Cecil Jones Academy, Southend, rated "inadequate" by Ofsted in damning report

Concerns were raised by inspectors about the quality of teaching, leadership and management, the behaviour of pupils and the outcomes for children at Cecil Jones Academy, Southend.

However, the school was praised for the sixth form which inspectors noted was a "strength".

The latest report reveals concerns about bullying and behaviour at the school are not being dealt with well enough and children are not making enough progress.

It also raises concerns about safe guarding and teachers noticing when children are in distress or vulnerable.

The report reads: "Leaders’ records of bullying are incomplete and not correct. Consequently, leaders are reviewing only a partial picture of the issues in the school, and do not know what the scale of the problem may be.

"Most pupils who spoke to inspectors do not believe that bullying is a problem in the school. Most also say that there is someone in the school that they could go to, if they had a problem.

"However, there are a significant number of parents who have identified concerns about ongoing bullying and the school’s failure to deal with it."

Inspectors also found issues with pupils' behaviour.

The report notes: "Staff are either ineffective or do not tackle issues around the school consistently well. Inspectors saw numerous examples of staff failing to tackle antisocial behaviour and unacceptably poor language throughout the two days of the inspection.

"Furthermore, inspectors saw numerous examples of pupils ignoring the requests of staff."

However, the school was praised for reducing the number of fights.

Inspectors noted that the current governance team had inherited a significant number of problems from the previous leadership team, but said they had failed to make sufficient progress to tackle this.

Concerns were also raised about the standards of teaching, meaning that pupil learning is "weak" and they are not achieving as well as they should.

The report reads: "Too much learning is disturbed by poor behaviour. Too many lessons do not start punctually, or at all. Where they do begin, too many pupils are not engaged with the learning taking place. When this happens, pupils do not learn effectively."

It continues: "The published outcomes for pupils since the school opened in 2015 indicate that many pupils in Year 11 have underachieved considerably from their varied starting points. Pupils often enter with attainment that is significantly lower than expected for their age.

"The progress that pupils made overall in 2016/17 remains below the national average, especially for those from middle- and higher-attaining starting points. This also includes disadvantaged pupils, whose progress was significantly below that of other pupils nationally."

Bev Williams, Chief Executive Officer of Legra Academy Trust, defended the school and said it would take time for changes to be implemented.

She said: “Anyone who believes there are quick fixes here are mistaken. It is just 18-months since Legra Academy Trust agreed, after repeated requests by the local authority, to take over leadership at Cecil Jones Academy. We are committed to Cecil Jones and remain absolutely focussed on the academy’s ongoing journey of improvement but people must understand this is a long-term project.

"We know there are issues, particularly surrounding behaviour, and we will continue to do all we can to address them. Cecil Jones is on a long journey, and there are inevitably going to be ‘bumps in the road’ along the way, but we have a robust action plan and are 100 per cent committed to making Cecil Jones an excellent school.”

Mrs Williams said she was proud the Sixth Form at Cecil Jones was rated as ‘Good’ in the inspection and highlighted significant improvement in exam results in the past year.

She added: “Our strategy is already showing good returns, just two examples are the best exam results in five years for Years 11 and 13 and the continued success of the Sixth Form (rated ‘Good’). We are committed to following this plan and continuing to help Cecil Jones improve.”

The new Rapid Improvement Board is chaired by Mick Thwaites, former Divisional Commander of Essex Police.

He said: “I was asked to chair a board of very experienced and highly motivated individuals who are all committed to ensuring Cecil Jones Academy – and every single one of its pupils - achieves its full potential. We started our work by spending time in the school with the principal, Martin Ovenden – whom I regard as an extremely dedicated and capable leader - to get to know what the challenges are.

“I have been asking lots of questions about key areas of the school’s performance, and I have been pleasantly impressed with the motivation of the staff to make sure Cecil Jones is recognised as the good school it is.

“We have started by focusing on areas that have been highlighted as requiring improvement - some of the areas highlighted in the inspection, such as safeguarding, simply required a tightening of the administration process, which has already been done.

“Over the coming weeks we will continue working closely with the Cecil Jones team to go through every area which we believe will result in Ofsted and the wider community giving the academy the positive recognition it so richly deserves.”

Mrs Williams concluded: “Legra is totally committed to making it a successful school, but this can only be achieved as a team effort. Pupils, parents and teachers must work together and be proud of the school to succeed.”