Havant Academy

Inspection of Havant Academy Wakefords Way, Havant, Hampshire PO9 5JD

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The quality of education Inadequate Behaviour and attitudes Inadequate Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Inadequate Previous inspection grade Good

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The headteacher of this school is Victoria Dillon-Thiselton. This school is part of The Kemnal Academies Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Karen Roberts, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Gaenor Anne Bagley. 4 and 5 February 2025

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils generally feel happy and safe at school. However, they have significant gaps in their knowledge and skills, and some also have misconceptions that have not been addressed. Pupil absence rates are too high, especially for disadvantaged pupils. Staff expectations are too low. By the end of key stage 4, pupils do not achieve well enough and are not prepared sufficiently for their next steps.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils disrupt learning in lessons too frequently. They do not behave sensibly when moving around the school. Staff know the school’s behaviour management strategies. However, some do not apply these consistently or effectively. Many pupils do not respond positively to staff attempts to correct poor behaviour in and outside of lessons. The school has clear processes in place to deal with bullying. Despite this, some pupils and parents and carers feel that the school’s response to bullying is not effective.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils benefit from participating in enrichment activities that extend the curriculum. They enjoy participating in business and accounting club, solving puzzles, learning about animation and receiving support for revisions skills. ‘Game changer’ days help them learn vital knowledge about, for example, future career opportunities or team building skills.

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

Pupils do not have a strong enough understanding of the subjects they study because the school does not address gaps in their knowledge or skills effectively. Teachers have strong subject knowledge and present information clearly. However, the school does not check that pupils remember crucial information effectively. Consequently, pupils do not achieve as well as they should. Strengthened subject leadership is beginning to improve how well the curriculum is taught, but this work is at a very early stage.

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

The needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are identified accurately. ‘Student profiles’ provide staff with vital information to support these pupils’ needs. However, staff do not use this information to adapt the curriculum and their teaching to meet these pupils’ needs. This means that pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they should.

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

Many pupils struggle to access the curriculum fully because the school’s approach to improving pupils’ fluency and confidence in reading is not effective enough. The school’s reading strategy is new and in its infancy. As a result, pupils are beginning to receive effective individual support to help them catch up quickly. However, overall, pupils do not develop their reading well enough.

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

Pupils’ absence is too high and too many pupils are frequently absent from school. Overall attendance is improving slowly, and the school has raised expectations with pupils and families. However, this has not had a substantial impact on those pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils, who are persistently absent from school. The school’s actions to reduce absence have not been effective enough and have not been focused well enough on reducing persistent absence. 4 and 5 February 2025

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A significant proportion of pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils, behave poorly and show a lack of respect for the school and each other. As a result, they are often removed from lessons. High pupil suspension rates have not led to improvements in pupils’ behaviour. These high rates have led to too many disadvantaged pupils missing vital learning.

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The school prioritises pupils’ personal development. Pupils engage positively in enrichment activities. The personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education curriculum is coherently designed. Pupils learn vital age-appropriate sex and relationships education. However, staff lack support to effectively deliver the PSHE curriculum and do not check to ensure that pupils remember vital information.

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The trust and governors have not ensured that the quality of education it provides has improved rapidly enough for pupils. Those responsible for governance have not held the school to account well enough. This has led to slow progress in critical aspects of school improvement. Staff are positive about the recent improvements being made and understand the need to focus on improving pupils’ learning.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

The school protects pupils from risk of serious harm, both online and offline. Pupils learn know how to keep themselves safe online. Staff are well trained and vigilant, fully understanding the importance of reporting any concerns to the relevant trained personnel. The culture of safeguarding is open and transparent. Staff know how to report concerns. They use the school’s own reporting system to alert safeguarding leaders to any potential worries appropriately. Staff listen to pupils’ views and experiences but do not always address pupils’ concerns as well as they should, for example pupils’ views on how effectively bullying is addressed.

