East Point Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

East Point Academy continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at East Point Academy value the education they receive. They consider it to be a strength of the school.

In lessons, the work that pupils complete and the things they are asked to think about are demanding. Teachers help pupils of all backgrounds and starting points to meet this challenge.

Pupils feel safe at the school.

There are clear routines for behaviour which help pupils meet teachers' high expectations. In lessons, behaviour is calm, with pupils' attention focused on learning. Pupils say that behaviour outside of lessons is not always as positive as it is in less...ons.

However, this behaviour is not tolerated and new measures such as a one-way system are helping to improve this. When bullying occurs, staff take it seriously and work to resolve it quickly.

Pupils have been happy with the return of clubs and other opportunities and are keen to take part in these.

This includes a recent 'school of rock' school production which pupils felt extremely positive about.

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

Leaders at all levels have designed an ambitious curriculum that provides a good quality of education for pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Across subjects, the curriculum is well sequenced to ensure that pupils build their knowledge incrementally and have frequent opportunities to revisit and make use of what has been taught before.

In some subjects, leaders' plans for the curriculum are not yet as embedded as they are in most. In these subjects, pupils do not achieve as well as they do elsewhere.

Leaders, supported by the trust, are working to improve the quality of the curriculum and teaching in languages.

This is to achieve their ambition for more pupils to study the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), as languages has been a barrier to this ambition. This work is already having a positive impact as more pupils are choosing to study languages, such as Spanish.

Reading is important at East Point Academy.

Pupils read a range of challenging texts as part of the curriculum. They understand these texts because they have been taught knowledge that helps their comprehension, such as historical context and new vocabulary. Pupils at the earliest stages of reading are being helped to read through a systematic approach to teaching reading.

Teachers have secure subject knowledge. They use strategies and activities that help pupils remember what they have been taught. Teachers regularly check what pupils have understood in, and remember from, lessons.

Information from these checks is used to address misconceptions, plan future teaching and improve the curriculum.

Personal, religious, social, health and citizenship education provides well for pupils' personal development. Pupils are taught how to stay safe, including from a range of online risks which are relevant to their age.

Pupils value this aspect of school and feel it has been considered to meet their needs. There is a wide-ranging programme of careers education which enables nearly all pupils to move on to further education, employment or training.

The pandemic has had an impact on levels of attendance at the school.

This is now improving. However, too many pupils are persistently absent. Leaders have recently started to analyse what is causing this.

This work is ongoing. Issues identified at the previous inspection in 2019 concerning processes for pupils moving to elective home education and the recording of attendance have been addressed and are now robust.

The multi-academy trust and members of the local academy committee have a good understanding of the school and what it needs to do to become better.

They have helped leaders improve the curriculum and have a good understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities. Staff enjoy working at the school. They feel that leaders are considerate of their workload and highlight recent changes to the assessment policy which have reduced the amount of marking they need to do.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The single central record is effectively maintained and there are thorough recruitment checks on staff and other adults. Staff receive regular safeguarding training and understand their role in safeguarding children.

Pupils feel safe at the school and are taught how to recognise and report concerns in a wide range of situations.

Some safeguarding information, while recorded, is not immediately accessible. This does not make pupils unsafe as key staff are knowledgeable and able to find out what they need to.

The leader with responsibility for the day-to-day management of safeguarding is well placed to find information and respond to concerns quickly. However, these weaker aspects of administration have the potential to slow down how quickly leaders could act if key staff were absent.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Although the curriculum is strong in many areas there is still some variability in how well it has been embedded in some subjects.

This means that pupils do not achieve as well in these subjects as they do in others. Leaders should continue to develop and embed curriculum plans to ensure pupils achieve as well as they can in all subjects. ? Levels of persistent absence are too high.

This means that some pupils do not benefit as much from the quality of education that the school provides. Leaders should refine their use of analysis and strategies to tackle this problem. ? Safeguarding systems and processes do not always capture the full detail of safeguarding concerns.

This means that details of some incidents are only known by some staff. Leaders should ensure that systems and processes are improved to capture this detail.Background

When we have judged a school 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 second section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in October 2016.