Hewett Academy Review 2026: Extended days, creative learning, and a strong personal development offer

A longer school week shapes daily life here. The compulsory day runs from 8:40am, with earlier finishes on Monday and Friday and later finishes on Tuesday to Thursday, giving protected time for sport and the arts alongside GCSE study.

Leadership has been stable in recent years, with Antony Little in post since June 2020. The most recent Ofsted inspection (October 2023) rated the school Good overall, with Outstanding for personal development.

The site and facilities are a defining feature, including a swimming pool, theatre provision, and a dedicated sports hall that supports multiple indoor sports. A further change is on the horizon through the Department for Education’s School Rebuilding Programme, with plans that retain the clocktower and refurbish the Walter Roy Theatre alongside new buildings.

The strongest thread running through the school’s public-facing materials is community, not as a slogan, but as something operational. The language used around inclusion, respect and shared expectations is reinforced by how routines are designed, and by the time allocated to wider development. Ofsted’s narrative describes pupils as happy and well cared for, with calm movement around the site and low reported levels of bullying.

The House system gives structure to that community feel. Every pupil and staff member belongs to a House, each linked to one of the school’s core values (Respect, Aspiration, Dedication). The Houses are named after past Norwich mayors, including Ethel M Colman, with explicit ties to local civic history. For families who value a sense of belonging without a selective admissions model, this kind of vertical community framework can help pupils find their place quickly, especially at the Year 7 transition.

There is also a visible emphasis on cultural and civic education. The enrichment and wider-curriculum framing places “cultural capital” at the centre of what the school is trying to do for students, including structured exposure to trips, workshops and activities beyond everyday experience. That matters because it affects the feel of the place. A school that invests in that layer tends to talk differently with pupils about ambition, horizons and what comes next.

Hewett Academy’s latest outcomes place it in the middle 35% of secondary schools in England (25th to 60th percentile) for GCSE outcomes. In the FindMySchool ranking based on official data, it is ranked 1455th in England and 14th in Norwich.

At GCSE level, the Attainment 8 score is 46.8. Progress is a clear strength in the available dataset, with a Progress 8 score of +0.56, indicating students make well above average progress from their starting points.

The EBacc profile is mixed. 25% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in the EBacc measure, with an EBacc average point score of 4.38.

What this means for parents is that the headline here is progress rather than a “top of the league table” attainment profile. For the right child, a strong progress story often reflects consistent teaching routines, clear expectations, and systems that help students catch up and consolidate, especially in the early secondary years.

(As always, families comparing local schools can use the FindMySchool Local Hub and Comparison Tool to view these results side-by-side, rather than relying on anecdotes.)

The teaching model is presented with unusual specificity. Lessons are designed around a shared set of routines and expectations, with an emphasis on teaching core knowledge clearly, then checking it frequently in low-stakes ways. The published approach describes daily retrieval through short quizzes at the start of lessons, followed by structured feedback and time to correct misconceptions.

That has two practical implications. First, it tends to suit students who do well with clarity and predictability: consistent starts to lessons, consistent checking of prior learning, and a strong “everyone does the basics” expectation. Second, it can be supportive for students who have gaps, because the model is built around surfacing misunderstandings early rather than waiting for formal assessments.

Support for reading is also described as a priority, with targeted help for pupils who struggle, and rapid catch-up as fluency improves. For families with a child whose attainment does not yet reflect their potential, that combination of routine, frequent checking, and targeted literacy support is often where progress accelerates most.

Where Students Go Next

This is an 11 to 16 school, so planning for post-16 needs to start early. The careers and personal development strand is clearly positioned as a strength, and the wider programme is intended to prepare students for informed next steps.

The school’s enrichment materials also point to close links across local education, including a collaborative annual musical with Jane Austen College and Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form. For families, that matters less as a headline and more as a proxy for opportunity: students are exposed to larger-scale projects, broader peer groups, and a sense of what post-16 culture can look like.

Because no validated destination percentages are available in the provided dataset, and because schools vary widely in what they publish, the right approach is to treat post-16 planning as part of your admissions due diligence. Ask specifically about sixth form pathways, apprenticeship guidance, employer encounters, and how the school supports applications to competitive courses.

Hewett Academy is a state school, so there are no tuition fees. Admissions for Year 7 follow the Norfolk coordinated process, with the timetable for September 2026 entry set out by the local authority: applications open 11 September 2025, close 31 October 2025, and offers are released on 2 March 2026.

