Jerry Clay Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Jerry Clay Academy continues to be an outstanding school.

The headteacher of this school is Tracy Swinburne. This school is part of Accomplish multi-academy trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school.

The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Tracy Swinburne, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Andrew Carter.

What is it like to attend this school?

There is zero complacency for what children can achieve in this remarkable school. Despite its outstanding status, the school has continued to improve since the last inspection.

Leaders are relentless in their continuous pursuit of excellence.

...The school is extremely popular because of its superb reputation. Every parent and carer who responded to Ofsted's survey would recommend the school.

They know that the quality of education on offer is exceptional.

The curriculum is innovative and exceeds national curriculum expectations. Pupils' behaviour is exemplary in every lesson.

Pupils' attendance is much higher than average, so no one misses out on rich learning opportunities. This contributes to the exceptionally high standards that pupils achieve in all subjects and in all key stages.

Leaders' wholehearted commitment to pupils' wider development matches their ambition for pupils' academic achievement.

Pupils develop leadership skills incrementally as they move through the school. By the time they become 'Junior Leaders' in Year 6, pupils make a significant contribution to the life of the school. They are gaining skills and experiences that prepare them well not only for secondary school, but for the workplace.

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

Children find the enticing learning environment in the early years irresistible. They are thriving in the safe and nurturing Reception classroom, indoors and outside. Children exhibit the 'Jerry Clay learning trait' of perseverance.

They are enthralled by each interesting learning activity, and by adults' skilful questioning and guidance, so children concentrate well on each task until it is completed. Children are making rapid progress in the early years, and they achieve at least as well as they should for their age.

All adults are experts at teaching early reading.

Pupils as young as Year 1 understand grammatical terminology, such as prefix and suffix. Pupils are reminded to use their 'voice choice' when reading dialogue in stories. Pupils respond by reading with appropriate expression linked to the context of the story.

Typically, all pupils pass the Year 1 phonics screening check each year.

In mathematics, pupils feel safe when they are given tasks which challenge them. If there are errors in their work, pupils explain their 'marvellous mistakes' and corrections to the class.

Pupils are proud of their effort and perseverance. This healthy work culture ensures that pupils achieve exceptionally well, but also grow in confidence in their mathematical knowledge.

The school ensures that staff workload is reasonable.

This includes recently introduced assessment arrangements in all foundation curriculum subjects. Pupils' learning and progress is captured efficiently. This information is analysed skilfully to ensure that each pupil's next learning step is planned precisely.

This is a highly inclusive school. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are exceptionally well supported. Specialist professionals diagnose pupils' individual learning needs.

Bespoke interventions are provided to help pupils with SEND overcome any barriers to their learning. For example, some pupils with SEND struggle to retain information because their specific difficulty lies with their working memory. Playing simple games to improve their working memory helps to unlock learning for pupils with SEND.

The school values the views of all pupils and has a strong partnership with parents and families.

The curriculum for pupils' broader development is first class. Most pupils took part in at least one after-school club last year.

Reasonable adjustments are made to ensure that all pupils with SEND have equal access to extra-curricular opportunities.

The curriculum for developing pupils personally is worthy of sharing. Pupils as young leaders have put lots of their great ideas into practice.

For example, pupils launched their own healthy tuck shop, generating profit. They researched several charities and debate reasoned arguments to consider supporting these. Pupils put democracy into practice by including all pupils in the vote to select a charity when fundraising.

Pupils are developing a strong sense of morality and social justice, in addition to practical budgeting and organisational skills through the high-quality curriculum.

Pupils understand the importance of self-respect and respect for others. Jerry Clay pupils are tolerant.

The pupil 'head of well-being' and 'head of creative arts' both recently led an assembly for younger pupils on the 'five ways to well-being'. Pupils' learning about good physical and mental health is reinforced with weekly yoga sessions for all pupils and staff. Leaders and staff share their expertise by supporting other professionals outside of their own school.

Leaders and staff appreciate the support that they receive from the multi-academy trust.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Background

When we have judged a school to be outstanding, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains outstanding.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be outstanding in March 2017.