All Saints Interchurch Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are warm and welcoming. The school's new values are well known and lived out by everyone.

They guide everything that is done at the school as everyone contributed to their development.

Staff are ambitious for pupils to do well at school. Many pupils do achieve well.

However, some pupils are not as motivated to learn as they should be. These pupils do not engage as positively in lessons as others do. This sometimes contributes to behaviour that distracts others and impacts negatively on learning.

Most of the relationships between staff and pupils are strong. However, some pupils do not always behave in a way that meets adults' high expectations.... This can be in lessons as well as at other times of the day.

Pupils have trusted adults that they can go to and a safe space if they need time away from their peers.

Pupils enjoy a wide range of trips, which broadens their knowledge of the curriculum. Pupils develop their interests through the range of clubs that they can attend, such as various sports, chess or building bricks.

Older pupils enjoy taking responsibility for the salad bar in the lunch hall to encourage pupils to eat healthily and look after their well-being.

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

Leadership at all levels has changed considerably in recent months. This has provided the school with more stability.

The school has accurately identified what it needs to do to improve and already moved these areas forward. There is a shared vision throughout the school to provide high-quality education.

The school is developing its curriculum to ensure that it is as broad and ambitious as it should be.

The curriculum builds pupils' knowledge over time, including in the early years. In most subjects, teachers' subject knowledge is strong, and they check what pupils know and remember. However, in a few subjects the information that the pupils receive is not clear and the activities pupils complete are not focused on the intended learning.

The school prioritises reading. A welcoming school library and comfortable book corners encourage reading throughout the school. They ensure that pupils have high-quality texts, including a range of genres to read or to have read to them.

Staff teach phonics consistently throughout the school. Staff check pupils' phonics knowledge regularly. They provide additional support for pupils to keep up.

By the time pupils leave the school, they can read fluently and confidently.

Staff are working more effectively to meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They receive training to deliver a range of different strategies to cover most needs.

This includes adapting the curriculum to ensure that pupils can learn alongside their peers in the classroom. Staff have developed the process to identify pupils' needs so that support can be quickly put in place. The school works effectively with a wide range of external agencies and parents and carers to support pupils with SEND.

Routines are well established in the early years and around the school. Staff have started to address pupils' conduct with new approaches. There are already signs of improvement throughout the school.

However, the school's approaches are not as effective for all pupils because they are not consistently followed by staff. This leaves some pupils having their learning disrupted or feeling uncomfortable.

The school has been focusing on improving attendance.

However, the number of pupils who are persistently absent is still significantly high. The school has started to work with families to break down barriers to regular attendance. As a result, overall levels of attendance are improving.

The school's personal development offer supports the academic curriculum alongside the school's personal, social and health education programme. This promotes the school's values and British values well. Pupils learn about the importance of diversity and mutual respect.

The school provides high-quality pastoral support for pupils. This includes quiet spaces to ensure positive starts to the day and develop pupils' self-esteem and confidence. Pupils learn about the impact of a positive environment and contribute towards this.

They complete activities like litter picking at lunchtime, for example.

Recent changes to the board of trustees have ensured that they have expertise and knowledge to support and challenge school leaders effectively. Staff workloads are well considered, especially as changes happen.

There is a wide range of professional development opportunities for all staff. Staff are positive about working in the school. Parents are supportive of the school and are optimistic about the future.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Staff lack the subject knowledge to teach some foundation subjects as effectively as they teach other subjects. Consequently, they do not present some information clearly in these subjects.

Sometimes, the activities that they provide for pupils do not focus on the knowledge the school intends pupils to learn. As a result, pupils do not learn as well as they should in these subjects. The school should ensure that staff have the subject knowledge they need to deliver the curriculum effectively in the full range of subjects that they teach.

• The school's approach for managing pupils' behaviour is not consistently applied. As a result, there are pupils who disrupt learning and some who make other pupils feel uncomfortable. The school should ensure that all staff consistently follow and apply behaviour strategies.

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