King’s Academy Brune Park

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Many pupils do not attend school regularly enough. This includes some pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and disadvantaged pupils. When pupils do attend school, too many choose to miss lessons regularly.

Leaders' expectations and actions to improve attendance and truancy from lessons are not effective enough.

Many pupils feel unsafe because of unkind and hurtful comments made by their peers. Leaders and staff do not challenge racist, sexist and homophobic comments robustly or swiftly enough.

Pupils have little or no confidence in leaders' ability to deal with their concerns. Many pupils told inspectors that they do not report cas...es of bullying for fear that leaders' actions might make things worse.

In some lessons, pupils behave well.

These lessons are orderly and calm. Leaders' expectations for pupils are high in most subjects. However, not all lessons are as purposeful as others.

In many lessons, staff do not address disruptive behaviour. As a result, learning is regularly disturbed.

Pupils engage with the school's values through the 'GFM way'.

Leaders and local business partners have captured the essential skills required for future education and employment, known as 'Gosport Futures'. These skills underpin much of the curriculum, especially at key stage 4.

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

The curriculum is broadly ambitious.

Most subject leaders acknowledge that they still have work to do to complete their curriculums fully. Pupils study a wide range of subjects in key stage 3. However, too few pupils at key stage 4 gain qualifications in the English Baccalaureate.

This is because a small proportion of pupils study a modern foreign language. Leaders are aware of this and have plans to resolve this in the future. Many teachers have strong subject knowledge, although not all teachers are specialists.

In some subjects, this means that some pupils are not always challenged sufficiently. In many subjects, activities are too heavily structured and do not encourage pupils to think deeply.

The curriculum for pupils with SEND is ambitious but it is not yet adapted to meet these pupils' needs effectively.

This means that these pupils often do not make as much progress through the curriculum as they could. Some parents of pupils with SEND are happy with the support they receive but many are not. Bespoke support given to a small group of pupils in Year 7 is effective.

This is helping them to catch up and learn vital skills such as self-regulation and resilience. Similarly, reading interventions are beginning to have a positive impact. However, many more pupils need support with reading.

Leaders have not ensured that teachers' checks on pupils' learning are consistently effective across the curriculum. In some subjects, for example English and science, staff systematically check the knowledge that pupils have learned and remembered and use this information to inform their future planning. However, this is not yet common across all subjects and, as a result, pupils do not achieve as well as they should.

The provision for pupils' personal development is improving. Leaders have developed a coherent curriculum for personal, social, health and religious education, which provides valuable opportunities for pupils to learn important topics such as relationships education and being healthy. Pupils are actively encouraged to take on positions of responsibility, such as being part of the student council.

Pupils learn about important topics such as democracy, voting and debating. Careers information, education and guidance are effective. Leaders have begun to foster high aspirations for pupils and they actively encourage more pupils to consider applying to university.

Trustees and senior leaders share a strong moral purpose to improve the school. Leaders have made numerous attempts to bring about improvements. Recent changes have begun to offer stability and clarity.

However, some staff feel that there have been too many 're-sets' to policies and procedures. The frequent changes have had a detrimental effect on staff workload and have led to some staff not following school policies and rules closely enough.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff are aware of how to identify concerns about pupils' welfare. Leaders act swiftly to ensure pupils are not at risk of harm. Leaders support families and pupils effectively, in partnership with relevant outside agencies.

Staff recall safeguarding training and receive updates regularly to inform their knowledge and keep it up to date. Pupils learn how to stay safe. For example, in computing lessons they learn about how to protect themselves online.

Recent changes to the safeguarding team have strengthened processes. However, there are still some instances when the school's policies and systems are not used as consistently as they could be. For example, at times, safeguarding records are not as detailed as they should be.

These relative weaknesses, however, do not put pupils at risk of harm.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Too many pupils miss too much school, in particular pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils. There is too much low-level disruption and internal truancy during lessons.

Leaders' work to address these issues is having limited impact and improvements are too slow overall. Leaders need to establish strategies to raise pupils' attendance rapidly so that pupils are in school and learning takes place undisturbed. ? Pupils do not feel safe from bullying and the use of derogatory and abusive language.

Incidents often go unreported because pupils have little or no faith in leaders and staff to deal effectively with reports of unkindness or bullying. Leaders must establish an effective, systematic approach to ensuring that pupils' behaviour is consistently good and that pupils are confident to report unkind behaviour and bullying. ? Pupils do not achieve consistently well across the curriculum.

Support for pupils with SEND and for disadvantaged pupils is not effective enough. Assessment is not consistently effective. Leaders must ensure that the curriculum is well designed and implemented across all subjects and takes account of pupils' additional needs and different starting points.

• While safeguarding is effective, leaders have not ensured that safeguarding processes are followed as precisely as they could be. Some leaders and staff do not always follow their own policies consistently enough. Leaders must ensure that safeguarding processes are used diligently and in line with their own policies.

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