Ofsted
A Well Deserved Rating of ‘Good’ for King Harold Academy
Following a visit from Ofsted on 24-25 May 2016, King Harold Academy has been rated as ‘Good’ in all areas for the first time in the school’s 60-year history. The staff and governors are delighted to provide Waltham Abbey with the high quality school it deserves. The rapid improvement and progress that has been made in a short space of time is quite remarkable. The Head of School, Kim Thackray, said that she was absolutely thrilled at the outcome of the inspection. “It was a just reward for the hard work and the dedication of all staff, pupils and governors.” She was especially pleased that the inspection team gave credit for the exemplary work in subjects such as English, mathematics, science, languages and history. Christian Cavanagh, Executive Headteacher of both King Harold and Debden Park High School, praised the collaborative work between the two schools and said how much expertise they had gained from each other over the last two years.
The report also praised the school’s leadership and management, “Leaders and governors are instilling an ethos founded on high expectations for all pupils and their teachers”. The inspectors spoke to a number of students during the course of the inspection and recognised that “Pupils enjoy, and are proud of, going to King Harold and are eager to learn and contribute well to lessons”. Mrs Thackray said, “Our pupils behaved in their usual self-disciplined way and acted as excellent ambassadors for us”. Inspectors agreed saying that King Harold provides a calm, orderly environment.
Ofsted recognised the significant improvements to teaching and highlighted teachers’ high expectations and secure subject knowledge. They were complementary about the way pupils are challenged to think for themselves.
Karen Roberts, CEO at TKAT, said: “Ofsted’s ‘Good’ rating is an absolutely fantastic result for King Harold. Their judgement is a valued recognition of the hard work put in by the school’s leadership, students and parents in driving progress and standards. Well done to all at the school and we at TKAT look forward to working with them on their journey to ‘Outstanding’.
To download a copy of our latest Ofsted report please use the link on the right hand side of the page. Alternatively, to go to the Ofsted website and previous reports, please click the button below.
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Parents and carers can give their views of our school at any time of the school year and at the time of a school inspection using an online questionnaire called Parent View.
When our school is notified of its next Ofsted inspection, parents will be invited to give their views about the school to inspectors using the Parent View online facility as this has replaced Ofsted’s paper questionnaire. Please make sure we have your most up-to-date contact details.
Please register with an email address and a password at https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk. Once your login has been activated, it only takes a few minutes to complete answers to 12 short questions about aspects such as bullying, the quality of teaching, level of homework, etc.
Your views are important in helping inspectors make a decision about our school, and to help us know what is going well and what could be improved.
