Dogsthorpe Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

At Dogsthorpe Academy, pupils' horizons are broadened by a range of experiences.Trips and visitors to the school are well considered and enhance the curriculum experience for pupils.

Examples are the 'lift-off' activities to start a new topic of learning and the 'let's connect' production on mental health. Pupils take part in sport clubs and activities such as gardening club. Trips such as that to an interactive indoor city prepare pupils for the world of work.

Most pupils are positive about this school. They usually get on well with each other.Pupils say that they are usually safe in school, although bullying happens.

On occasions, pupils choose not to repor...t it because they accept and expect it as a normal part of their lives at school.

While most pupils know how they should behave, a significant minority of pupils disrupt learning for themselves and others. Leaders' expectations of how pupils should behave are not high enough.

Pupils do not achieve as well as they should. This is because leaders have not ensured that the knowledge that pupils need to learn is delivered well and as they planned.

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

Leaders have ensured that clear curriculum plans are in place for all subjects.

These overarchingly set out what pupils need to learn over time in every year group.

In a few areas of the curriculum, leaders have a clear understanding of what pupils need to learn and how it needs to be delivered. Where this is the case, for example in reading and physical education (PE), leaders support teachers to deliver the curriculum well.

Teachers plan appropriate activities that enable pupils to build on their knowledge securely. However, in other areas of the curriculum, teachers are less clear about how to deliver the curriculum as leaders intend. Consequently, activities in lessons do not teach the knowledge that pupils need.

Therefore, pupils' knowledge is not routinely secure before they move on to new learning.

Leaders have made reading a focus for the school, especially since the pandemic. Opportunities for pupils to read are planned throughout the curriculum.

Leaders and teachers choose engaging texts, and pupils are enthusiastic about reading. Important words are introduced and frequently revisited, so that pupils widen their range of vocabulary.

Leaders regularly check how well pupils can read.

Leaders use what they find out to identify additional support for pupils who struggle to learn to read. This helps these pupils to become more fluent and accurate readers.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do not achieve as well as they should.

Leaders have focused on pupils with education, health and care plans. Provision for these pupils with SEND is clear and assessed regularly. However, the work to identify accurately pupils who need support and to consider how they access the curriculum successfully is in its early stages of being put in place.

There is a significant proportion of pupils with SEND who are not supported well enough. Teachers do not routinely consider the changes they need to make to ensure that pupils with SEND access the same learning as others. As a result, the provision for pupils with SEND is variable and less successful.

Pupils' learning is too often disrupted by the poor behaviour of others. Leaders have not established high enough expectations for how pupils should behave. Leaders react to pupils' misbehaviour rather than adopting clear and consistent approaches that teach pupils how to behave.

Pupils do not always treat each other and staff with respect. Although leaders are trying to improve the culture of behaviour, this work is in its early stages.

Leaders have ensured that an appropriately broad and ambitious personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum is in place.

However, the teaching of this does not secure pupils' depth of knowledge and understanding about how this should be applied in their day-to-day lives. Pupils do not routinely show respect and empathy for others and for those who are different from themselves. As a result, pupils are not sufficiently well prepared for life in modern Britain.

The trust monitors progress and provides support. It checks the key aspects of the school, such as the quality of the curriculum and behaviour. It is aware that these are not good enough.

It is holding leaders to account in order to secure improvements.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders and teachers have strong relationships with families.

They have established safeguarding systems that are well understood by all and followed correctly. All staff know how to identify pupils who may need help. Staff receive regular training to help them identify and support pupils at risk.

Leaders have appointed a safeguarding team whose members understand what pupils need. They work closely with other professionals, parents and carers and families to support them.

The curriculum content ensures that pupils are taught how to stay safe.

Pupils know about the dangers of going online and how to reduce risk.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Subject leaders have not ensured that they have considered how teachers deliver the curriculum as they intend. This results in inconsistencies across the curriculum and pupils not knowing what they need to do in order to remember more.

Leaders must ensure that subject leaders receive the appropriate training so they know how to help teachers to deliver the curriculum well enough to ensure that pupils achieve consistently well across the curriculum. ? The systems for identifying and adapting the curriculum for pupils with SEND is in its early stages of implementation. These pupils are not routinely well supported and are unable to access the curriculum fully.

Teachers do not make sufficient adaptations to ensure that pupils with SEND achieve well. Leaders need to ensure that the knowledge they want pupils to learn is carefully considered, so that teachers know how to adapt the curriculum and deploy the support appropriately, so that pupils with SEND are able to access successfully the same curriculum offer as their peers. ? Too many pupils do not behave well enough.

There is no shared and understood approach to managing behaviour. This results in disruption that is not dealt with consistently and effectively. Leaders need to establish and implement a consistent and well-understood approach that pupils and staff follow to ensure that pupils understand the expectations of how they should behave.

• The PSHE curriculum has not been adapted to meet the needs of pupils at Dogsthorpe Academy. As a result, pupils do not understand the content of this fully and do not routinely apply it to their day-to-day lives as they should. Leaders need to identify the key knowledge that pupils must learn and ensure that this is taught effectively, so that pupils apply this to their own behaviour and conduct.

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