E-ACT Shenley Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

The school's motto, 'Building futures, changing lives', is exactly what happens here.

Everyone involved in the school is committed to every pupil's welfare, well-being and academic success. Pupils' mental health is front and centre in leaders' thinking and decision-making. As a result, pupils thrive and achieve well.

The school nurtures and develops pupils' individual talents so that they can succeed in their chosen fields. No stone is left unturned in order to find ways of adding more to pupils' future prospects.

The school inspires and supports pupils to contribute to school life, the local community and beyond.

Pupils inform important decisions ab...out the school's curriculum. Many volunteer in the local community. Pupils have even gone on to present at conferences at a national and international level.

Pupils behave maturely. They treat each other with genuine respect and understanding of difference. Bullying is socially unacceptable here.

Pupils told inspectors that, when it does happen, it rarely needs to be passed on to staff to deal with. Pupils have the skills to work things through for themselves. Where staff do need to get involved, they help pupils to resolve the issues that led to the problem happening.

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

Leaders state that, 'The curriculum is at the heart of everything in this school.' It means that leaders have created a curriculum that weaves together plans for teaching subjects, personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, the careers programme and the extensive range of wider experiences. As a result, pupils achieve high standards and develop social and cultural awareness.

The curriculum teaches pupils how to behave well and stay safe. It helps them develop tolerance, respect and empathy and equips pupils to go on to appropriate destinations after leaving school.

The curriculum is taught in ways that ensure pupils acquire rich, deep knowledge about each subject.

It also helps them make strong links between what they have studied and individual or societal issues. For example, during a discussion with inspectors, pupils made a link between Hitler's view of a supreme race and the Black Lives Matter cause.

Curriculum plans set out the exact knowledge pupils will learn week by week and what skills this will enable them to perform.

Teaching and built-in assessment builds this knowledge sequentially. Teachers check in lessons if pupils remember prior content and are learning the intended new knowledge. Part-way through a topic, teachers assess if pupils have learned what they need.

They adapt planning to keep pupils on track. At the end of the topic, teachers double check that pupils have learned what they ought to learn. This happens well in almost every subject.

A very few departments have new staff teams. These departments are getting to grips with delivering the school's curriculum but still have a little way to go to be as effective as the rest.

The provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) has improved considerably since January 2021.

Pupils with SEND follow the same curriculum as other pupils. Where necessary, teachers adapt lessons to enable pupils with SEND to access the curriculum content. For example, they might use a laptop to record their work or have extra help from a mentor.

Leaders seek advice from external agencies to ensure that the support they provide for these pupils is appropriate.

The school uses alternative provision for a small number of pupils so that their needs can be better met. The school selects the provider carefully to make sure that it is safe and the right place for the pupil.

Leaders check pupils' attendance at these settings daily and keep a close eye on their safety there. The school maintains full responsibility for the quality of education provided to their pupils by making frequent visits to check that the correct curriculum is being followed and that each pupil is learning what is intended.

There is a culture of ambition, care, trust and openness between the E-Act multi-academy trust (the trust), of which the school is part, and the school.

This leads to staff, at all levels, seeking to improve in everything they do all the time. Very clear lines of accountability keep trustees well informed of the quality of education, enabling them to take swift and highly effective action where needed. Leaders in the school implement and quality assure these actions rigorously so that improvement is sustained.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The trust's culture puts pupils' welfare firmly at the heart of the school's work. High levels of training equip staff to identify where pupils need help.

Leaders work closely with many agencies to secure the right help for pupils and their families. The school provides substantial support for pupils' mental health. Leaders adapt the curriculum in response to individual, local and national safeguarding issues.

For example, they introduced lessons about sexual violence in response to Ofsted's review of sexual abuse in schools. This is engaging pupils in meaningful discussions about rape culture.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Curriculum plans for all subjects show very precisely what pupils should know and when.

Delivery of these plans in most subjects leads to this intent being learned. In a few subjects, this is not the case because newly established teams have not fully implemented the 'Shenley lesson cycle' as well as other departments. Leaders need to ensure that the ongoing detailed approach to identifying and tackling weaknesses in curriculum delivery removes these differences so that pupils' high achievement is consistent across every subject.