King’s Academy Northern Parade (Infant)

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils learn well at this caring and supportive school. Strong professional relationships between both adults and pupils and between pupils permeate throughout.

Pupils focus well on learning, with minimal disruption in lessons. When pupils need extra help to manage their emotions or to focus, the school provides this in a calm and caring manner. Pupils who need support for their mental health and well-being benefit from regular check-ins that help them to feel safe and secure.

The school aspires for all pupils to learn the knowledge they need for future success. In the past, the school has not achieved this. This has led to poor national test results in reading, writi...ng and mathematics.

However, due to the improvements that have been made over the last two years, pupils' achievement is now much better.

Pupils enjoy a range of opportunities to enhance their learning. Trips to local places of interest, such as the D-Day Story and Charles Dickens' birthplace, enable pupils to learn about their city's rich cultural heritage.

Pupils' lives are enriched through trips, such as to the pantomime and to a zoo. In addition, clubs such as gardening, board games and dance develop pupils' talents and interests well.

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

The school is determined that all pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), learn a wide range of knowledge and skills in all subjects.

A broad curriculum identifies what pupils must learn across the curriculum. In many subjects, the important knowledge that pupils need to remember is identified precisely. This knowledge is set out in a sensible order that builds pupils' knowledge and skills over time.

This helps pupils to achieve well. However, in a few subjects, what pupils must learn is not identified precisely enough. Furthermore, sometimes the curriculum content is not set out in the most sensible order.

When this is the case, teachers do not know exactly what to teach or when best to teach it. At times, this means that pupils do not learn as well as they could.

In many subjects, teachers' subject knowledge is strong.

Generally, teachers design carefully constructed activities that enable pupils to access the curriculum successfully and learn well. This includes pupils with SEND. Careful identification of their additional needs ensures that pupils with SEND access the curriculum effectively through bespoke strategies and adaptations.

However, on occasion, teachers' subject knowledge is not strong enough. They do not design tasks that deepen pupils' understanding sufficiently well. For example, some staff in the early years do not routinely use the most effective strategies to develop children's communication and language.

Furthermore, in some subjects, pupils often learn about many different aspects of a topic rather than learning about fewer aspects in depth. For instance, in history, pupils learn about several important people from the past in a short space of time rather than learning about fewer people in more detail.

Reading is a real priority.

Pupils enjoy listening to a wide range of stories and poems, chosen deliberately to develop their understanding of language. Right from the very start of early years, children learn to read using a well-sequenced programme. Support for those pupils who struggle with reading is a real strength.

Pupils receive regular, high-quality interventions delivered by expert staff. This ensures that weaker readers, including those with SEND, catch up quickly with their peers.

Pupils behave well.

Right from the start of the early years, children learn clear, consistent routines and follow these well. In lessons, pupils listen attentively to adults and engage well in activities. Pupils play well together at breaktimes.

They treat each other and adults with courtesy and respect. The school has high expectations for pupils to attend regularly and to arrive on time. Effective systems monitor and address attendance concerns swiftly.

The school ensures that pupils are prepared well for life in modern Britain. Pupils can explain how to keep themselves safe confidently, including when online. They have an age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships and consent.

They understand the importance of reporting anything that worries them to a trusted adult. Pupils enjoy learning about money. For example, children in Reception are excited about buying cakes at the bakery, and older pupils value learning about business through making products to sell in a class shop.

All leaders, including trust leaders and governors, are determined for all pupils to achieve their very best. Staff firmly believe that, due to leaders' work, the school's culture has transformed dramatically over the last two years. Staff enjoy working at this school and feel appreciated.

They benefit from comprehensive training that enables them to do their job well.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In some subjects, the important knowledge that pupils need to learn, and the order in which they must learn it, is not identified precisely enough.

When this is the case, teachers do not know what knowledge they need to check pupils understand before moving on to new learning. This means that pupils sometimes develop gaps in their understanding that are not addressed. The school needs to refine the curriculum content and sequencing further so that pupils can achieve consistently well in all subjects.

• Teachers' subject knowledge is not consistently strong. Sometimes, teachers design tasks that do not enable pupils to deepen their understanding sufficiently well. The school needs to develop teachers' subject and pedagogical knowledge so they can give pupils every opportunity to secure their knowledge across the curriculum.