School Aims

To provide an outstanding education for our students and to be a beacon of hope in our community. We aim to inspire a passion for lifelong learning and to produce decent, caring and responsible citizens who are committed to inclusion.

Harton Academy is committed to educating and developing young people, so they are active, eat healthily and treat all others with respect. We believe that positive emotional health and well-being are the cornerstones to becoming well-rounded and successful individuals who contribute positively to society. The Academy is entirely committed to ensuring our students learn the full range of Personal, Social and Health Education topics, and that this is embedded in everything we do on a daily basis.

Our commitment

Harton Academy is committed to addressing the points raised in our Ofsted inspection, March 2022 (published, June 2022). The School Improvement Plan, which encompasses a wide variety of essential targets, will demonstrate that we have addressed Ofsted’s targets to improve.

Our Students

Our students do well. They do so, however, at their own level. Many will go to university and into the professions; some go into the Arts and Theatre; some go into medicine or industrial or commercial management. For these people, only a top job or superior honours degree will be good enough. The school is fully commited to supporting our higher achieving students.
For others, success might involve learning to read more fluently, developing a new hobby, learning to cope with the demands of everyday life or learning how to make new friends.
Whatever the child’s ability, the education of each individual is equally important to us, and we strive to ensure that all achieve their full potential. Every pupil attending Harton has gained at least five GCSE or equivalent certificates in the last three years.

Student Welfare and Discipline

We believe that student discipline at Harton is outstanding. Staff and students know exactly the context in which they work, what is expected of them and where the limits lie.
All staff have pastoral responsibilities and are expected to ensure a high and consistent standard of discipline while acting with fairness, courtesy and respect in their dealings with pupils. The pastoral system is organised on a Year basis with a Head of Year who is responsible, together with Form Tutors, for tracking pupils‘ progress, supporting their learning, ensuring their welfare and maintaining discipline. School expectations of student behaviour are made clear in the Student Diary and are founded on common sense and formulated to protect the interests of each member of the school community. In general, students are required to:

• act in a reasonable and controlled manner at all times,
• accept the authority of teaching and associate staff,
• respect the property of the school and that of other people,
• live and work in harmony with staff and other students, and
• respect the working ethos of the school in their appearance, punctuality and attitudes.

There is a graded system of sanctions for any students who do not conform to these reasonable standards, but we also give a high priority to recognising good work, effort and behaviour. At Harton, we reward achievement and confer academic prizes. We are genuinely committed to the welfare of each child, and each pupil has daily contact with a tutor who will remain with them for the duration of their education at Harton. Tutorial periods aim to promote good relationships between staff and students and focus on aspects of personal and social education, tracking attainment and recording individual achievement.

Homework and the Student Diary

We believe that the regular setting and marking of homework are associated with good education and effective schools. We interpret our homework policy within guidelines which allow for age, ability and subject requirements, rather than strict time allocations. Your child will be given a pupil diary, which includes a homework section and the facility for you to comment on homework. We have a ‘Homework Club’ which is open to all pupils on four nights each week, Monday – Thursday 3:15pm – 5:00pm in the school library. All sessions are supervised by Harton staff who are available to provide help which is customised to meet individual needs. Homework is monitored by Form Tutors, Subject Leaders and Heads of Year.