Hermitage Academy (England)

Hermitage Academy enrols 1,108 students, ranging from Year 7 to Year 11. 12.6% of attending students receive free school meals.[3]

Currently, the school operates on a timetable featuring 1 hour lessons, allowing for a maximum of 5 lessons per day. Prior to 2019, the school had 1 hour 15 minute lessons, with up to 4 lessons per day. However, with the introduction of NELT into the school, the change was made to 1 hour long lessons.

A total of 1 hour and 15 minutes a week is spent with form. PAUSE, standing for Punctuality, Attendance, Uniform, Student planner & Equipment, is 15 minutes at the start of each school day, where the mentioned things are checked by form tutors. Students are expected to follow school standards, including correct uniform and equipment. Important messages are also passed to students at this time. The school also featured 25 minute Guidance sessions prior to 2019, carried out between Monday and Thursday and dedicated to personal, social, health and economic education, covering issues such as fundamental British values, citizenship and democracy, among others. These lessons were also phased out by NELT.

A new uniform was introduced in September 2020 for students in the academy. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the new uniform is still yet to be mandatory.

^{^a} This timetable will not be used from September 2019, as 1 hour lessons, which previously existed prior to 2016, are reintroduced.

^{^b} PAUSE stands for Punctuality, Attendance, Uniform, Student Planner & Equipment. It is 5 minutes of form time.

^{^c} Guidance is 25 minutes of form time dedicated to PSHE education.

Hermitage Academy currently has 75 teachers in total. Most of these are teachers of form classes, ranging between forms in Year 7 - Year 13.

In September 2019, the form names changed from being the first & last name initial of each teacher. Each form now includes one letter of the name of the school and this spells out "Hermitage", excluding the duplicate "e".

In their most recent Ofsted Inspection, occurring in October 2018, Hermitage Academy was deemed Inadequate by inspectors.[5] Inspectors stated that teaching was far too variable between lessons, leaders have been too slow halting the decline in the quality of student's education, and that the school had weak progress from Year 7 to Year 11. However, it was also pointed out that students were polite and courteous around school, safeguarding was effective and situations of bullying were dealt with effectively. In response, the school was taken over by the North East Learning Trust, which is discussed in detail further down the page. A second inspection is expected within the next few academic years, to assess the Academy's progress.

The previous inspection The Hermitage School received was in 2007, with inspectors deeming the school Outstanding.[6]

Completed June 2017, the Year 7 Block was a £1.3 million building provides 8 new classrooms labelled from 7–1 up to 7–8, toilets and an amenity space for new Year 7 students. The new building formed part of the Academy's on-going estate management and curriculum improvements and was designed for the youngest year group to ease their transition to the main school after moving from primary school. Included in all classrooms are spaces for 32 students, as well as slide across whiteboards & television screens as projectors. Two of the rooms are also separated with a folding partition wall, which can be folded to form one larger room.[7] During the 2019 GCSEs, this block was used primarily for Year 11s. As of June 2019, this block is now used as a block for English, as Year 7 students revert to moving through the school for their lessons.

It was announced on 10 June 2019 that as of the following academic year, the North East Learning Trust will be appointed to sponsor the school.[8] The North East Learning Trust is a multi-academy Trust founded by Academy at Shotton Hall, an outstanding secondary school in Peterlee.

The following actions have taken place in September 2019:

• Dr Janice Gorlach was appointed as Executive Headteacher.
• Mr Darren Stewart was appointed as School Headteacher.
• A 1-week timetable replaced the previous 2 week timetable.
• The school day is set to be from 8:35 to 14:50, compared to the old school day being from 8:45 to 15:00, (On Fridays, this was 8:45 to 13:00).
• Lessons are set to return to 1 hour long, with 5 lessons in the school day.
• 3 year groups are expected to be on lunch at once, compared to in 2018 where between 1 and 2 year groups share a lunch.
• All year groups are expected to have break at the same time.
• Fences have been placed along the boundary of some areas of the school.
• Planners and exercise books have been branded in North East Learning Trust branding.
• The area provided for students during break and lunchtimes has been increased.
• Cold food and hot food is served in two different halls.
• Prefects, as well as "Head Boy" and "Head Girl" roles were introduced to the school, occupied by Year 11 students to further support younger years as well as help out at school related events.

Some of these actions, particularly the new lunch and break plans, were met with some controversy, with some students stating the "Gigabyte" (School canteen) is already too full, and that the little room there is to expand will not make a difference. After the change occurred in September 2019, these opinions continued, even with the increased area given to students, with break and lunch being referred to as "chaos" by some students. These issues were eventually resolved for the most part, although Year 11s and Year 13s in particular have disagreed with exams being carried out in the Sports Hall, due to a "lack of sufficient heating" and "unsuitable working conditions".

In accordance to government guidelines, the Academy was forced to close on the 20th March 2020, as a result of the spreading COVID-19 pandemic.[9] During the United Kingdom's lockdown period, only vulnerable children and children of key workers could enter the school. Schoolwork was instead set online using Classcharts, and later Office 365 was used to set work, communicate with students and host online live lessons.

Year 10 and Year 12 students are expected to receive additional face to face support on the 15th June,[10] likely within school premises, with the school following stricter hygiene regulations. This return is likely to include smaller class sizes (maximum of 15 per class), social distancing regulations, one-way corridors and a limited number of students in school at any one time. Non-attendance would not be fined during the COVID-19 pandemic if this were the case. Other year groups are believed to not return to school until September at the earliest.

GCSE exams were also cancelled. In order for students to be awarded a grade, class teachers were made to give a predicted grade of students, as well as ranking them from best performing to worst performing.

• The Hermitage Academy official website