The Royal Harbour Academy is a

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

and

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for ...

located over two sites in

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to the Census, there was a populati ...

in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. The school was formed in September 2015 from the merger of The Ellington and Hereson School located on Newlands Lane (the current Lower School site) and The Marlowe Academy located on Stirling Way (the current Upper School site).

History

Newlands Lane (Lower School)

Previously Ellington School for Girls, the school amalgamated with The Hereson School (a boys' school in

Broadstairs Broadstairs is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about east of London. It is part of the civil parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes St Peter's, and had a population in 2011 o ...

) in September 2009, and was renamed The Ellington and Hereson School. The school was initially based over the two former school sites, but all pupils were transferred to the former Ellington School site on Newlands Lane in 2011 (the Ellington School had been rebuilt in 2007). In March 2015 it was announced that The Ellington and Hereson School was proposed to merge with The Marlowe Academy from September 2015. Reasons for the merger included that the site for The Ellington and Hereson School was restricting its growth as a successful school.

Stirling Way (Upper School)

The Marlowe Academy was founded in 2005 as an academy, with thirty million pounds spent on the new school buildings. It was intended to replace the existing Ramsgate School (previously known as Conyngham School), which had been marked as "failing" after inspections by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, incl ...

). In January 2011, the school leadership said they were disappointed in its standings in the performance tables, showing it third from last, but said that "this academy was set up to solve the problems in a particular area and we are doing that", with the 67% proportion of pupils achieving five A*-C grades at

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

being better than previous years. A particular problem faced by the school is described as the "low academic standards of pupils coming into the Academy from local primary schools". The school was considered amongst "the worst schools in England" following an Ofsted inspection later in 2011, which found that "many Year 10 and 11 pupils had a reading age that was at least two years below their actual age", and placed the school in

special measures Special measures is a status applied by regulators of public services in Britain to providers who fall short of acceptable standards. In education (England and Wales) Ofsted, the schools inspection agency for England and some British Overseas Ter ...

. However, a subsequent inspection in March 2012 found that the school had made satisfactory progress in all areas inspected. "The number of children gaining five good GCSEs had improved", but was still below expected standards, at only twenty per cent. Some credit for the improvements was given to temporary principal Carl Wakefield, who was described as having "changed the Marlowe Academy in just nine months". As well as continued improvements in exam results, with an expectation of 84% of students achieving grades between A* and C at GCSE in 2012, as against 64% in 2011 and only 4% in 2005, in May 2012 it was claimed that a greater proportion of students were planning to stay on at the Marlowe Academy for their

A-level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational au ...

s, instead of moving to other colleges in the area. The Academy however continued to receive poor Ofsted reports, including in November 2014 when a statement said that "senior leaders, trustees and sponsor are not taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement." In March 2015 it was announced that Marlowe Academy would merge with the Ellington and Hereson School. Reasons for the merger included that despite improvements, The Marlowe Academy continued to have lower exam results compared the Ellington and Hereson School, and The Marlowe Academy was continuing to see a fall in pupil numbers.

The Royal Harbour Academy

The merger of The Ellington and Hereson School and The Marlowe Academy was enacted in September 2015, with the new school being renamed The Royal Harbour Academy. Despite the new name, the school was a

foundation school In England and Wales, a foundation school is a state-funded school in which the governing body has greater freedom in the running of the school than in community schools. Foundation schools were set up under the School Standards and Framework ...

, having the same governance arrangements as the former Ellington and Hereson School. In April 2023 The Royal Harbour Academy converted to academy status. The school is now sponsored by the Coastal Academies Trust.

References

Sources

External links

The Royal Harbour Academy official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Harbour Academy Secondary schools in Kent Ramsgate Academies in Kent