Harris Academy Ockendon

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit hugely from attending this remarkable school. Staff and leaders' sky-high expectations are immediately evident in pupils' scholarly demeanour. Pupils are attentive and work hard in lessons.

Pupils help each other to secure this impressive educational environment. For example, older pupils mentor younger ones to help them stay on track. Sixth-form students help younger pupils learn to read well.

The school parliament knows its role in supporting leaders to maintain a community where pupils' voices count.

The wide range of enrichment activities includes, for example, trips, the school parliament, 'making memories weeks' and a huge range of clubs.... These add greatly to pupils' experiences.

Pupils appreciate the teaching and opportunities the school provides.

Pupils' strong attitudes to learning sit alongside expert curriculum design and delivery. The school's unwavering ambition and belief in its pupils leads it to enter almost all pupils for the entire suite of GCSEs which make up the English Baccalaureate.

Pupils' achievements are very high, and still improving.The school and trust have created a centre of true excellence. Pupils experience an extraordinary education at Harris Academy Ockendon.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

The school has achieved a remarkably high quality of curriculum design, which is evident throughout the school. In subject after subject, from Year 7 to Year 13, the school has worked out what pupils need to know by the end of each key stage. It has then set out, in detail and in order, exactly what pupils need to learn to get there and, often, beyond.

Every teacher follows the school's pedagogical approach, such as by starting lessons with the 'Silent Do Now' task. The school describes 'interrupting the forgetting curve' and 'making it stick'. It does this incredibly well, revisiting and revising pupils' prior learning.

Staff quickly identify when gaps arise in pupils' knowledge. Teachers address these. Pupils, and students in the sixth form, learn extremely well.

Underlying this excellence is the huge focus school leaders and the trust have on training staff. They have empowered staff to be expert curriculum leaders and first-rate teachers. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) learn as well as their peers.

This is partly because the curriculum is really clear about what pupils need to know. It is also because teachers are so skilled at adapting their teaching so that no pupil falls behind.

The school makes sure pupils learn to read well.

They check pupils' reading abilities and determine what help pupils need. If, for example, pupils need to learn to decode text, staff teach them to do so. The school makes sure pupils get the support they need so that they can read fluently.

Pupils who previously struggled to read now read for pleasure.

Pupils take responsibility for their learning. They listen respectfully to their teachers and their peers.

They concentrate and work consistently hard. Between lessons, pupils are calm and respectful, making corridors a safe and pleasant place to be. Pupils follow well the school's clear routines.

On the rare occasion pupils do misbehave, the school responds quickly and appropriately. Pupils learn from this and rarely repeat the same mistakes. This all combines to create a comfortable environment which enables and encourages pupils' education.

The school goes far beyond the norm in developing pupils' understanding of the wider world. There is a comprehensive programme of careers education, information, advice and guidance. All pupils benefit from this.

There is additional and bespoke support for pupils with SEND and others if they need it. The personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum shares the same notable strengths as other aspects of the curriculum. It goes the extra mile in helping pupils understand what it means to be a citizen in modern Britain.

Pupils learn, for example, not only that they should not discriminate but that, if they identify it, they need to challenge discrimination.

Staff are strongly supportive of leaders, making many positive comments in their responses to Ofsted's survey of their views. These are well summed up by one: 'Hats off to the leadership at our school.

The journey we've been on with them has transformed our school and community. Lots of us have been here for many years and couldn't be happier.'

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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