An all-boys secondary school in Sidcup has made changes that have had a “significant impact” on pupil’s learning.

Hurstmere School was inspected on September 27 and 28, 2023 by Ofsted and rated as “requires improvement”.

The main areas Ofsted suggested needed to be improved were supporting pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, making sure pupils understand and remember what they are taught, and that behaviour is dealt with consistently.

On March 1, 2024, Ofsted revisited the school for a monitoring inspection.

The purpose of a monitoring inspection from Ofsted is to identify a school’s progress and highlight improvements, not to grade the school’s effectiveness.

Ofsted told the school that it should take further action to make sure teachers have strategies in place to check that pupils understand what they are learning and it is routinely applied.

The school was also told to make sure recent work designed to support pupil’s reading is implemented fully and consistently.

Since its previous inspection, the school has made changes to its senior leadership team, appointed numerous new “middle leaders” and added more capacity for leaders supporting pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

During the last inspection, Ofsted found that there were “inconsistencies in the quality of the curriculum design and implementation”.

Since then, inspectors found the school has acted quicky to make sure that the curriculum is more focused on the key knowledge pupils need to know.

This helps teachers to make sure children can build their knowledge in a more coherent way.

The school is found to be developing the “Hurstmere Way” of teaching, giving staff a “well-focused” development programme.

Inspectors found that this is helping pupils to know more and remember more.

Ofsted praised the school for taking action that is focused on key priorities for improvement.

It recognised that while the things that need to be improved are not “quick fixes”, the work being made towards them is resulting in “positive change”.

Staff well-being and workload was found to be consulted as Hurstmere School makes these changes, making sure staff are “fully on board” and “playing an active role in school improvement”.

In the previous inspection, inconsistencies were spotted in pupil’s behaviour.

However, inspectors reported that this has been addressed by raising expectations and giving pupils clarity on these expectations.

Ofsted said this has made “a significant impact” and that lessons now usually go on without disruption.

A spokesperson for Hurstmere School said: “As a school we are obviously pleased that the recent Monitoring Visit recognised all the hard work undertaken and improvements made since the last full Ofsted inspection.

 “We are committed to ensuring that we are providing the best possible experience for our boys here at Hurstmere.”