Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Harry French Principal Cliff Park Ormiston Academy Kennedy Avenue Gorleston Great Yarmouth Norfolk NR31 6TA

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Requires improvement monitoring inspection of Cliff Park Ormiston Academy

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection of your school that took place on 18 July 2023, on behalf of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. The monitoring inspection was carried out under section 8(2) of the Education Act 2005.

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Requires improvement monitoring inspection of Cliff Park Ormiston Academy

During the inspection, I discussed with you and other senior leaders, the chair of the local governing body and a representative of the trust, the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection. We discussed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also met with pupils, visited lessons and reviewed the school’s single central record of pre-employment checks. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

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Main findings

Since the inspection, you have carefully considered how to ensure that pupils get a consistent experience in the classroom. By setting out your guiding principles, you have provided teachers with a structure they use to support them to plan engaging lessons.

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Main findings

Teachers present information in small manageable steps. They use well-structured, precise examples which help to improve pupils’ understanding. This means pupils are able to undertake learning tasks successfully. Teachers are becoming more effective in using strategies to clearly identify what pupils know. This helps pupils engage with learning and supports them to layer new information on top of their existing knowledge. This means that pupils remember more of what they are taught and can use this knowledge efficiently to solve problems.

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Main findings

Some subject leaders do not, at this stage, adapt general pedagogical approaches to subject-specific teaching approaches. You have guided them on how to do this. You have adapted your quality assurance practices so that you can check on how well they do this in the future.

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Main findings

You have completely reviewed how you support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). You have re-examined every pupil’s plan to ensure that their specific barriers to learning are identified. Teachers have been trained in how to best support pupils to overcome these barriers to learning. Your leaders of SEND have provided strategies that support teachers to adapt their teaching. These adaptations are becoming more targeted, focused and considerate of individual pupils’ needs. Pupils with SEND are now able to access the full curriculum alongside their peers. They are filling in the gaps in their knowledge and beginning to learn well.

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Main findings

The adaptations you have made to manage pupils’ behaviour have increased the consistency of teachers’ approaches. You have made clear your expectations of pupils’ behaviour and put in place simple routines that pupils and staff understand. This means that teachers are picking up most incidents quickly. Pupils say that behaviour has improved significantly since the inspection. Their lessons are not disrupted as often, and movement around the school is calm and orderly.

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Main findings

You have implemented plans to address prejudicial behaviour at its root cause. Pupils are encouraged to think about how their actions and words affect others’ feelings and emotions. This is having an impact, particularly with younger pupils who say that there are no or very few incidents of prejudicial language. The changes to the curriculum to enable pupils to learn about responsibility and looking out for each other are having a positive impact. Bullying is rare. Pupils are now confident that if they have a concern, they can report it and it will be dealt with.

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Main findings

The precision of your plans and the constant review and adaptation means you have secured a solid foundation to move forward from. You have firm plans in place to adjust the leadership structure to allocate key resource to your highlighted areas for improvement. You aim for this to ensure continued improvement in each of these areas. Governors maintain a crucial role. They support when it is needed but are ready to ask challenging questions that focus on the detail of actions and the impact they are having. The trust has provided valuable support to help you make rapid and sustainable improvement. They have provided additional physical capacity and a depth of experience that has supported your team to refine their thinking, for example in how you have redesigned provision for pupils with SEND, or developing an approach to managing pupils’ behaviour that is easy for staff to understand and consistently implement. This additional

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Main findings

support has been used to good effect by school leaders and has helped you to secure the improvements you have made so far.

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Main findings

I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees, the chief executive officer of the Ormiston Academy Trust, the Department for Education’s regional director and the director of children’s services for Norfolk County Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website.

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