Further to Ofsted’s inspection report issued in June that rated Ryde Academy as ‘Requiring Improvement’, the first monitoring inspection report (Section 8) has been issued.
The Ofsted inspector met with the Executive Principal, the senior leadership team and the Chair of the Governing Body and had a telephone conversation with a representative from the academy’s sponsor, Academies Enterprise Trust.
During the monitoring visit, the lead briefly visited seven lessons and evaluated the sponsor’s statement of action.
The quality of leadership and management at the school
The report concluded that the sponsor’s statement for action, which incorporates the academy’s amended improvement plan, is fit for purpose and strong in several respects.
Other points that were raised included,
- Initially, progress in addressing the key issues identified at the time of the last inspection was too slow.
- Recent progress has been more rapid and support from the academy’s sponsor has been more decisive.
- The Executive Principal has helped senior leaders to focus on those areas of the academy’s work that need to improve most urgently.
- Staff, students and parents and carers have been consulted appropriately when revising policies and planning actions for improvement.
- Senior leaders understand their revised responsibilities and the role that they play in driving academy-wide improvements. The governing body is also restructuring for September.
- Its members will have better defined responsibilities and stronger links to specific senior leaders. This will help them to check the work of the academy more rigorously and hold senior leaders to account.
- The actions that leaders have taken to ensure that students feel safer and know what to do when problems arise, such as bullying, have begun to have a positive impact on outcomes.
- Younger students report that they feel safer and there has been a reduction in incidents of poor behaviour.
- New systems are in place for September. These focus on both rewards and sanctions but will need time to embed before their full impact can be seen.
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