Ofsted has judged the academy to be meeting the expected standard across all six areas of the new national inspection framework. These are: achievement, attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, leadership and governance and personal development and wellbeing.

As you may be aware, Ofsted no longer gives schools a single overall grade. Instead, schools receive a detailed report card across key areas of school life, providing families with a clearer and more balanced picture of its strengths and next steps. While implemented at the end of 2025, The Wells Academy is the first secondary school in Nottingham to be inspected under this new framework.

As you’ll also hopefully know, over the past three years, our entire academy community has worked incredibly hard to foster a warm and inclusive culture that enables the best possible teaching and learning and supports all our students to fulfil their potential. This positive report reflects these efforts and the strong foundations that have been put in place for our students and colleagues alike.

In particular, inspectors noted the quality of teaching, improved behaviour, attendance and achievement, with our students achieving the strongest GCSE outcomes in the academy’s history in 2025.

Inspectors also praised the academy’s leaders for their unwavering commitment to students, highlighting that ‘school leaders work with moral purpose and determination to ensure the school improves pupils’ life chances regardless of any challenging circumstances in their lives’. This commitment has created a calm, orderly and inclusive culture, where students ‘appreciate how staff greet them every morning at the school gates and throughout the day in corridors and lessons’, ‘understand and live up to leaders’ high expectations’ and attend regularly ‘because [pupils] value their school and know that education is important’.

The report goes on to highlight the academy’s strong pastoral systems noting that leaders swiftly identify students’ needs and provide effective academic, emotional and social support. Inspectors praised the ongoing work to support students’ wider development, noting that they benefit from a well-considered PSHE programme, a strong careers offer and a growing enrichment programme which includes partnerships with universities and sports organisations.

I am also especially pleased that our academy leaders were commended for building strong relationships with families. Inspectors reported that ‘leaders have won the confidence of parents and carers’ and that ‘parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school’. This means a great deal to us and I hope you know how vital your trust and partnership is in the progress we have made.

As with any inspection, there are areas we will continue to improve and strengthen. We therefore, remain committed to ensuring that we work with families to support students to continue to achieve the best possible GCSE outcomes.

As we look to the future and build on this positive momentum, I want to thank you for your continued support of The Wells Academy. Our entire academy community has an important role to play in ensuring we provide the best possible educational experience and I know that by continuing to work together we will do our absolute best for every one of our students in our care.

Parent View
Ofsted Parent View gives families the chance to give feedback about the academy throughout the academic year. You can access our Parent View here.