North Shore Academy: Once failing school celebrates outstanding turnaround

Staff at North Shore Academy have said they want to make sure pupils do well

A Teesside secondary school which was judged as failing two years after it opened, has been praised by inspectors.

North Shore Academy in Stockton has been rated as "outstanding" following a full inspection by Ofsted in July.

Head teacher Andrew Murphy said where children had previously "lacked aspiration" they were now "inspired".

The school once had the second highest exclusion rate in the country but now has pupils who are "exceptionally proud to attend", inspectors concluded.

In a yet-to-be published online report, Ofsted described pupils' classroom behaviour as "exemplary" and said the work produced was of a "very high quality".

Mr Murphy said: "When I came to the school the behaviour wasn't particularly good, and the teaching wasn't where it is now and I don't think the staff enjoyed coming to work in those times."

He said although many changes had taken place since the school's last full inspection in 2018, when it was told it required improvement, many of the same staff continued to work there.

"We had our first two students this year go to Oxbridge and they came back to visit the school just before the six-week holidays, and the children in the academy were inspired.

"They all want to go to college or university, they want to do well and all we want is to make sure they do."

Previously Ofsted inspectors said the academy, which opened in 2010 and was sponsored by the NHS, lacked leadership and suffered a high level of bad behaviour from pupils.

North Shore Academy is now run by the Northern Education Trust which took over in September 2012.