Harris Academy Ockendon

Harris Academy Ockenden (formerly The Ockenden Academy, originally Lennard's Secondary Modern School) is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in South Ockendon in the Thurrock area of Essex, England.

Harris Academy Ockendon
Address
Erith Drive

South Ockendon
,
Essex
,
RM15 5AY

England
Coordinates51.512536°N 0.278053°E / 51.512536; 0.278053
Information
TypeAcademy
MottoEnjoy being the best you can be
Established1956
Local authorityThurrock
TrustHarris Federation
Department for Education URN147537 Tables
OfstedReports
PrincipalJo Rainey
Executive PrincipalGeorge McMillan
GenderCoeducational
Age11 to 18
Enrolment1239
Websitewww.harrisockendon.org.uk

Description

The Ockenden Academy was a popular 11 to 18 medium-sized comprehensive school that was strong on pastoral care, with well behaved pupils and a good sixth form programme. Elsewhere it was struggling and an Ofsted inspection in 2018 deemed that it was overall inadequate.[1] It had converted to academy status in 2012,[2] and now needed to 'refactor' to become part of a multi-academy trust. It joined the Harris Federation, it was rebranded as the Harris Academy Ockenden.[1]

History

The school opened in 1956, named the Lennard's Secondary Modern School. It was part of a wave of secondary modern schools that were built to cope with the post-war baby boom, and the Attlee government policies of 1944. It was a selective system, and young people could leave school at fifteen. The school leaving age was raised to 16 years in 1972.[3]

When Essex converted to the non-selective comprehensive school system, Lennard's became Culverhouse Comprehensive School.[4]

In April 2009, the school became designated as a Training School.[5]

In August 2010, the school received the highest pass rate in its GCSE examinations, with 98% achieving A*-C grades.

On 1 January 2011 the school was renamed from The Ockendon School to The Ockendon Academy following an Academy conversion. The school was downgraded to 'good' following an Ofsted inspection in February 2014.[6] It was downgraded again to 'inadequate' in October 2018.

The Ockendon Academy joined the Harris family of schools in September 2019, It rapidly has put new detailed policies in place, with the aim of improving student outcomes. The Principal is Jo Rainey.[6]

Academics

The multi-academy trust that the Ockenden Academy selected to join has a reputation for producing 'outstanding schools'.[7] Part of this is the paperwork they produce as evidence for an Ofsted inspection. Schools are obliged by legislation to put in place multiple policies, revise them annually and present them to their governors for approval.[8]

Ofsted had divided its criticism in to two parts-

  • that teachers rapidly learn to promote pupils’progress through an understanding of their starting points and individual needs [being] well trained in both the subject they are teaching and how best to teach it.
  • that pupils’ outcomes must improve by applying a consistent methodology to the pedagogy. Ensure that pupils in all year groups gain subject knowledge and develop their understanding of concepts quickly. This should be done by providing all pupils with regular opportunities to recall and apply knowledge and to ensure that teachers have clarity about the standards expected of pupils at different ages.[1]

Harris philosophy

[8] In the 'Learning and Teaching Policy Sept-2020', Harris addresses the first of those two weaknesses. It has introduced a new ethos and has implemented a challenging, knowledge lead curriculum. The teaching approach follows 'Six principles of Great Teaching'

  1. High expectations of learning behaviour: Routines and classroom management
  2. Quality of instruction:clear and effective explanations, New knowledge based on that already acquired
  3. Subject mastery: expertise, knowing the intent as will as the implementation of the new powerful knowledge
  4. Making it stick: it must fix in long term memory. Connections, deliberate repetition and repeated testing
  5. Adaptive teaching: Pitch high, and provide a scaffold for the struggling- ability to deviate from the plan when required
  6. Effective feedback:realtime feedback, formative assessment in class, clear written comments that are followed up.

[9]

Pedagogical approach

The second concern is addressed by the new fixed format lesson. It starts with 'test' on previous work, for example the homework task from the previous lesson, and previous weeks. It moves on to the three phases of fully guided instruction- where the teacher teaches (known as the I do) then works through examples with the pupils (known as We do) then supervises the pupils as they do tasks on their own with out assistance (known as You do). The homework is set- this usually involves the 'read, cover, regurgitate, and check phases of using a knowledge organiser that the teacher had previously prepared while planning the lesson.[8][10]

Curriculum content

Virtually all maintained schools and academies follow the National Curriculum, and are expected to deliver a 'broad and balanced curriculum' at Key Stage 3.[11]

At Key Stage 4, schools endeavour to get all students to achieve the English Baccalaureate (EBACC) qualification- this must include core subjects, a modern foreign language, and either History or Geography. In additions a range of optional subjects are offered. Harris Academy Ockendon operates a three-year, Key Stage 3 where all the core National Curriculum subjects are taught.[12]

Teaching and learning

The school places the responsibility for subject content to the subject teams. They select what needs to be taught before how it is delivered. [8]

References
  1. "Ofsted Report 2018". ofsted.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2020. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright
  2. "Academy convertor letter 2012". ofsted.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  3. "15 Crucial Events in the History of English Schools". Oxford Royale. 18 September 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  4. Gillard, Derek. "Circular 10/65 (DES 1965) - full text online". www.educationengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-01-22.
  5. "Training schools - FAQs" Archived 2007-11-19 at the Wayback Machine, Department for Children, Schools and Families
  6. Ofsted Communications Team (8 October 2020). "Find an inspection report and registered childcare". reports.ofsted.gov.uk. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  7. Allen-Kinross, Pippa (11 September 2019). "First Harris academy rated below 'good' by Ofsted". Schools Week. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  8. "Curriculum Policy 2020" (PDF). www.harrisockendon.org.uk/135/teaching-learning/. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  9. "Learning-and-Teaching-Policy-Sept-2020" (PDF). www.harrisockendon.org.uk. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  10. Tharby, Andy (2017). Making every English lesson count: Six principles to support great reading and writing. Crown House Publishing Ltd. ISBN 9781785832512.
  11. Roberts, Nerys. "The school curriculum in England Parliamentary Briefing Paper" (PDF). parliament.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  12. "ks4-offer". www.harrisockendon.org.uk. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
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