Great Yarmouth Charter Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school Leaders, governors and the trust have successfully established a culture where there are high expectations of behaviour.

As a result, there is a calm, purposeful learning environment. Pupils feel safe and achievement is improving. Leaders' determined actions and support from the trust have improved the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in the school, so that it is consistently effective.

The Inspiration Trust (the trust) and governors have provided challenge and support to leaders. They regularly check to see that leaders' actions are making a positive difference to pupils' experience of school. Most current pupils make strong ...progress in a range of subjects, including English and mathematics.

Teachers ensure that the learning needs of pupils who speak English as an additional language and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are identified accurately. As a result, these pupils typically make good progress. Leaders use additional funding efficiently.

As a result, disadvantaged pupils are making strong or improving progress across the curriculum. Pupils who left primary school below the standard expected for their age are catching up, particularly in reading. Leaders have constructed a curriculum that has an academic focus and promotes pupils' personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well.

Working with the trust, leaders have put credible plans in place to add further breadth to the curriculum. Leaders have ensured that high levels of challenge are helping the most able pupils to increase their achievement. However, a small minority of teachers do not ensure that pupils move on to more challenging activities quickly enough.

Leaders' determination to tackle poor attendance has borne fruit. Attendance is improving markedly. However, a small number of pupils are still absent too frequently, so overall attendance remains below the national average.

Behaviour has improved significantly over time and is good. Nonetheless, leaders have been less successful in helping a small number of pupils to improve their behaviour. As a result, they are excluded too often.

The trust and governors have explored the reasons why pupils have left the school. Leaders have accurately identified that they have not always communicated reasons for actions clearly enough. Consequently, a small minority of parents have had concerns about the school's provision for some pupils' learning and managing their behaviour.

Information about this school

Great Yarmouth Charter Academy opened as Trafalgar College, a free school established by the Inspiration Trust, in September 2016. It merged with a sponsored academy in the trust, also known as Great Yarmouth Charter Academy, on 1 September 2018. The sponsored academy opened in September 2017, as a successor to Great Yarmouth High School, which was judged to require special measures when inspected in April 2016.

Great Yarmouth Charter Academy, in its current form, has the same school leadership team appointed to lead the sponsored academy in September 2017. The majority of staff had worked at Great Yarmouth High School. The school initially was based on two sites in different parts of the town, but all pupils moved onto the current premises at the start of the summer term 2019.

The previous Great Yarmouth Charter Academy had an unannounced inspection, under section 8 of the Education Act, in February 2018 due to concerns about the behaviour and safety of pupils at the school. This determined that safeguarding arrangements were effective and noted that behaviour had improved significantly in a short time compared with the predecessor school. The school is smaller than the averaged-sized secondary school.

The majority of pupils are of White British heritage. There are above-average proportions of pupils from other minority ethnic backgrounds and just under a third of pupils speak English as an additional language. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is much higher than in most schools.

The proportion of pupils with SEND is below average, although the proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan is broadly average. The Inspiration Trust is responsible for the governance of the school. A number of responsibilities are delegated to a local governing body.

The trust provides support through an executive headteacher, its director of standards, specialist subject leaders and training and professional development opportunities. Trust representatives, including the CEO, regularly check on the work of leaders and governors and the quality of education provided. The school does not currently make use of any alternative provision for pupils.