The catchment area for the school includes areas of high deprivation.

Personalised Learning at Thomas Deacon

• A more personalised curriculum based on a wide range of options and qualification pathways to encourage student interest. This is supported a large range of learning materials accessed though a 24/7 VLE increasing learning choices and access for students.
• The school emphasises responsibility for one’s own learning. Students are encouraged to work at their own speed, in their own time and in their own environments supported by extended opening hours and a ‘flexible’ school day.
• The school actively encourages student voice through the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), particularly through increased dialogue and feedback between students, parents and teachers. Furthermore individual learning pathways are developed in collaboration with pupils to try and develop a ‘best fit’ solution to each student learning needs. 
• The pastoral system and layout of the school aims to create a more personal and small scale feel to quite a large school, thereby encouraging and supporting greater learner voice and identity.

Design Philosophy

The school operates a house system with the six houses corresponding to the six-cluster design of the building, each cluster also being home to one of the faculties. An important aspect of the design are the networked Study Areas located on the first floor of each cluster serving as home-bases which also support break-out and individual learning.

Furthermore they form the heart of each faculty, providing members with facilities for personal storage, access to on-line resources, asocial gathering space for all faculty members, and help from faculty administrators whose workstations are located here.

Throughout the building there is multifunctional space, such as the dining hall, which converts into a collaboration space.

As the VLE underpins a significant amount of the schools approach to personalised learning, the school operates a high ratio of pupil to screen/keyboards to enable greater access to technology and the VLE.