A Rainham secondary school celebrated after rising from Ofsted's lowest rating to its second highest.

The education watchdog inspected The Brittons Academy on October 5 and 6 and graded it ‘good’ across the board.

The secondary school was previously judged as ‘inadequate’ after an inspection in July 2019.

This Is Local London: Two students working at The Brittons Academy Two students working at The Brittons Academy (Image: Empower Learning Academy Trust)

In that inspection, inspectors reported that "too many teachers have low expectations of pupils and do not motivate or challenge them adequately".

A monitoring visit in June 2021 found leaders were "taking effective actions". 

And due to recent improvements made by leadership and staff, the latest inspection found that "teachers motivate pupils to learn" and that "this helps pupils' enjoyment in their learning".

In October 2022, Ofsted graded The Brittons Academy as ‘good’ in all four key areas – the quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

Inspectors found that “pupils are proud to attend a school that has improved so much” and emphasised that “staff care about pupils’ well-being”.

The report also highlighted two areas for improvement, noting that “on occasions, teachers move too quickly before pupils have secured essential knowledge” and that leaders should do more to encourage pupils’ take-up of co-curricular activities.

This Is Local London: Principal of the Brittons Academy Will ThompsonPrincipal of the Brittons Academy Will Thompson (Image: Empower Learning Academy Trust)

Principal Will Thompson said: "I am delighted for everyone involved in the school; students, staff, parents, governors, the Academy Trust and the community. We have waited for The Brittons Academy to be recognised as a good school for three years and the wait has totally been worth it."

He added: “As in all reports, Ofsted provides targets to help a school's continual improvement. We would never consider this report to be the end of our journey; this is just recognition of our progress so far.

“Both targets are very fair and have already started being actioned; indeed, increasing the uptake of the co-curricular offer was already in our academy improvement plan.”

Simon London, CEO of the academy trust to which The Brittons Academy belongs, said: “The trust is proud of the staff, students and governors whose hard work and dedication to improving the school has resulted in this well-deserved outcome.”

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