Following the Ofsted inspection in April 2013, the latest Ofsted inspection found that Ryde Academy is making reasonable progress towards the removal of the serious weakness designation.
The Academy is currently under the leadership of Interim Principal, Dr Rory Fox. It’s intended for him to remain in post until at least Easter.
Praise for improvements made
Some of the highlights of the report include
- Leadership has been strengthened since the previous monitoring inspection. As a result, the pace of improvement across the academy has accelerated.
- Middle leaders share your aspirational vision for improvement. They have a much clearer understanding of their roles and responsibilities because the systems that support them and hold them to account are consistent.
- The small group of parents and carers that I spoke to were very positive about the improvements that you have made.
- Overall, the progress made by students in their learning is accelerating because the quality of teaching is improving.
- A small number of ‘teacher developers’ help colleagues to improve their teaching. This relatively new initiative is beginning to have a positive impact.
- Teachers have higher expectations about what students can achieve.
- Younger students said that behaviour has continued to improve.
- Incidents of bullying are less frequent and students have greater confidence that when they report issues to teachers they will be dealt with promptly.
- Students feel safer when moving around the academy campus.
Where improvements can be made
The report also highlighted the weaknesses in the school’s approaches to securing improvement:
- The progress made by students in mathematics is too slow.
- The quality of teaching in some departments is inconsistent. Some teachers do not yet plan lessons that challenge students of different abilities.
- Some teachers do not manage learning time efficiently to maximise students’ learning. This means that students are not able to complete all of the work planned for them.
- Teachers do not always check carefully enough the progress that students have made in lessons. Teachers encourage students to discuss their work more often, but their repertoire of questioning strategies is sometimes limited. On occasions, boys do not participate as well in discussions as girls.
- Attendance in Year 10 and Year 11 is not good enough. The attendance of students eligible for the pupil premium, although improved, varies too much.
- Students do not always feel safe when using the stairs. The one-way system is not always enforced. A few older students do not always act as role models when moving around the academy site. In lessons, the behaviour of younger students is sometimes immature.
- Teachers’ use of the academy’s behaviour system, although much improved, is sometimes inconsistent.
The full report is embedded below for you. Click on the full screen icon to see larger version.
Image: Nanny Snowflake under CC BY 2.0
