West Lakes Academy

West Lakes Academy Main Street, Egremont, Cumbria, CA22 2DQ

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inspection report:

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

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inspection report:

 The trust has not held the school to account for the decline in the quality of education that pupils receive. As a result, pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), disadvantaged pupils and some students in the sixth form, do not achieve well. The trust must ensure that it gains an accurate insight into the school’s effectiveness so that it can provide the necessary support and challenge to secure its improvement.  Teaching is not successfully adapted to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. As a result, these pupils do not progress through the curriculum as well as they should. The school should ensure that all staff are equipped with effective strategies for supporting pupils with SEND and apply these approaches consistently in their teaching, so that pupils with SEND achieve well.  The activities that staff design to teach the curriculum do not help pupils to develop

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inspection report:

sufficient depth of knowledge about the subjects that they study. These activities reflect the low aspirations that the school has about what pupils should achieve. This prevents pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, from achieving well. The school must equip staff to deliver the curriculum successfully, so that pupils can build on what they know and develop a deeper understanding of important concepts in the subjects that they study.  Staff do not routinely address gaps and misconceptions in pupils’ knowledge and understanding. They lack clarity about what important knowledge pupils should learn or how to make checks on what pupils remember with accuracy. This means that pupils move on to new learning before they have the necessary foundations to succeed. Pupils are not prepared sufficiently well for each year or stage of their education. The school must help staff to address pupils’ errors and misunderstandings promptly, so that pupils

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inspection report:

build their knowledge securely.  The school has not established consistently high expectations of pupils’ attitudes to learning. In lessons, staff do not ensure that pupils make the most of the activities that Monitoring Inspection report: West Lakes Academy, 23 June 2026 2 they design for them. This is because the school has not provided pupils with the support that they need to become resilient learners. The school should clarify the expectations that it has about pupils’ attitudes to their learning and ensure that staff receive the support that they need to ensure that all pupils learn successfully.  The school’s provision for pupils’ personal development, including for some students in the sixth form, does not prepare them sufficiently well for life in modern Britain. The school’s limited range of opportunities to take on responsibilities, or to develop pupils’ talents and interests, prevents pupils from becoming confident and independent young

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inspection report:

people. The school should ensure that pupils make the most of a broad range of opportunities, so that they are well prepared to make a positive contribution to their community.

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Leaders and trustees are taking ineffective action to improve the school and

significant further work is needed to remove the special measures designation.

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The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be

considered again during any further monitoring inspection we carry out.

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The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be

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

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The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be

 Leadership and governance  Safeguarding  Inclusion  Curriculum and teaching  Achievement

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Leadership and governance

The trust has let this school down. Since the previous inspection, it has failed to provide meaningful support or deploy the necessary resources to enable school leaders to bring about and sustain effective change. Structural and financial decisions within the trust have hindered this further, for instance the school has been unable to recruit staff to fill teaching vacancies, or to bolster aspects of leadership that would benefit pupils the most. Overall, this combination of factors has meant that the daily experience of most pupils has not substantially changed for the better. Moreover, some aspects of the school’s provision have declined further since the previous inspection. For example, poor behaviour now disrupts learning to a greater extent than in the past because the trust has not helped leaders to establish a consistent approach to tackling this deep-rooted issue. Understandably, this situation has led to considerable frustration from pupils, staff, parents and carers.

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Leadership and governance

Despite these difficulties, school leaders have acted with integrity and drive. They have been diligent in their efforts to move the school forward, even when they have not had the support to do so. Leaders have sound judgement about which actions are needed to tackle the most pressing weaknesses. For example, a concerted effort by leaders to model positive relationships between pupils and staff has helped pupils to feel a sense of Monitoring Inspection report: West Lakes Academy, 23 June 2026 3 belonging that they did not experience before. Added to this, there is a renewed positivity among many staff about the school’s direction and the stable, systematic approach that leaders have brought. For instance, there is much praise for the school’s renewed programme of professional development. Teachers who previously lacked confidence are getting meaningful support to improve their teaching.

