Boothroyd Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school The principal provides inspiring and dedicated leadership. She leads by her strong example and, together with her recently appointed vice-principal, has developed a strong and effective leadership team.

Leaders have moved swiftly to address the weaknesses identified at the last inspection. As a result, teaching and learning are now good and the attainment and progress of pupils are improving rapidly. The school's work to promote the well-being and good mental health of the pupils is exemplary.

Pastoral care is of a very high standard and the individual needs of pupils and their families are met exceptionally well. Children in the early ye...ars have an excellent start to their education. They are highly motivated and engaged in a range of exciting activities.

As a result, they make very good progress and are very well-prepared to start year 1. Parents speak highly of the school. They have many good opportunities to get involved and support their child's learning.

The school promotes equality and diversity extremely well. Pupils have a very high level of tolerance and respect for a wide range of religions, cultures and lifestyle choices. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), and those who are disadvantaged, are supported well and make good progress.

The teaching of mathematics is a strength of the school and pupils make good progress in this subject. The quality of the teaching of reading and writing is rapidly improving. The proportion of Year 1 pupils who meet the standard in phonics is now in line with the national average.

However, many pupils do not have sufficient skills to explore and understand many of the words they read. The school does not have a consistent approach to the teaching of handwriting. As a result, the quality of this is too variable across the school, especially in key stage 1.

Most pupils have positive attitudes to learning and are fully engaged with their learning in lessons. However, a small minority of pupils, in some classes, can easily become distracted. The school works very hard to improve attendance and the vast majority of pupils attend school regularly.

However, a small number of families continue to take their children out of school for extended periods. Consequently, the proportion of pupils who are persistently absent remains too high.

Information about this school

Boothroyd Academy became an academy in October 2013.

It is part of Focus-Trust, which is a multi-academy chain of 15 primary academies. Focus-Trust is a company limited by guarantee and is a charitable trust. Responsibility for the academies that make up the trust lies with the board of trustees.

There is a separate local governing board for each academy, which is known as the Task Group Governing Body. The trust has overall responsibility for the governance of the academy and devolves some of this responsibility to the Task Group Governing Body. The trust and its sponsor, Focus Education, provide regular support for each academy through improvement partners and consultants.

The school is larger than the average-sized primary school. The proportion of pupils who have SEND is well below the national average. The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is below the national average.

The very large majority of pupils are of Asian or Asian British Pakistani heritage. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well above the national average. The proportion of pupils who are eligible for support through the additional pupil premium funding is much higher than the national average.

The school runs a breakfast club and an after-school club. The school provides full-time places for children in the three Reception classes and part-time places for children in the Nursery. Children enter the Nursery when they are three years old.

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