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Safeguarding

Staff manage child protection arrangements and refer cases to appropriate outside agencies when necessary. The school is receptive to challenge and review of its own processes. However, the school has not ensured that the required improvements to the school’s own practice, identified in the trust’s own recent safeguarding audit, have been implemented. This includes the school’s record-keeping processes, which in some cases are poor. The school fails to ensure that staff maintain precise and comprehensive safeguarding records, in accordance with its policy. As a result, information is sometimes held in multiple places or is unclear, leading to potential missed follow-up actions. 4 and 5 February 2025

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school has failed to act swiftly enough to make the necessary improvements to maintain good standards. The school’s actions lack impact and have not secured rapid and sustainable improvements, particularly to the quality of education. Additionally, those responsible for governance have not held the school to account well enough. The school must implement the necessary improvements and those responsible for governance should hold the school to account stringently.  The school does not ensure that staff apply the school’s safeguarding policies and practices securely and consistently. Consequently, pupils are potentially put at risk due to the school not having a clear picture of what actions have taken place or how issues have been addressed. The school must ensure that staff consistently use safeguarding policies effectively and that this practice is checked robustly.  Too many disadvantaged pupils, including pupils with SEND, miss school through poor

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

attendance or suspensions that have not been used effectively to help improve pupils’ behaviour. This means that a significant proportion of disadvantaged pupils miss vital learning and risk falling further behind. The school should take action to improve attendance, decrease persistent absence and reduce the rate of suspensions, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.  Frequent disruptions to learning are not addressed effectively or consistently by staff. This means that pupils’ learning is disturbed too frequently, and sometimes poor behaviour remains unaddressed. The school should ensure that staff apply and use the behaviour management policy consistently and address poor behaviour effectively.  The school’s checks on pupils’ learning do not provide sufficient insight into how well pupils understand and remember vital information and skills. As a result, gaps in knowledge or misconceptions often go unaddressed and pupils do not achieve as well

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

as they should. The school should ensure that teachers accurately identify these gaps and misconceptions in pupils’ knowledge and address them in their subsequent teaching.  The school has not embedded secure systems and processes successfully to help pupils who are at the earlier stages of learning to read to improve their skills. This means that many pupils struggle to access the curriculum and achieve as well as they should. The school needs to ensure that pupils who are at the earlier stages of learning to read receive appropriate support to catch up quickly.  The school does not adapt teaching effectively to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. Consequently, pupils with SEND do not receive consistent support to build knowledge and skills, and they do not attain the qualifications needed to progress to the next stages of education, training, or employment. The school should ensure that pupils consistently achieve high standards and that teachers know how to meet the needs of

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

pupils with SEND effectively. 4 and 5 February 2025

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HMCI strongly recommends that the school does not seek to appoint early career teachers. The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be considered again during any monitoring inspection we carry out.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 4 and 5 February 2025

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School details

Date of previous inspection 4 December 2018, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school is a member of The Kemnal Academies Trust.  The current headteacher took up their post in May 2024.  The school uses one registered provider of alternative provision.  The school meets the requirements of the provider access legislation, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information and engagement about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. During a graded inspection, we grade the school for each of our key judgements (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management) and for any relevant provision judgement (early years and/or sixth form 4 and 5 February 2025

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provision). Schools receiving a graded inspection from September 2024 will not be given an overall effectiveness grade.

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In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors met the headteacher and other senior leaders, including the special educational needs coordinator. Inspectors also met with the senior director of education and the director of education from TKAT multi-academy trust.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in these subjects: English, mathematics, science, geography and design technology. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors visited a sample of lessons in other subjects, spoke with teachers and pupils

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about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work.  Inspectors spoke with groups of pupils and observed their behaviour at breaktime and lunchtime.  A wide range of the school’s documentation was taken into consideration, including minutes of the local governing body, policies and the school’s own self-evaluation document and the school’s improvement plan.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors met with groups of staff and considered the opinions expressed through the online staff survey. Inspectors also took account of the views of parents and carers expressed through the online survey, Ofsted Parent View. 4 and 5 February 2025

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Inspection team

Linda Culling, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Paul James Ofsted Inspector 4 and 5 February 2025

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achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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