Adderlane Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Adderlane Academy has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

The headteacher of this school is Emma Potts.

This school is part of WISE Academies, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Zoe Carr, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Margaret Stephenson.

What is it like to attend this school?

Adderlane Academy provides a very warm welcome to pupils and their parents and carers.

Pupils are safe and happy in school. They enjoy coming to school each day.

Pupils behave exceptionally well in lessons an...d at breaktimes.

They abide by the school's moral code by 'speaking nicely, listening carefully, acting kindly and moving calmly'. Pupils enjoy learning. Children in the Nursery Year, for example, jump up and down with joy when singing their favourite counting rhymes.

This first school has high expectations of its pupils. By the time they leave Year 4, pupils are fluent readers, possess strong writing skills and are increasingly able mathematicians. They are prepared well for the demands of middle school education.

Pupils, such as the 'well-being ambassadors', carry out roles of responsibility in school willingly and thoughtfully. They contribute fully to the school's calm and purposeful atmosphere for learning. Pupils' learning is enhanced through completing 40 'pledges' such as kite flying, beach combing and theatre visiting.

Parents are overwhelmingly happy with the school's provision for their children's education. They appreciate the way in which the school recognises and supports their children's individual talents and needs.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

In this first school, pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, achieve very well in the Year 1 phonics and the Year 4 multiplication tables screening checks.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) play a full and active part in school life. Their individual needs are met well. Pupils with SEND access the same curriculum as their peers and progress through it well.

The curriculum ensures that pupils' foundational knowledge in the core subjects of English and mathematics builds sequentially from the Nursery Year to Year 4. The phonics programme is delivered with great expertise and confidence. Pupils support each other cooperatively in paired reading activities.

The vast majority of pupils are fluent readers on entry to Year 2. The school ensures that pupils who fall behind in reading catch up quickly.

The school, working with local schools to ensure pupils are ready for their next steps, has also implemented detailed curriculum plans in non-core subject areas.

Curriculums outline the essential and sequential knowledge and vocabulary the school wants pupils to learn. Sometimes, the knowledge that pupils need to learn is not given sufficient focus in lessons. When this happens, pupils find it difficult to remember the important information that they need to know.

The school enhances pupils' wider development through an extensive range of well-attended extra-curricular activities, educational visits, residential stays and visitors. Educational visits start in the early years. For example, since the beginning of the academic year, the Reception Year has benefited from a theatre visit to see 'Jack and the Beanstalk', an inter-generational visit to a care home and a walk around the local town with a pit-stop at a local café.

These activities enhance pupils' speech, language and communication skills.

The school prioritises pupils' regular attendance. Staff swiftly identify and remove barriers that prevent pupils from attending well.

Pupils appreciate the wide range of attendance initiatives and rewards the school provides. The school's focus on improving attendance means that the majority of pupils now attend well.

Pupils are strong advocates for the school's values and expectations.

They conduct themselves well and are polite to each other, staff and visitors. Older pupils support their younger peers well. The school's carefully constructed programme of assemblies focuses on fundamental British values, such as the rule of law, through stories.

The school's provision for pupils' personal, social and health education is strong. Staff adapt the curriculum intelligently based on local or national issues. Pupils' knowledge and tolerance of others from different cultures and religions are enhanced through the curriculum for religious education.

Key stage 2 pupils, for example, eat a traditional 'Passover Sedar' meal during their work on Judaism.

The school evaluates its strengths and areas that require further development accurately. Governance, including the local governing body and the board of trustees, is exceptionally strong, well organised, skilled and knowledgeable.

The trust supports and challenges the school's work well. In this small first school, in which class teachers lead multiple subject areas, staff workload and well-being are given high priority. Staff appreciate the school's efforts.

Staff turnover is very low. Staff morale is very high.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Occasionally, learning does not focus sufficiently on the essential knowledge that pupils need to know. As a result, pupils do not have enough opportunities to understand and remember the important information that they need to be able to use. The school should ensure that lessons and activities focus appropriately on the specific knowledge that pupils need, as set out in the school's curriculum.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged good for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in October 2019.