Havant Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 4 February 2025

Pupils generally feel happy and safe at school. However, they have significant gaps in their knowledge and skills, and some also have misconceptions that have not been addressed. Pupil absence rates are too high, especially for disadvantaged pupils. Staff expectations are too low. By the end of key stage 4, pupils do not achieve well enough and are not prepared sufficiently for their next steps. Pupils disrupt learning in lessons too frequently. They do not behave sensibly when moving around the school. Staff know the school's behaviour management strategies. However, some do not apply these consistently or effectively. Many pupils do not respond positively to staff attempts to correct poor behaviour in and outside of lessons. The school has clear processes in place to deal with bullying. Despite this, some pupils and parents and carers feel that the school's response to bullying is not effective. Pupils benefit from participating in enrichment activities that extend the curriculum. They enjoy participating in business and accounting club, solving puzzles, learning about animation and receiving support for revisions skills. 'Game changer' days help them learn vital knowledge about, for example, future career opportunities or team building skills.

What the school should improve

• The school has failed to act swiftly enough to make the necessary improvements to maintain good standards. The school's actions lack impact and have not secured rapid and sustainable improvements, particularly to the quality of education. Additionally, those responsible for governance have not held the school to account well enough. The school must implement the necessary improvements and those responsible for governance should hold the school to account stringently.
• The school does not ensure that staff apply the school's safeguarding policies and practices securely and consistently. Consequently, pupils are potentially put at risk due to the school not having a clear picture of what actions have taken place or how issues have been addressed. The school must ensure that staff consistently use safeguarding policies effectively and that this practice is checked robustly.
• Too many disadvantaged pupils, including pupils with SEND, miss school through poor attendance or suspensions that have not been used effectively to help improve pupils' behaviour. This means that a significant proportion of disadvantaged pupils miss vital learning and risk falling further behind. The school should take action to improve attendance, decrease persistent absence and reduce the rate of suspensions, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.
• Frequent disruptions to learning are not addressed effectively or consistently by staff. This means that pupils' learning is disturbed too frequently, and sometimes poor behaviour remains unaddressed. The school should ensure that staff apply and use the behaviour management policy consistently and address poor behaviour effectively.
• The school's checks on pupils' learning do not provide sufficient insight into how well pupils understand and remember vital information and skills. As a result, gaps in knowledge or misconceptions often go unaddressed and pupils do not achieve as well as they should. The school should ensure that teachers accurately identify these gaps and misconceptions in pupils' knowledge and address them in their subsequent teaching.
• The school has not embedded secure systems and processes successfully to help pupils who are at the earlier stages of learning to read to improve their skills. This means that many pupils struggle to access the curriculum and achieve as well as they should. The school needs to ensure that pupils who are at the earlier stages of learning to read receive appropriate support to catch up quickly.
• The school does not adapt teaching effectively to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. Consequently, pupils with SEND do not receive consistent support to build knowledge and skills, and they do not attain the qualifications needed to progress to the next stages of education, training, or employment. The school should ensure that pupils consistently achieve high standards and that teachers know how to meet the needs of pupils with SEND effectively. HMCI strongly recommends that the school does not seek to appoint early career teachers. The position regarding the appointment of early career teachers will be considered again during any monitoring inspection we carry out.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)