Carville Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The school is a welcoming, calm and positive environment. Pupils behave well. They have a secure understanding of what it means to be part of the school community.

Pupils have positive attitudes to learning and strong relationships with adults. They feel safe. Pupils know that if they need help, staff are swift to offer support.

Pupils enjoy their time together. They are respectful and are proud of their diverse school. Pupils are supported well to settle into the school.

While pupils are beginning to learn more in areas such as mathematics and phonics, gaps in their knowledge remain. The school has high expectations of what pupils should learn, but these exp...ectations are not fully realised. Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), do not achieve well across the range of subjects.

This means that pupils do not develop their knowledge and skills as well as they could.

Pupils enjoy the range of sporting activities available. They take on leadership responsibilities through the school council.

Pupils value the opportunity to participate in the school choir. Older pupils talk positively about their experiences on the annual residential trip and how this helps them to develop confidence and resilience. However, wider opportunities to develop their interests are more limited.

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

Significant changes to the curriculum have been in place from the start of the last academic year. Children in the early years and younger pupils are benefitting most from these changes. Green shoots are evident in important areas, including mathematics and phonics.

However, inconsistencies in the quality of education remain. Opportunities to consolidate learning are not fully established for some pupils who still have gaps in their knowledge. The systems to check pupils' understanding and adapt the curriculum for pupils with SEND are not as effective as they could be.

While the school identifies the needs of pupils with SEND accurately, teaching does not consistently support these pupils to achieve curricular aims successfully.

The structure and sequence of the curriculum are both robust. The curriculums in English and mathematics are further developed than other curriculum subjects.

These subjects are beginning to equip pupils better for the next stage of their education. This is most evident for the younger pupils in school. Outcomes remain low for pupils at the end of key stage 2.

Reading is central to pupils' experiences. Older pupils develop a keen love of reading. Pupils engage well in phonics activities.

The school has implemented a consistent approach to teaching phonics. Children in Reception learn the sounds that letters make from the very start of their time in school. Pupils use the phonics strategies they learn to break down unfamiliar words into their individual sounds.

They learn to read with increasing fluency and accuracy. The school works well to ensure that if pupils fall behind in their reading, they receive effective support to help them catch up. These approaches are beginning to give pupils stronger foundations to their learning.

Children in Nursery and Reception enjoy the language-rich environment that they work in. They settle in well and are included in the wider life of the school. Children play, learn and collaborate happily.

Recent changes have had a positive impact and the start children make is stronger in phonics and mathematics. However, the curriculum in the early years is not fully embedded. Some areas of learning within the early years curriculum, such as helping pupils to learn to write, are not securely developed.

It is a similar picture in the rest of the school, where elements of pupils' writing are not developed consistently well.

Pupils largely demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. Systems to manage behaviour are clear and effective.

Staff use these well. The school has clear and systematic procedures in place, including for attendance and pastoral support. Staff make good use of attendance information and analysis.

They work closely with parents and carers to ensure that pupils attend school regularly.

The personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) curriculum is well designed. Pupils learn about how to eat healthily and develop an age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships.

They have a strong shared sense of the school values, as well as how to keep themselves safe. Pupils are keen to make a greater difference to life in school. However, the school is aware that opportunities for pupils to develop their talents and interests are not fully developed.

Recent changes in governance have strengthened the strategic leadership in the school. As a result, accountability is now clearer. The school has received support from a multi-academy trust to keep improvements on the right track.

Staff share leaders' view of the improvements required. They are being helped to grow professionally. Staff appreciate the support they receive from the leadership team and consideration of their workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school does not maximise opportunities to help pupils consolidate the knowledge they have acquired, particularly in the wider curriculum. Pupils do not recall what they have learned over time as well as they should.

The school needs to develop better strategies to help pupils know and remember more of the intended curriculum. ? The use of assessment information to identify gaps in pupils' learning, and make subsequent adaptations to teaching and the curriculum, is not fully developed. This limits pupils' progression through the curriculum, particularly at the end of key stage 2.

The school should ensure that gaps in pupils' knowledge are identified and addressed swiftly so they are supported to achieve highly. ? The writing curriculum has been revised recently but is not fully embedded. Consequently, pupils' writing skills do not develop well enough over time, including in the early years.

The school should ensure that staff receive the support and guidance needed to ensure that the approach to writing is implemented well to better meet the needs of pupils. ? Although the school has started to broaden the offer for pupils' personal development, opportunities for pupils to contribute to the wider life of the school remain too limited. The school should ensure that pupils have a wider range of experiences to further enhance their personal development.