THE quality of leadership, teaching and the behaviour of children at a popular academy have won high praise from school inspectors.
Ofsted inspectors described Haughton Academy, Darlington, as a place where “all students feel safe and happy”.
The report stated: “Leaders and staff have high expectations of students. Leaders have created a school environment that is typically calm and purposeful. They are well cared for by staff who know them well. Students conduct themselves well in lessons and across the wider school. Students respond positively to the high expectations of staff and the clear routines in place.”
The Education Village Academy Trust appointed Jane Darbyshire as principal of Haughton Academy at the beginning of the academic year in September 2025. Since then, she has developed a strong leadership team and introduced a raft of measures to further improve the children’s learning experience.
Inspectors said the academy met the expected standards in key areas, including leadership and governance, safeguarding, curriculum and teaching, personal development and wellbeing and inclusion, recognising the efforts school leaders had made to continue to improve achievement and attendance.
Their report stated: “There have been changes in the school's leadership over the last year. Leaders have accurately identified and prioritised actions for improvement. Much of this work has already been implemented and is starting to show positive impact. Leaders know what they need to do next. Leaders, at all levels, understand their roles in improving the school. They have high expectations of staff and pupils. Leaders make decisions in the best interests of their students.
“Leaders provide additional support to help individual pupils to improve their attendance. Leaders and staff promote the importance of attending school regularly and most pupils do so. Therefore, overall attendance is close to the national average.”
Mrs Darbyshire said: “I feel incredibly proud of our school community and our report and am delighted with the progress we have made as a community in such a relatively short time. Everyone across our whole community, including parents/carers, students and staff, has come together to support our vision, which is now our reality. We know and support our children really well and, as inspectors highlighted, leaders make decisions in the very best interests of our students.
“We are so pleased that inspectors noted that our children are happy and feel safe, that all our staff have high expectations of them and that our learning environment is calm and purposeful. We want students to get the very best qualifications they can and they can only do this if they are happy, enjoy coming to school and feel safe.”
They also highlighted that the leadership and governance had accurately identified and prioritised actions for further improvement. “Much of this work has already been implemented and is starting to show positive impact,” the report said. “Leaders know what they need to do next.”
Trustees and governors knew the school well and made sure leaders had the resources to fully support all pupils, inspectors said.
“Leaders care about the workload and wellbeing of staff,” the report stated. “They make sure that they have the time they need to undertake their roles effectively.”
EVAT chief executive Mike Butler said: “I am delighted that Ofsted inspectors have recognised the high quality provision at Haughton Academy, both in terms of the education students receive and in respect of how well looked after and cared for the children are by the staff. Haughton is a very popular school that is oversubscribed and it continues to go from strength to strength under the leadership of Mrs Darbyshire and her very talented, hard-working team.”