Harris City Academy Crystal Palace is a mixed-sex secondary school in Croydon, south London, England. It was established in 1990 to replace Sylvan High School, a newly built mixed comprehensive school which had opened in 1974. Sylvan, judged to be under-performing, re-opened as a City Technology College (CTC) sponsored by Lord Harris of Peckham. In September 2007, Harris CTC became Harris City Academy Crystal Palace. Background The new Harris CTC introduced new systems and structures and results steadily improved. In recent years the examination performance of the school has been excellent. The conversion to Academy status in September 2007 brought with it the promise of £10 Million for new buildings and facilities. The work on the new buildings was completed by November 2010, with a new sixth form block, reception, internal walkways and classrooms now in use. The Sixth Form results were also the best ever achieved by the Academy with 100% of students passing their A-level exams and 82% of all grades achieved resulting in a grade A, B or C. In October 2009, under the new tougher Ofsted inspection criteria, the Academy became the first secondary school in the country to achieve an outstanding grade in each of the 30 categories. By Easter 2010, the Academy was still the only school in England to have achieved this result. Over 2000 applications were received for 180 places in Year 7 for September 2009. The intake of the Academy is of mixed ability. The Sixth Form is part of a federated Sixth Form with Harris South Norwood, Harris Merton, Harris Purley, Harris Bromley, Harris Beckenham and Harris East Dulwich Girls. The Sixth Form at Crystal Palace delivers primarily AS and A level courses and around 400 students are based there. The other two sites offer some AS and A levels but also a range of vocational courses. Harris City Academy Crystal Palace is also a registered Cisco Networking Academy and offers the CCNA course to Post-16s throughout the Federation as part of the enrichment programme. The Academy is a Gifted and Talented specialist school. Specific new opportunities for students include an annual opportunity for three Post-16 students to visit NASA astronaut training facilities in HACCP and Florida in the USA and many residential trips. The new Year 7's get to go on an optional trip to PGL in October every year just for the year 7's. The Student Commission The