Mulberry Academy Shoreditch

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Excellence describes many aspects of Mulberry Academy Shoreditch and what it provides for its pupils. For example, there is a huge range of out-of-class activities aimed at enriching pupils' learning and experiences.

These include skiing trips, overseas visits, the STEM Academy and many after-school clubs and activities. Opportunities for pupils and sixth-form students to learn about career options, including universities, support leaders' aim to ensure that all leave school well prepared for the future.

Other examples of excellence include the programmes for pupils' and students' personal development and the excellent level of care provided by all staff.

A h...ighly positive ethos pervades the school. Pupils have a strong understanding of British values as well as their own heritage. They are respectful of others, behave very well and know that their teachers will always be there for them.

Pupils were clear that bullying, including homophobic and racist bullying, is not tolerated. Any concerns are dealt with swiftly. Pupils feel safe and are kept safe.

Overall, the curriculum is designed well to help pupils learn but there are a few subjects where it is not as ambitious. In most subjects, pupils achieve aspirational goals. However, pupils' progression through the curriculum is less strong where leaders' curriculum thinking does not set out clearly what is to be learned.

Leaders are not complacent and have pinpointed accurately where improvements are needed.

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

The school does many things extremely well. With the unswerving support of senior leaders and governors, the executive headteacher has steered the school with passion and expertise through difficult times to become a community in which pupils and staff are proud to be a part.

This has not been a straightforward task, but leaders have done it with compassion, care and attention to detail.

The care shown by senior leaders to pupils and staff is a particular strength. This includes the house system and the work of heads of years.

Leaders work successfully to ensure that everyone benefits from the education the school provides, including in the sixth form. For example, exclusions are extremely rare and leaders do their utmost to ensure that learning is a top priority for all. Staff, too, praise leaders for the support they receive and the care for their well-being and workload.

As some staff noted, 'love and care' underpins the approach of senior leaders.

The school's work to ensure that pupils in Years 7 to 11, and students in the sixth form, develop their understanding of life in modern Britain is high quality. The personal, social and health education programme covers a wide variety of important topics that includes physical and mental health, anti-bullying, online safety and keeping safe.

Careers education is comprehensive and the school meets the requirements of the Baker Clause. Nearly all pupils go on to college, training or a job when they leave school.

The attention to the well-being and care of pupils is complemented by a curriculum with academic rigour.

In English and science, for example, the curriculum is planned most effectively to build pupils' knowledge. Pupils are able to tackle increasingly complex work as they get older and make connections between different bits of knowledge. This means that pupils are not just repeating facts but increasingly understanding the complexity of the world.

The way leaders have enabled teachers to develop their classroom practice has been a key reason for improvements to pupils' learning. For example, the emphasis on helping pupils to remember what they have learned in the past and apply it to new work, guides much of what happens in classrooms. Teachers check frequently that pupils have remembered prior learning and recap subject content regularly to reinforce that memory.

This focus on recapping learning helps to ensure that pupils can recall important facts when they need to and apply these to increasingly difficult work. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), who are identified and supported well by teachers and teaching assistants.

There are a few subjects where the curriculum is not planned as effectively as it is elsewhere.

Occasionally, it is unclear what teachers want pupils to learn. When this happens, the curriculum in these subjects is not as ambitious as it could be. Well-founded plans to use a phonics programme for the small number of weaker readers in Years 7 and 8 have not been fully implemented and embedded.

Leaders are rightly putting this at their forefront of their work to ensure that all pupils access the curriculum confidently.

Governors and trustees carry out their roles effectively. The arrangements for governance are strong with clear duties for the school's local governing board.

As a result, leaders are held to account and given support in equal measure.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

The safety and well-being of pupils takes centre stage.

Leaders and governors put safeguarding at the top of their agenda. Procedures to identify pupils who may be at risk are secure and staff know the signs that someone may be suffering in silence. Leaders ensure that pupils get help quickly through their strong links with external agencies.

The procedures used to check the suitability of staff are robust. Records are up to date and include all staff, including governors. Policies and procedures take account of current guidance and are responsive to community concerns.

Staff have a strong understanding of the local safeguarding issues. Their training is up to date and renewed regularly.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• There are a few subjects where the curriculum is not planned as effectively as it is elsewhere.

Leaders need to continue their already successful work to ensure that all curriculum thinking sets out clearly the essential content they want pupils to learn and in what order. Aims need to be suitably ambitious for all pupils, so that expectations are high for all. This includes reading, where the implementation of well-founded plans for a phonics programme needs to be further embedded.