Elements Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils at Elements Academy have a mixed experience. Recently, the trust reset expectations across the school.

Pupils say they have noticed improvements. Pupils now learn in three 'zones'. This helps the school to build a consistent staff team around each group of pupils.

Pupils have a range of special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The primary need for most pupils is social, emotional and mental health (SEMH). Staff manage behaviour incidents in a calm and consistent way.

However, parents and pupils continue to raise concerns about behaviour in the school. Pupils say bullying does happen, but they are confident staff will deal with it well.
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Pupils talk about enjoying specific subjects.

They also value positive relationships with key members of staff. However, pupils do not achieve as well as they should. This is partly because the curriculum is not consistently well taught.

It is also because pupils' rates of absence are too high and they miss too much school.

Pupils learn how to develop socially, including through dedicated lessons. Here, they gain knowledge about how to stay safe in the wider world.

Pupils confidently explain their understanding of online risks and what makes a healthy relationship.

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

With support from the trust, the school has recently made changes to systems and structures. This is leading to an improved culture of learning.

Subject curriculums across primary and secondary are increasingly well connected. For example, pupils develop mathematics skills progressively from Year 3 to Year 11. In addition, pupils' creative writing skills develop well over their time in school.

New 'zones' in the school mean some staff teach out of their subject specialisms. Where this happens, staff lack the subject knowledge to confidently develop pupils' knowledge and understanding. In addition, pupils in the school have increasingly complex needs.

As well as SEMH, pupils often have additional learning difficulties. Staff do not consistently adapt learning to meet pupils' complex needs. This means pupils' progress through the curriculum in some subjects is slower than it should be.

The school is developing a strong reading culture. Pupils in the primary phase engage in daily phonics activities with trained staff. Pupils of all ages enjoy 'drop everything and read' time.

Pupils engage in regular after-lunch reading activities with staff. This includes hearing adults read a story aloud. As well as promoting a love of reading, this helps settle pupils back into learning.

There is more work to do to support reading across the curriculum. This includes helping pupils of all ages catch up in reading quickly. The school knows this and is making careful improvements.

Pupils' attitudes to learning are variable. Some thrive in the classroom and are proud to share their work. Others are more disengaged.

Behaviour incidents requiring physical intervention from staff are too frequent. However, over recent months, these incidents have started to decrease. Pupils often join the school with historically low attendance.

The school breaks down barriers to positive attendance. This is successful for many pupils. However, too many pupils still miss vital learning due to high rates of absence.

The school prioritises the pastoral care of its pupils. Warm relationships are at the heart of the school's work. Pupils enjoy a range of therapeutic support.

This includes music therapy. Through playing instruments, pupils learn important strategies to help them manage their emotions. Pupils would like more opportunities to develop their wider interests.

The school recognises this. It aims to increase the personal development offer over time. Careers provision in the school is effective.

Most pupils move on to suitable and successful destinations.

The school is going through a period of change. During this, some oversight and record-keeping is not as clear as it should be.

This is particularly the case for pupils who have alternative learning packages. Trustees and the recently formed interim management board know the school well. They provide effective support and challenge to help the school to improve its work.

Nevertheless, some parents express dissatisfaction with the school. They raise concerns that include the quality of communication. Staff are proud to work at the school.

They recognise positive changes this academic year. However, some staff have concerns about their workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school has not ensured that all staff have the necessary support with subject-specific knowledge when teaching outside of their specialism. This can limit how well the curriculum is implemented. The school should ensure that staff receive the necessary support to implement the curriculum well across a breadth of subjects, particularly in the secondary phase.

• Adaptations to the delivery of the curriculum are not consistently well matched to the complex needs of the pupils. Some pupils do not progress through the curriculum as well as they should. The school should ensure that staff develop expertise in a range of adaptive teaching strategies to meet pupils' complex SEND needs.

• The attendance of pupils at the school is too low and persistent absence is too high. Pupils miss out on too much learning. The school should ensure that the recent developments in the work of its attendance team, including with parents and carers and wider services, improve pupils' attendance and engagement in school.

• The school's oversight and record-keeping relating to pupils on temporary part-time timetables and alternative provision pathways is not as comprehensive as it should be. School staff lack clarity in their oversight of these pupils' quality of education and the timeliness of the support they receive. The school should further improve its strategic oversight of pupils' pathways and its approaches to collaborative working between staff teams.

• The school has gone through a significant period of turbulence over recent time. During this time, engagement with key stakeholders, including parents, has suffered. Leaders should ensure that their continued work to improve the school is supported by effective communication with all key stakeholders.