Drapers Mills Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school This is a good and improving school. The headteacher's unswerving determination to help pupils do as well as they can is shared by all leaders and staff. The school is a bright, stimulating and safe haven for learning.

Outstanding attention to ensuring pupils' social and emotional well-being underpins the school's ethos. All staff are completely committed to helping children succeed, often against the odds, within this extremely diverse community. Children make a good start in the early years, taking full advantage of the extensive indoor and outdoor resources.

Outstanding leadership has vastly improved teaching since the last inspection.... Good teaching across the school means that pupils, including those who are disadvantaged and the many who spend only brief periods at the school, build well on their starting points. Pupils' progress over recent years has typically been above average.

Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who arrive speaking little or no English make good and often rapid progress. Leaders are aware that some pupils do not have a secure grasp of basic number facts and that weak spelling limits their writing skills. Leaders and staff are starting to tackle this problem.

The most able pupils generally rise to the challenges set for them. Occasionally tasks are not demanding enough and do not require pupils to think deeply or work at greater depth. The good behaviour of the pupils makes them excellent ambassadors for the school.

The school is a harmonious community where pupils from a wide range of backgrounds get on well together and are mutually supportive. Pupils feel safe and show high regard for each other and members of staff. Parents and carers are effusive in their praise for the school, including the immediate and sensitive response when families need support.

They are confident that leaders and staff have their children's best interests at heart. Governors work closely with school leaders. They keep a sharp eye on pupils' performance and offer insightful guidance and support.

Information about this school

Drapers Mills Primary Academy is a much-larger-than-average-sized primary school. The school serves a community with high levels of deprivation. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is well above average.

Just under half of the pupils are from White British backgrounds. A quarter are from other White backgrounds and a quarter have a White Roma heritage. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is well above average.

Many of these pupils are at a very early stage of learning English as they join the school. A much-higher-than-average proportion of pupils leave the school during each school year. In the last academic year, around 100 pupils left the school and there was a similar number of new entrants.

The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is above the national average. The school is part of The Kemnal Academies Trust. The school meets the government's current floor standards, which are the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress by the end of Year 6 in reading, writing and mathematics.