Beamont Collegiate Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Beamont Collegiate Academy continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Beamont enjoy coming to school. They are happy and friendly. Pupils like the enrichment activities that leaders provide.

These opportunities are wide-ranging and include choir, chess, and yoga. Pupils particularly enjoy the combined cadet force.

Pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), rise to leaders' high expectations.

Pupils understand and follow the school's learning and behaviour values. This helps to ensure that classrooms are calm and purposeful. Pupils achieve well in a broad range of subjects.

Pupils... behave well in lessons. Pupils' breaktimes are relaxed and friendly. They feel safe.

Pupils have been taught about different types of bullying and understand effective ways to report it. Staff deal with any bullying incidents effectively.

Pupils enjoy visiting the science, technology, engineering and mathematics centre on the school site.

Many pupils participate in the programming activities in the coding club. They enjoyed working with other pupils across the Challenge Academy Trust in a competition to design a community centre in the Lake District.

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

Since the previous inspection, leaders have continued to develop the curriculum.

The curriculum identifies the knowledge that pupils will learn. This knowledge builds in a logical way that helps pupils gain the knowledge that they need to be successful. Leaders ensure that teachers deliver the curriculum well.

As a result, pupils know more and remember more over time across a range of subjects.

Leaders ensure that pupils with SEND are identified quickly. Teachers have useful information to meet the needs of these pupils effectively.

Pupils with SEND have access to the whole curriculum.

Leaders are determined to improve all pupils' fluency in reading. They have introduced an effective phonics programme for the small group of pupils who are still at the early stages of reading.

These pupils read books that match the sounds that they learn. This builds their confidence and fluency. As a result, many pupils gain the reading knowledge that they need to access the whole curriculum.

Leaders encourage pupils to extend their reading knowledge further through extensive use of the well-resourced school library.

Teachers check pupils' understanding regularly in lessons. This helps them to quickly identify and address any misconceptions that pupils may develop.

Teachers use this information effectively to adjust their activities when required. This helps pupils to learn the curriculum confidently.

Teachers also routinely check how well pupils' have remembered the knowledge that they have been taught across a series of lessons.

However, these checks are not effective in highlighting what pupils do and do not remember. As a result, teachers are less able to determine gaps in pupils' learning and address missed or forgotten knowledge.

Careers education in the school is very effective.

Pupils receive useful careers advice from Year 7 to Year 11. Leaders provide frequent careers fairs that help pupils to consider what they want to do when they leave school. Local businesses and colleges further strengthen this approach.

Most pupils move to appropriate further education, employment, or training.

Pupils' personal development is well catered for. Pupils learn how to keep themselves safe, including when working or playing online.

They also learn about appropriate healthy relationships. Pupils learn about the protected characteristics, such as sexual orientation, through the curriculum. A thriving LGBTQ+ club further supports this work.

Pupils behave well in lessons and around the school. Their positive attitudes to learning make a strong contribution to their achievement over time.

Teachers are proud and happy to work at this school.

They reported that leaders care about them. Staff appreciate how leaders, governors and trustees consider their workload carefully. For example, staff value how changes to the assessment policy have reduced their workload.

They appreciate leaders' actions to protect their mental and physical health and well-being.

Safeguarding

Leaders ensure that there is a strong culture of safeguarding across all aspects of their work. They provide frequent useful training on safeguarding to all staff.

This helps staff to spot any signs that a pupil may be at risk of harm or neglect. Staff take this duty of care very seriously. They know how to report any concerns that they have and do so promptly when necessary.

Leaders have made effective links with a wide range of local services. They use these services well to ensure that pupils and their families receive the support that they need to stay safe.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The checks on pupils' earlier learning are not used effectively by some teachers to identify gaps in pupils' knowledge.

This hinders teachers' ability to address pupils' missed or forgotten learning. Leaders should support teachers to use appropriate assessment strategies consistently well.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour, or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in June 2017.