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Leadership and governance

School leaders are under no illusions about the school’s current position. They do not share the trust’s overgenerous view. Recently, the school has started to benefit from external support from a local trust. This support is sharply focused on the right actions to secure much-needed improvement. However, there is still much to be done that has barely begun.

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Safeguarding

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

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Inclusion

Leaders’ approach to inclusion is well intentioned and underpinned by a resolute moral purpose. The gap between what leaders and staff know about pupils’ additional needs and how these needs are addressed in classrooms is closing slowly. For some pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), accurate identification of their needs is helping them to access learning more readily. However, for others this remains steadfastly not the case. Furthermore, there is little meaningful analysis of which strategies are working and a delay in responding when provision for some groups of pupils is not having the desired impact. Overall, this means the experience of pupils with SEND is very uneven.

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Inclusion

The previous graded inspection highlighted a notable difference in provision between the main school and the ‘West Lakes Connect’ provision where pupils with SEND are taught separately for some of their timetable. This is still the case. The expertise and resources in this provision are helping some pupils to reintegrate successfully into mainstream education. However, leaders are aware that once pupils are readied to continue their learning, some are still held back by the poor quality of provision in the main school.

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Curriculum and teaching

Leaders have an acutely accurate understanding of the quality of the curriculum and teaching. They know that there are still widespread inconsistencies in the effectiveness of teaching and assessment strategies. Leaders are taking positive action to address these weaknesses. They are successfully raising the bar of ambition for what all pupils can learn and achieve but, in many subjects, this has not led to tangible improvements in how the curriculum is taught. A more coherent approach to teachers’ professional development is helping this to happen. Nevertheless, it is taking time for leaders’ vision for high-quality teaching to be fully realised.

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Curriculum and teaching

In a few subjects, where curriculum thinking is more established, teachers are clearer about the most important knowledge that pupils should learn. The strategies that these teachers use to check what pupils have remembered are effective. In many other subjects, Monitoring Inspection report: West Lakes Academy, 23 June 2026 4 although teachers are beginning to use very similar approaches and techniques, these are more limited in their effectiveness. This is because teachers are unclear about which aspects of pupils’ understanding to check and how best to tackle any misconceptions. Leaders’ concerted efforts to help pupils engage more actively in their learning are showing early signs of success. However, many pupils still do not get a positive experience in the classroom. This is particularly the case for many pupils with SEND.

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Achievement

Many of the published measures of attainment for pupils finishing key stages 4 and 5 have continued to decline since the last inspection. In part, this is because widespread instabilities in staffing compounded the considerable variability in the quality of teaching that pupils who sat their examinations in 2025 received. These instabilities are reducing. Most pupils are now taught by subject specialists more often than they were in the past. However, other deficits in the quality of teaching and the curriculum continue to hold back pupils’ achievement in all year groups.

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Achievement

Leaders’ emphasis on reading and literacy is bearing fruit. Pupils with the largest gaps in their reading knowledge are beginning to make strides in overcoming these deficits. The additional support that they receive, in addition to their curriculum subjects, is proving successful. This is equipping some pupils with the basic skills needed to access the curriculum. Leaders’ plans to roll out similar support to subject classrooms are at the early stages of embedding, and as such have not had time to continue this positive impact.

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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 special measures 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: West Lakes Academy, 23 June 2026 5 Since the school’s last inspection, the trust has appointed a new chief executive officer (CEO). The trust has also signed a formal agreement with another local multi-academy trust to begin providing support to the school. This support began at the start of June 2026. In addition, several school leaders are new in post since the previous inspection.

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About this inspection

During this inspection, meetings were held with the headteacher, executive headteacher and other senior leaders, the CEO of the trust, the chair of the trust board and a representative of the local authority to discuss the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection. The inspector also spoke with groups of pupils and staff.

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No Monitoring Inspection report: West Lakes Academy, 23 June 2026 6 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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