Academy staff tell Ofsted they felt '˜excluded'

The academy, in Rye Road, which opened in September 2013, has been rated ‘requires improvement’ following a two-day inspection.

In her report, inspector Abigail Birch said frequent changes to the school’s leadership – such as the resignation of head teacher Ian McRae in March – had led to ‘ineffectual performance management’ while expectations had not been effectively communicated to staff, leaving some of them feeling excluded.

In addition, teaching at the academy was described as ‘not yet consistently good’, meaning not enough pupils were making good progress.

Ms Birch complemented the work carried out by co-head teachers Rhiannon Price and Neil McDonough over the past two months to address both issues, stating they had ‘recognised the need to make rapid improvements to the quality of teaching so that pupils make greater progress in all subjects’. She added: “The school’s recent focus on improving the quality of teaching and learning in reading has paid dividends.”

Communication with staff had also improved and Ms Birch said: “Teachers are deeply aware that they are responsible for the progress pupils make in reading, writing and mathematics.”

Ore Village is part of The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT), which was seen to be holding leaders to account while providing additional training. Ms Birch listed a number of areas which needed to be addressed if the academy was to improve. They included continuing to improve the quality of teaching and improving the quality of leadership and early years provision.

The academy was approached for comment but had not responded when the Observer went to press.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage at www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/ 2) Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/hastingsobserver

3) Follow us on Twitter @HastingsObs

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

The Hastings Observer - always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.