Kestrel Mead Primary Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school The headteacher has skilfully guided and developed a talented leadership team, to secure strong and continuous improvement. Leaders have created a climate of shared ambition for improvement that ensures teaching is consistently good.

Leaders know where teaching is strong and use this well to support others. Leaders have ensured a high level of consistency in implementing effective teaching strategies to support pupils' development of writing skills. The teaching of writing is now a particular strength across the school.

Governors use their improved understanding of the priorities for the school well to ask questions and check the effectiv...eness of actions being taken. Pupils now make good progress from their starting points, with some rapid progress in writing. Disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make the same good progress as others, due to carefully tailored interventions.

Pupils are keen to learn because the school's curriculum interests and enthuses them. They enjoy a wide range of experiences and hands-on learning experiences, especially in music, art, and design and technology. Pupils behave well at all times across the school day.

There is a strong sense of mutual respect and care. Pupils say that they feel safe, valued and well cared for. The early years leader ensures that children make a positive start to school.

Children benefit from interesting and engaging tasks that systematically develop their language skills and readiness for their next steps in learning. Not all teachers are equally skilled at moving the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged, on to more challenging work and providing opportunities for them to develop critical thinking, especially in mathematics. Leaders are not sufficiently precise in their analysis of information available to them, to sharply define actions for improvement.

Information about this school

The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website. The school is much larger than the average-sized primary school. Most children attending the school come from the immediate area.

There is a high proportion of pupils entering the school later on in their primary education than usual. The vast majority of pupils are from minority ethnic groups and just under half speak English as an additional language, with the largest group being pupils from Asian backgrounds. The proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium is slightly below the national average.

The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is below the national average. In 2016, the school met the government's current floor standards which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress by the end of Year 6. The school runs a breakfast club.