 entry, the school states that applications can be made between 1 September 2025 and 31 October 2025. The same page warns that applying after the deadline can significantly reduce the chances of receiving a preferred school.

Kirklees also publishes that families can check their secondary offer from 08:30 on Monday 2 March 2026 via the council portal.

If proximity is a factor in your planning, use the FindMySchool Map Search to check your exact home-to-school distance and to model how small location differences can affect outcomes in tight allocation years. Even when a school is not explicitly catchment-boundary driven, distance and priority criteria can still decide marginal cases.

Pastoral structures are detailed in the school’s own organisation. The Deputy Headteacher (Pastoral) remit covers behaviour, attendance, safeguarding, inclusion and SEND, which typically indicates a single point of accountability across the things parents most want to be joined-up.

The school also presents an internal wellbeing offer through the Inspire team, providing one-to-one and group interventions. The published intervention menu includes programmes focused on confidence and self-esteem, communication and social skills, managing emotions, sleep habits, and a specific support strand for Year 11 exam stress.

Safeguarding is reported as effective in the most recent Ofsted inspection, which is the key baseline parents should expect to see evidenced through consistent practice and clear reporting routes.

The extracurricular picture has two useful qualities: it is broad enough to help different kinds of students find a niche, and it is linked back to personal development in a way that makes participation feel purposeful rather than optional.

From published school and trust materials, examples of named opportunities include The Brilliant Club, Duke of Edinburgh, Rugby Pathway, and Rotary Club, plus technology tournaments, musicals, a Dance Academy and chess club.

Trips and wider experiences are presented as a regular feature, with examples including ski trips, sports tours and summer school. A recent example referenced in school materials is a sports tour to Barcelona.

The BELONG Accreditation then provides the organising logic. Participation is tracked, and students are expected to “graduate” at bronze, silver, gold or platinum levels at the end of each year, which can motivate students who respond well to visible milestones and recognition.

The published academy day shows the school open to students from 08:00, with the formal start at 08:30 and the last timetabled period running until 15:00. A Personal Development session is scheduled before Period 1.

For commuting, the school highlights proximity to Junction 25 of the M62 and access to Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds, which is relevant for families balancing travel time with after-school clubs and commitments.

Wraparound care is not typically a secondary-school feature in the primary-school sense, but this school explicitly links enrichment to before-school, lunchtime and after-school slots through its BELONG framework. Parents who need a specific supervision arrangement should check which sessions run on which days in the current term programme.

• Disadvantaged pupils gap is an explicit improvement priority. The most recent inspection notes that strategies are still embedding and not yet having the desired impact for some disadvantaged pupils, particularly around achievement and attendance. This is worth exploring in conversations with the school if your child may need additional structure to thrive.

• A structured culture can feel demanding for some students. The school emphasises raised expectations for behaviour and purposeful classrooms, supported by routines and personal development tracking. This suits students who benefit from clarity; students who struggle with routines may need stronger transition planning.

• Large cohort scale cuts both ways. Capacity is listed at 1,250, which usually enables breadth in curriculum and enrichment, but parents may want to understand how the school maintains individual attention within a big intake.

• Post-16 is a transition out. With an upper age of 16, families should plan early for sixth form or college routes and ask how Year 11 guidance translates into concrete applications and support.

Whitcliffe Mount is a large, modern secondary that puts significant weight on culture, routines and personal development, and then backs that up with visible structures like the BELONG Accreditation and a timetabled Personal Development session. Academic outcomes sit around the middle band in England overall, with a strong local ranking position, and the most recent inspection confirms standards are being maintained while improvement work continues.

Who it suits: families who want a mainstream 11 to 16 school with a clear, structured approach to behaviour, wellbeing and enrichment, and who value a school that makes participation part of the core experience rather than an optional extra.