Newlands Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are happy and safe in the school's warm and caring community.

Adults understand their pupils' needs and build working relationships grounded in trust. All adults have high expectations and ambitions for pupils. They want all pupils to do well throughout their education and in preparation for adulthood.

Pupils appreciate how staff have helped them to understand their own behaviour and well-being. The staff know the pupils well. They identify when pupils may need more input or support to be ready for learning.

This ensures that pupils' behaviour is mostly calm and orderly.

The school provides a wide range of opportunities to nurture and develop ...pupils' confidence and resilience. These include musical performances and inter-school rugby tournaments.

Pupils are taught to be respectful of everybody regardless of differences. Incidences of bullying are rare and are dealt with swiftly by staff should they occur.

Parents and carers are positive about the school and the education that their children receive here.

One parent typically commented, 'I cannot praise the staff enough. Their continuing support to both me and my son is without doubt above and beyond their job description.'

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

Leaders have designed a curriculum that is ambitious for all pupils.

Leaders want all pupils to be successful regardless of their needs. They provide pupils with a broad education and a wide variety of experiences.

Typically, leaders of subjects have identified the key content that pupils need to know and the order in which it should be taught to help pupils to build up their knowledge and skills securely.

In a few subjects where leaders are not subject specialists, the identification of essential content and the sequence in which it should be taught is not as coherently thought through. This is particularly the case where leaders do not have strong subject expertise. Mostly, teachers choose appropriate activities to help pupils to learn in lessons.

Occasionally, where teachers do not have subject-specialist expertise, subject content is not taught as clearly. Where this occurs, pupils have gaps in their knowledge, which hinders their learning of new and more complex ideas.

When pupils join the school, leaders identify the pupils' learning needs quickly in English, reading and mathematics.

Leaders promote the value of fluent reading and its necessity in enabling pupils to access learning across the curriculum. They take action to ensure that any pupils with gaps in phonics are helped to catch up.

Sometimes, pupils' behaviour affects their learning in class.

Staff personalise behaviour plans and approaches to develop pupils' resilience, confidence and acceptance of feedback. They support pupils' mental health within this work. Staff provide pupils with strategies to help them to manage their own behaviour in the future.

This ensures that pupils' behaviour improves over time.

Leaders promote good attendance and punctuality effectively, in the context of this school and the cohort of learners that attend. They recognise the challenges, socially and emotionally, that may have an effect on whether pupils attend school or arrive on time.

Leaders work with pupils individually and provide support from external partners if necessary. High-quality pastoral and therapeutic support enables pupils to focus on their learning and to do their best. Parents are positive about this support.

Leaders encourage pupils to develop character and they enhance pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through assemblies, enrichment activities and educational visits. Pupils are provided with experiences that they may not have had before due to the nature of their needs and how they engaged in their schooling prior to coming here. Pupils are encouraged to take on more responsibilities than in the past as members of the newly formed school council and as peer-behaviour mentors.

Pupils are taught how to eat healthily, maintain an active lifestyle and keep physically and mentally healthy. They are also taught an age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships and respect for the protected characteristics. Pupils are helped to engage with views, beliefs and opinions that are different from their own in considered ways.

Leaders encourage pupils to think carefully about their next steps in education, training or employment. They introduce pupils to a range of opportunities and experiences, including carpentry and retail. However, leaders do not currently make sure that pupils receive impartial careers advice and guidance.

Trustees have systems in place to assure themselves that the school meets all statutory requirements. They hold leaders to account and offer support, through various audits and quality assurance activities.

Staff are proud to work here and they take pride in the achievements of all pupils.

They feel that leaders take care of their workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Staff know their safeguarding responsibilities.

Leaders have ensured that the school's safeguarding team is well staffed. The members of the safeguarding team work closely together to ensure that they connect issues regarding attendance, behaviour and safeguarding to identify any emerging issues or concerns.All staff are aware of the risks that pupils may face.

Leaders make sure that staff receive regular training, which is contextualised for the specific needs of the school.

Staff are vigilant to signs of abuse and neglect. They know what to do if they have a concern about a pupil's safety or welfare.

Leaders take appropriate action to keep pupils safe, including the safe recruitment of staff.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Leaders have not made sure that all staff have the support they need to lead and teach subjects where they do not have subject-specialist expertise. In a few subjects, curriculum thinking does not clearly identify the component knowledge that pupils need to know and remember.

Where teachers are teaching beyond their subject expertise, the teaching of key concepts is not as routinely clear. This hinders pupils' learning where this is the case. Leaders should provide support for curriculum leaders and for teaching staff who are working outside of their subject specialism, to enable them to identify and teach the component knowledge and skills that pupils need to know.