Brook Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Before joining Brook Academy, pupils may have experienced long or repeated absences from education. The school's curriculum is designed to help pupils overcome barriers to engagement.

It aims to build their confidence, resilience, and positive learning behaviours. This involves working with pupils to create various opportunities to achieve and celebrate their personal and academic successes.

With appropriate support, pupils learn to recognise and manage their emotions and actions successfully.

Pupils are at the centre of the school's decision-making. Over time, positive working relationships based on trust and respect are built between staff and pupils. This ...helps create a calm school environment where most pupils feel safe.

A well-developed careers programme helps pupils to make informed choices about their post-16 education, employment and training options. Before they move on, pupils attain nationally recognised qualifications and essential life skills such as cooking.

Pupils look forward to spending time with their friends at school.

They value and enjoy the school's enrichment experiences, such as boxing, music and residential trips. These opportunities help pupils to explore and develop new talents and interests. The school's focus on developing pupils' mental and physical health and improving their self-esteem prepares them well for adulthood.

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

The school and trust share the ambition that Brook Academy's pupils achieve well, both personally and academically. Since joining the trust, the school has undergone significant change. Regular professional development opportunities mean staff are well-supported to carry out their roles.

Checks on the impact of this work accurately inform the school's ongoing development.

The curriculum intent is clear and provides pupils with regular opportunities to revisit and build on what they have learned before. The curriculum's focus on building pupils' confidence, resilience and positive learning behaviours means they are taught the steps they need to succeed.

Additional support is provided for pupils who need help to secure their early reading, speech and language development. For example, early reading sessions using a published phonics scheme or pre-teaching of vocabulary are provided. This helps pupils to catch up with their peers.

Pupils enjoy listening to and responding to books read by the teacher.

In key stage 3, class texts are carefully selected to enhance pupils' cultural capital and understanding of neurodiversity. The books cover a range of themes to encourage class discussion and debate.

Personal, social, health and economic education lessons also support improving pupils' language skills.

Staff skilfully use pupils' education, health and care (EHC) plans to devise Personal Learning Plans (PLP) that support pupils' social, emotional and mental health needs. Likewise, the PLPs target gaps in pupils' subject knowledge that must be closed.

However, staff knowledge of the curriculum in some subjects and how to adapt the work to meet pupils' needs is underdeveloped. Consequently, some academic PLP targets lack precision in weaving through the essential concepts identified in the curriculum intent. Work towards achieving these targets is sometimes done in isolation.

Pupils do not have regular opportunities to recall, practise and apply new knowledge in these subjects. As a result, the impact of this work is variable. Pupils are unable to secure new knowledge.

Pupils know what makes relationships healthy and unhealthy and the importance of consent. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe, including when online. They know the importance of sharing any worries and will get help from the pastoral team if needed.

Pupils learn about differences and equality.

The school adapts its work to encourage and support regular attendance, including work with appropriate external agencies. For most pupils, this work is effective.

With support, most pupils successfully transition into full-time education after their previously disjointed education experience.

The school's work to help staff understand its behaviour management approach is positively impacting. Pupils typically listen well to the teacher and each other.

Where derogatory language is used, steps are taken to reflect with the pupil and teach appropriate language choices. The school is working with staff to ensure inappropriate language is effectively addressed.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, staff do not know the curriculum content and expectations sufficiently well. Teaching and learning adaptations are not precise enough to help pupils learn new curriculum content. The trust needs to develop staff knowledge of the curriculum and its expectations to ensure pupils are effectively supported to secure their knowledge in these subjects.

• The school's curriculum is not implemented as intended in some subjects. Pupils' prior knowledge is not routinely recapped and developed. The trust should ensure that pupils have sufficient opportunities to revisit and apply prior learning to successfully build their knowledge, skills and vocabulary over time.