The Ramsey Academy, Halstead

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

At the Ramsey Academy, pupils like and respect their teachers. Staff provide strong support. This includes for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

If pupils have any concerns, they feel confident telling staff. The school is a safe place.

Recently, pupils have benefited from raised expectations of what they can achieve.

They now learn an ambitious curriculum. Pupils produce high-quality work, such as beautiful artwork. They learn what they need to move successfully on to their next steps.

Behaviour is inconsistent. The majority of the time, pupils behave well and focus in lessons. However, at times, there is noisy and un...settled behaviour.

This frustrates pupils who want to learn. Breaktimes are mostly orderly. Pupils are polite and friendly, such as opening doors for adults.

Yet behaviour around the site can sometimes be unsettled. Some bullying happens. It gets addressed by the school, but in some instances it persists.

A lot of parents have concerns about behaviour.

The closure of parts of the site has disrupted pupils' experience of school. This has not been the school's fault.

There has also been some instability in staffing. These issues have affected behaviour. Staffing has now settled.

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

Standards in the school declined as it emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic. The trust has worked effectively with leaders to reverse this. The school has established a strong vision for the quality of education.

Where leaders have applied particular focus, such as the curriculum and attendance, the improvement is evident. In some areas, especially around behaviour, there is more to do.

There is a broad and well-considered curriculum.

Pupils learn the building blocks that they need to succeed, such as subject-specific terminology. The school reviewed the curriculum in response to poor results in national tests in 2023. Pupils are now doing well.

Mostly, teachers deliver the curriculum successfully. They explain and model new content clearly. Staff ensure that learning is carefully adapted to meet the needs of pupils with SEND.

Teachers regularly revisit what pupils have learned previously. This means that in most cases pupils remember and apply what they learn. For example, Year 7 pupils confidently use knowledge about Victorian society to understand a Charles Dickens novel.

While this is mostly the case, on occasion teachers do not check pupils' understanding thoroughly in lessons. Where this happens, pupils move on to new content with some gaps remaining in their learning.

In general, pupils develop their reading well.

For example, science teachers break down the vocabulary in complex texts so that pupils read them confidently. However, pupils who are still in the early stages of reading do not get the help they should. Staff provide one-to-one reading support but have not had training in important areas such as phonics.

This means that pupils in the early stages of reading do not improve their reading as much as they might.

The school has implemented a new, clear behaviour policy. Expectations have risen.

This has led to an increase in the issuing of consequences, such as suspensions. Corridors and classrooms have become calmer places. Attendance has improved significantly.

However, pupils who are issued with consequences often repeat the same behaviours. The school is not effective enough at teaching pupils why positive behaviour is important. Consequently, pupils do not learn sufficiently to manage their own conduct.

There is a coherent and effective curriculum for personal development. Pupils learn important content, such as regarding online safety. They articulate their understanding well.

Year 11 pupils value the way careers education has prepared them to make informed choices. Pupils with SEND access opportunities that meet their needs. However, the extra-curricular offer is not extensive.

Some pupils do not participate in many activities. This means sometimes pupils do not buy into the life of the school as fully as they otherwise might.

Trustees and governors keep a close oversight of provision.

They offer an appropriate blend of challenge and support. This has helped the school improve.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Pupils in the early stages of reading do not get the quality of support they should. This means they are not given the tools they need to become more confident readers and this has an impact on their learning. The school needs to put in place an effective programme of support for the weakest readers.

• Teachers do not always check pupils' understanding thoroughly in lessons. This means that gaps in learning are not addressed as quickly or well as they might be. The school needs to ensure teachers get the guidance and support they need to check learning successfully.

• The school does not deal effectively enough with the underlying causes of misbehaviour. As a result, pupils' misbehaviour tends to recur. The school needs to teach pupils more successfully why positive conduct is important so that pupils learn to manage their own behaviour better.

• Some pupils do not engage as much as they could with the school's extra-curricular offer. This sometimes leads to a lack of buy-in from pupils into the wider life of the school. The school should enhance its extra-curricular provision so that there is a deeper engagement from pupils and a greater sense of community.