Beacon Academy

Beacon Academy Chatsworth Place, Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, DN35 9NF

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Monitoring inspection report: 24 March 2026

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At the most recent graded inspection, the following areas were identified as needing to improve:

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 The school, including the trust, has not taken effective or swift enough action to address the decline in standards that has occurred. The school should ensure that actions to address the school’s weaknesses are effective. This includes ensuring that staff have the expertise and knowledge to enact agreed actions.  The school’s quality assurance systems are not effective enough. This means that leaders’ perspectives about the school’s strengths and weaknesses are not accurate. Consequently, actions to improve the school do not happen quickly enough. The school should review the mechanisms in place for quality assurance at all levels and ensure that improvement actions are prioritised and robustly enacted.  Teaching is not adapted to meet the needs of pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The work pupils are provided with is not demanding enough. This means that pupils do not achieve as well as they should. The

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school should ensure that teachers have the expertise required to provide pupils with demanding work and that teaching is adapted to successfully meet the needs of pupils with SEND.  Pupils do not benefit from a clearly sequenced programme of support for reading. As a result, pupils do not improve their reading well enough as they move through the year groups. The school should ensure that pupils receive a clear programme of support for reading and that pupils have regular opportunities to practise their reading.  Assessment is not used effectively to gauge what pupils know and remember about their learning. This means that feedback is not effective in supporting pupils to improve. The school should ensure that assessment is used effectively across all subjects and that pupils benefit from accurate feedback on how they can improve.  Some staff have low expectations of pupils’ behaviour. Additionally, the behaviour policy

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is inconsistently implemented by some staff. This results in poor pupil behaviour, which causes widespread disruption to learning. The school needs to ensure that staff have Monitoring inspection report: Beacon Academy 24 March 2026

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high expectations of behaviour and that they consistently implement the behaviour policy.  Strategies to improve attendance are not well developed or embedded. Too many pupils miss important learning. This impacts on the outcomes they subsequently achieve. The school should ensure that there is a well-developed and resourced strategy in place to improve pupils’ attendance.  The personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum is undergoing development and is not currently having the impact that is needed. As a result, pupils have limited knowledge about key aspects of life in modern Britain and the importance of tolerance and respecting diversity. The school should ensure that the PSHE curriculum is fully developed and that pupils have a well-developed understanding of the importance of tolerance and respect for others.

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continued work is needed to remove the requires significant improvement

During the monitoring inspection, inspectors focused on the following evaluation areas:

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continued work is needed to remove the requires significant improvement

 Leadership and governance  Attendance and behaviour

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Leadership and governance

Leaders are taking appropriate actions that are securing necessary and sustainable improvements in the school. Leaders at all levels are rightly proud of the progress so far but acknowledge that there is much more to do. They have taken a responsible approach and prioritised the right actions in the right order. These are showing a tangible impact and improving the experiences of pupils. This is particularly evident in the improving behaviour of most pupils and strengthened staff morale. The trust has accelerated the school’s improvement, particularly through the deployment of additional leadership staff in the school and by forming beneficial links with external partners, including other trusts and Department for Education commissioned support.

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Leadership and governance

The trust has an accurate understanding of the progress that the school has made and its ongoing priorities for improvement. Establishing an interim executive board has ensured that information is communicated quickly and clearly and that leaders can act on this to remove barriers to improvement.

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Leadership and governance

Despite reasons for optimism, leaders are not complacent. They recognise that steps to improve the curriculum and teaching are ongoing and that the impact of these needs to be realised more consistently, leading to improved achievement for pupils over time. Similarly, leaders are conscious of the continued need to deliver improvements to rebuild the confidence and pride of the whole school community, including some parents and carers. Monitoring inspection report: Beacon Academy 24 March 2026

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Safeguarding

At the previous graded inspection, safeguarding was evaluated as being effective.

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Attendance and behaviour

Leaders have rightly prioritised actions to improve standards of behaviour in the school. There remains more to do to secure greater consistency and ensure that all pupils routinely reach leaders’ expectations. However, the impact of leaders’ work to date is manifest. The school is generally calm and provides an environment which is markedly better suited to effective teaching and learning than was the case at the previous inspection. Pupils and staff confirm this, citing greater clarity of expectations as a key reason for these improvements. As a result, sanctions such as suspensions and lesson removals are declining. Leaders are appropriately focused on further raising the expectations of all, improving pupils’ attitudes towards their learning and strengthening the collective sense of pride and belonging in the school.

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Attendance and behaviour

Leaders have taken a similarly structured approach to raising attendance. The school has significantly expanded its attendance and wider pastoral teams. Leaders are strengthening their understanding of patterns in pupils’ attendance and reasons that they do not attend. However, this work is at an earlier stage than is the case for behaviour. Although leaders are proactive in their approach, and some early improvements are evident, rates of absence remain too high and have proven more stubborn to shift. This remains a key area of focus for the school.

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Additional next steps

Leaders and trustees should continue to work to address the priorities for improvement identified in the last graded inspection report.

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About this inspection

The inspector carried out this monitoring inspection under section 8(2) of the Education Act 2005, and it was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require significant improvement following the graded inspection that took place in June 2025.

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About this inspection

The school’s previous inspection was carried out under the Education Inspection Framework (EIF) at that time. The renewed EIF took effect from 10 November 2025. The areas for improvement identified at the school’s graded inspection have been cross- referenced to the relevant evaluation areas in the inspection toolkit for consideration on this monitoring inspection.

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About this inspection

The purpose of this monitoring inspection was not to determine grades for any of the evaluation areas set out in the school inspection toolkit. The purpose was to identify and report on the school’s progress in addressing priorities for improvement since the school’s previous inspection. Monitoring inspection report: Beacon Academy 24 March 2026

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Since the school’s graded inspection in June 2025, there have been a number of significant changes to the school. Many staff are new to the school since that time. This includes several members of the school’s senior leadership team. The trust’s chief education officer (CEO) is also deployed routinely in the school and is the school’s substantive principal, supported by the school’s associate principal. Additionally, the trust has established an interim executive board in place of the now disbanded local governing board. This is chaired by the trust’s deputy CEO.

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During this inspection, meetings were held with both the trust CEO and the school’s associate principal. The inspector also met with other senior leaders, the CEO and the deputy CEO of the trust as well as pupils and staff to discuss the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection.

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Lead inspector

Thomas Wraith His Majesty’s Inspector Monitoring inspection report: Beacon Academy 24 March 2026

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About this school

Number of pupils on roll 638 Monitoring inspection report: Beacon Academy 24 March 2026

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and inspects to 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 looked- after-children, safeguarding and child protection.

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