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Fig 1 18 teachwire.net/secondary X X X X X X X X X X X a deputy headteacher at Maltings Academy, specialising in behaviour and boosting student numbers. As he tells it now, his decision to apply for the hitherto oft-vacant headship of New Rickstones was a straightforward one: “I just felt it was the right thing to do, morally. It wasn’t right for us to have two schools in the town both working under the same umbrella, and yet have this postcode lottery deciding where pupils went.” The schools are positioned at different ends of the town, with New Rickstones arguably having a more challenging intake that includes The Courts – a large housing estate with what Lee describes as the highest levels of deprivation in Witham, resulting in the school having one of the highest Pupil Premium rates (42%) in north west Essex. Early on, Lee oversaw the introduction of a new behaviour policy, dubbed ‘Discipline with Dignity’. One of its measures allows teachers to send misbehaving students into an outside corridor for a period of up to two minutes, after which the teacher explains to the student what’s wrong with their behaviour and how it needs to change, before encouraging them back into Callum Fauser finds out how the process of turning round an under-subscribed academy school in Essex involved a dramatic rethink of student aspirations… classroom life W hat happens if you build a school but there aren’t enough students to fill it? That was the situation New Rickstones Academy found itself in several years ago. It’s one of two schools in Witham, Essex run by the Academies Enterprise Trust – the other being the nearby Maltings Academy – and occupies an impressive three-storey building completed during the final months of the Buildings Schools for the Future programme. By the mid 2000s, however, the school was facing major struggles. Poor behaviour and low aspirations for students, combined with a turnover of five headteachers within the space of seven years, had damaged the school’s local reputation to the extent that the pupil population dropped to around 500. With the school designed for 800, it even became necessary for a time to effectively mothball the top floor of the building. Postcode lottery In 2015, Damian Lee had been working for six years as “Teachers earn their money by engaging” “I WANTTHE STUDENTS ATMY SCHOOLTO BE THEMSELVES, BUT I ALSOWANTTHEMTO WALKTHE CORRIDORS WITHA SENSE OF PURPOSE AND RESPECT. I FEELWHATWORKS IS REMINDERS, MAKING THEMREALISE THE ERRORS OFTHEIR WAYSWHENTHEY MISBEHAVE.WE ’LL REMINDTHEMTHATWE DON'TTOLERATE THAT SORTOF BEHAVIOUR HERE ANDTELLTHEM NOTTO DO ITAGAIN, BEFORE MOVING ON.” DAMIAN LEE, HEAD the room. As Lee notes, “Teachers really earn their money by engaging with a child, building a relationship with them and making that child feel that they want to be back in the lesson. Nine times out of ten, it's a successful approach.” A fresh pair of eyes The school’s efforts at improving standards of 18