For school-specific criteria, the published admissions policy prioritises pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school, then looked-after and previously looked-after children, then siblings, then children of staff (in specified circumstances). After that, a distinctive feature applies: up to 10% of places (15 places from a planned admission number of 150) are allocated as Visual Arts Aptitude places, with remaining places allocated by straight-line distance.

Two practical implications follow:

• If you are considering the Visual Arts Aptitude route, treat it as a specific admissions track, not an add-on. Families should read the process carefully and plan early.

• If applying under the distance criterion, precision matters. Parents should use the FindMySchoolMap Search to check their home-to-school measurement and sanity-check it against historic patterns for local allocations, while remembering that distances can shift year to year.

Personal development is a headline strength, and the wider curriculum is designed to help students understand diversity, equal opportunity, respectful relationships and online safety. Ofsted also confirmed that safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Pastoral support is described with practical staffing rather than generalities. The local authority’s school profile lists a qualified counsellor and an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA). The same profile references Lego or block therapy as part of a therapeutic offer. These are the kinds of interventions that can be particularly helpful for students managing anxiety, friendship turbulence, or transition stress.

Additional inclusion capacity includes a specially resourced provision for up to 20 pupils with communication and interaction needs. For families exploring SEN support, the key questions to ask are how places are allocated into that resource base, how support is integrated into mainstream lessons, and what the transition plan looks like from Year 6 into Year 7.

The extracurricular offer is unusually concrete, with both traditional and modern strands.

Practical skills and life-readiness

The school describes an “entitlement programme” in which pupils learn skills such as sewing and clothes repair, alongside life-saving skills. The implication for families is that the school is not treating PSHE and life skills as filler. It is using them to build confidence and competence, which often shows up in calmer behaviour and better engagement.

Clubs that go beyond the standard menu

The Ofsted report references after-school opportunities that include learning about Japanese culture and programming artificial intelligence, with triathlon club described as oversubscribed. The school’s enrichment page also names triathlon training and a digital arts club, plus an annual activities week that includes “Manga Day”. This is helpful for parents whose child needs something to belong to. A specific club with a clear identity can be the difference between a student merely attending and a student thriving.

Trips and cultural access

The enrichment programme cites whole-year experiences, including a Year 7 visit to the National Gallery in London, plus trips for older year groups to the North Norfolk coast, Walsingham, and camping skills development. These details matter because they show a coherent approach to broadening horizons, not just occasional enrichment.

Sport and performance infrastructure

The Eileen Ash Sports Hall, opened for student use and wider community access, is designed for multi-sport programming, including four badminton courts and space for activities such as netball, basketball, volleyball, trampoline, martial arts and dance. For students who are motivated by physical activity, that sort of facility can anchor attendance and routine.

The academy day is explicitly published. The compulsory school day runs from 8:40am to 2:55pm on Monday and Friday, and 8:40am to 3:55pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This structure is designed to protect time for sport and arts.

Breakfast club is available, and there is inclusive before-school and after-school provision listed in local authority materials, though families should confirm current timings and eligibility directly with the school.

Location-wise, this is a city setting, so school-run transport is less likely to be central than safe walking, cycling and bus routes. For families driving at peak times, the practical question is usually how drop-off and pick-up flows are managed, and whether after-school enrichment reduces the need for a sharp end-of-day pickup.

• Extended days require stamina. Three days a week finish later than many local schools. That can be a major positive for structured enrichment, but it can feel long for some students, especially those who fatigue easily.

• A distinctive admissions feature changes the competitive picture. Up to 15 places are allocated via Visual Arts Aptitude before distance is applied to remaining places. Families relying on a distance-based offer should factor this into their risk assessment.

• No sixth form. Post-16 planning matters earlier, and families should explore how guidance is delivered for sixth forms, colleges and apprenticeships.

• A major rebuild is underway. Investment through the School Rebuilding Programme is promising, but construction phases can create short-term disruption. Ask how teaching spaces and student movement are managed during works.

Hewett Academy is a mainstream Norwich secondary with a clear identity: structured teaching routines, a long week that protects time for sport and the arts, and a personal development offer that stands out even among Good schools. Progress measures suggest students tend to improve strongly from their starting points, and the enrichment programme has enough specificity to feel real rather than aspirational.

Best suited to families who want an orderly, routine-led approach to learning, plus a strong menu of enrichment, trips and practical life skills. The main decision points are admissions strategy (including the Visual Arts Aptitude route), and whether the longer week is a good fit for your child.