Basildon’s twin Academy schools are officially failing, according to a damning report by education watchdog Ofsted.

The Basildon Academies, opened in 2009 after a £50million investment, aimed at transforming the old Barstable and Chalvedon schools and improving their tarnished reputations.

After making its first full-scale inspection, Ofsted has announced it has placed the academies in special measures – imposing a series of stringent extra inspections every four or six months to ensure standards improve.

Inspectors found both schools’ performance was inadequate in their overall effectiveness, the achievement of pupils, the quality of teaching, pupils’ behaviour and safety and the schools’ leadership and management.

The report goes on to say: “This school is in special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education.

“The persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement.

“The academy is not satisfactory, because pupils’ achievement, their behaviour, and attendance and quality of teaching, and leadership and management are inadequate.”

Dr Rory Fox, who took over as headteacher of both academy sites in September, has brought in tough disciplinary measures, but his policy of putting children in isolation when they misbehave is something else the inspectors have criticised.

They found on one day during the inspection some 55 pupils out of a total school roll of 805 were in isolation.

The report adds: “The principal has taken radical action to provide better-quality data, remove some inadequate teaching and address pupils’ behaviour and attendance.

“He has forged links with local primary schools and fostered a new partnership with the local authority.

“Other actions, such as the management of teaching and learning, and the use of isolation to manage poor behaviour are not working effectively and require further development.”

The academies also boast a high number of exclusions – 20 times the national average.

The report cites this as a key issue, pointing to its “detrimental impact on pupils’ learning and progress”.

Inspectors said they encountered inadequate behaviour in a quarter of the lessons they visited during a two-day visit in March.

The school’s curriculum was criticised for failing sufficiently to develop students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, resulting in a poor climate for learning”.

The Upper Academy’s sixth form was also ruled inadequate because the curriculum failed to meet pupils’ needs.

HEAD: HOW WE'LL TURN THINGS AROUND

A SUMMER teacher training camp, redundancies and changes to the school’s curriculum will be the keys to turning around the Basildon Academies, its headteacher has promised.

Dr Rory Fox, a one-time head of learning in a women’s prison, was brought to the troubled schools last year with a brief to turn them around.

He said he remained confident the schools would get better.

And he admitted he had foreseen Ofsted’s findings – even telling inspectors when they arrived they would find the schools inadequate.

He explained: “I knew we were inadequate. I have never made any secret of that. We are on a journey and Ofsted says it takes 20 months to turn a school around.

“We didn’t know we would be put into special measures, but all that means is more inspections. It will be good, because we will be able to show our improvements next time.

“We always knew this report was going to be bad, because it’s the first one since the academy opened.

“Up to now, I have concentrated on improving behaviour and teaching the children how to behave in school.

“We know we have inadequate teaching, but we have managed to less this, and through a series of redundancies and moving staff around, we know things will improve.”

Dr Fox said some teachers would be given extra training this summer to help manage children’s behaviour and improve the quality of their teaching.

He added: “The way I have explained it to the pupils is to improve something, you have to make a bit of a mess of it first – and then start again to make proper improvements.

“We have made some ICT teachers redundant, because we had too many and we are expanding our vocational subjects to improve opportunities for the pupils. We are in the middle of changing the curriculum. We will be offering courses in hairdressing, childcare, mechanics and construction from September.

“The Ofsted report was done in the middle of our improvements and cannot take into account the improved exam results we are hoping to get.

“It is looking at the past three years and taking in the problems the academies had when they started. This summer, we will be getting the best-ever exam results we have had. We know the report is bad, but it takes time to sow the seeds of recovery and that is what we are working towards.”

Dr Fox said he would be holding meetings with parents to explain the report.

He has also expanded on his thoughts on the Ofsted report in a blog which parents can read at basildonacademies.org.uk