John Cabot Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school This is a rapidly improving school.

Leaders and teachers are working effectively together to improve all the key aspects of school life. The executive principal and senior leaders are ambitious for the school. They have put good plans in place to achieve their goals.

As a result, there have been notable improvements in behaviour and standards. GCSE standards rose substantially in 2018. Pupils made progress at least as good as pupils in other schools in almost every subject, and significantly better in mathematics.

Pupils in every year group are now making good progress. This is because teachers have high expectations of them. Acr...oss all years and most subjects, teachers encourage pupils to think hard and solve complicated problems.

Standards of literacy across the school are good. Pupils are given plenty of opportunities to write extended answers to questions. They are taught to structure their answers appropriately.

Standards of punctuation, spelling and grammar are good. This is because teachers in almost all subjects continually focus on these aspects. Pupils are keen to improve their work.

They get precise advice from teachers and they act on it. They make strong progress as a result. Behaviour in lessons is good.

Teachers can focus on teaching and pupils can concentrate on learning. Pupils treat each other well. They are lively and friendly.

Relationships between pupils and teachers are warm and respectful. However, some boys are boisterous as they move around the school site. The sixth form is a strength of the school.

It successfully caters for a large number of students with a range of abilities and from diverse backgrounds. Leaders and teachers ensure that students are well supported, make good progress and go on to positive education or training destinations. Leaders have had some difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers in some subjects.

This has slowed the rate of improvement in the quality of teaching. Some weaker teaching remains. Where teaching is weaker, pupils are not challenged to stretch themselves.

They become disengaged and a minority begin to misbehave. School leaders do not always communicate well enough with parents. As a result, a significant number of parents feel that their concerns are not addressed.

Information about this school

The school is a larger-than-average-sized secondary school. The proportion of pupils supported by the pupil premium grant is broadly in line with the national average. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is above the national average.

The proportion of pupils with SEND is well above average. The school is a member of the Cabot Learning Federation (CLF) multi-academy trust. The sixth form serves seven of the Bristol-based secondary schools in the CLF.

Students are based in John Cabot Academy and Bristol Brunel Academy. Eleven pupils attend alternative provision. Some attend CLF Engage or City of Bristol College and others attend hospital education.