Concord Junior Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Concord Junior Academy is calm and welcoming. Pupils feel happy and safe.

Staff invest in pupils. Relationships are nurturing. This supports pupils if they have concerns or worries.

Pupils say the best thing about the school is the teachers. Pupils state, 'Teachers are kind and help us when we struggle.'

Leaders have high ambitions for pupils.

Leaders ensure that there is a wide range of opportunities to develop their interests. This includes clubs about robotics, pottery and street dance. Recently, the school football team competed at Wembley Stadium in a national championship final.

Leaders have high expectations for pupil behaviour. Staf...f support pupils to make the right choices. They behave well in lessons and at breaktimes.

Pupils are polite and respectful.

Pupils say that bullying does happen, but adults in school always sort it out. Pupils learn how to stay safe and know how to keep themselves safe while online.

The school experiences high pupil mobility. As a result, pupils join and leave the school at different points of the year. Leaders acknowledge this.

Pupils new to the school settle in quickly. These pupils are well supported by extra sessions, a skilled pastoral team and strong relationships with staff and pupils.

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

Leaders focus sharply on improving pupils' ability to read.

When pupils struggle with reading, they receive extra help. Pupils access fluency and comprehension support programmes. This ensures they can catch up and quickly access learning alongside their peers.

Pupils complete daily reading skills lessons. These lessons are effective in supporting pupils to develop new vocabulary.

Leaders have made changes across the curriculum.

In some subjects, they have identified crucial knowledge they want pupils to know and remember. These changes are at different stages of development in different subjects. Reading and history are the furthest along in the journey.

As a result, pupils learn more in these subjects. Teachers teach lessons that are carefully sequenced. In some subjects, such as history, teachers ask pupils to recall, remember and review prior learning at the beginning of lessons.

This helps pupils to build on what they already know. However, sometimes leaders do not check how well the curriculum is being implemented.

Teachers use the local authority's approach to teaching personal, social and health education.

At times, changes are made to personalise lessons for the pupils that attend this school. Pupils learn about British values in lessons and assemblies. Pupils can clearly articulate and apply their understanding.

They respect and tolerate others. However, pupils' awareness and understanding of different faiths and religions is underdeveloped. In some cases, pupils are unable to name different religions.

When pupils talked about different religions to inspectors, this included several misconceptions and inaccuracies.

School leaders engage with support offered by the multi-academy trust leaders. This support is helping the school's subject leaders check how successfully the new curriculum is being taught.

This checking is not yet fully in place across all subjects. As a result, the teaching of subjects, such as science, is inconsistent. Pupils are not always supported to make links to prior learning.

They are not able to build and develop new knowledge as effectively as they could.

Leaders have a clear vision for staff. This includes investing in staff and supporting their workload.

Staff say that they are empowered by the executive principal. They say that documents and training help them to be more efficient and effective teachers. Leaders have created a culture of trust and collaboration.

Teachers openly share effective practice and act on feedback. This includes filming and reviewing their teaching.

Governance is a strength.

Governors check to make sure that the information the school provides is accurate. This ensures trustees and governors can challenge and support leaders to improve the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders have established a strong safeguarding culture. Staff and governors receive regular training. All staff recognise the signs that could indicate pupils are suffering from harm.

Leaders take appropriate action in a thorough and timely manner. This includes keeping detailed records and reporting concerns. Leaders work well with a range of agencies to ensure that pupils and their families receive the support that they need.

Leaders analyse incidents. They use this to make changes to the curriculum. This ensures that pupils are supported appropriately when needed.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Subject leaders are not currently accurately checking the implementation of the newly developed curriculum. As a result, there is some variability in teaching, including in science. Leaders need to ensure that systems of checking the quality of teaching are embedded to ensure that learning across the curriculum is consistent and even more effective.

• Teachers are not supporting pupils to remember and apply their understanding of different faiths and religions. As a result, some pupils are not able to talk about different faiths and religions. Teachers need to ensure that lessons develop pupils' understanding of different faiths and religions so that they are better prepared for life in modern Britain.