Eastbourne secondary school drops from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvements’ in Ofsted report

Schools are judged on four categories – the quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

The Eastbourne Academy, in Hampden Park, was inspected in May and the result was published on July 22.

The school, which caters to around 900 students aged 11-16, was rated as ‘requires improvements’. It had previously been rated as ‘good’ in 2012.

The personal development category was rated as ‘good’. The other three were rated as ‘requires improvement’.

The report says: “Leaders are ambitious for what they want all pupils to achieve by the end of secondary school.”

However, ‘the curriculum does not clearly identify and order the knowledge and skills that pupils need to achieve this ambition’ in subjects such as English and Spanish.

As a result, the report says: “Pupils struggle to connect new learning to prior knowledge or key ideas.”

Students told the inspector they found the content in maths and history ‘easy’ which the report says means they are not being challenged ‘to think hard enough’.

Leaders had a plan to help students who struggled during the pandemic but, the report says, these plans have not been implemented yet.

The report said students do not always understand feedback they are given to be able to correct mistakes and end up relying ‘heavily’ on teachers for help.

It says: “They lack the confidence and skills to learn independently.”

Personalised plans are set out for additional support for students with special educational needs or disability (SEND) but the inspectors said ‘leaders do not ensure that these plans are considered effectively by all teachers when planning’.

The report says: “Pupils with SEND do not always receive the support they need in lessons.”

Outside of traditional lessons, there is a group available to support pupils with ideas about gender and sexuality and careers advice and guidance.

The report said derogatory language is still used by a ‘significant minority’. It says girls in Years 7-9 have accepted this behaviour and feel they need ‘a thick skin’ to handle this language. As a result, not all incidents of discrimination are reported which needs to be dealt with.

Headteacher Dan Wynne Willson said: “As the new headteacher of the Eastbourne Academy, alongside support from the Swale Academies Trust and new leaders within the school, we have acted quickly to address the issues raised in the report and to develop the strengths of the school identified by Ofsted.

“School leaders, supported by a new Challenge Committee have a clear plan in place for how to move the school forward, which will include working closely with parents and ensuring that the ambition Ofsted identified in our leaders is realised immediately in the classroom. Although the outcome of the report is disappointing we are pleased that our latest GCSE results show a big improvement on the last set of GCSE exams in 2019 and many students achieved the top grades in the country.”

Read the full report here

More Ofsted news from Eastbourne