North Cambridge Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school. The Principal's leadership, and that of other senior leaders and governors, has had a transformational impact on standards of behaviour, the quality of teaching, and the amount of progress most students make over time.

Leaders have established a culture of high ambition. Their determination to challenge and support students effectively is resulting in a rapidly increasing proportion who achieve at least five A* to C grades including English and mathematics. Results are now above the national average.

Over time, teaching in many subjects has enabled most groups of students to make at least good progress. Leaders are relentless and success...ful in pursuing high standards. Teaching is particularly effective in English, humanities subjects, music, modern foreign languages and art.

Leaders, including governors, have ensured that the academy is a safe environment. Students are very well cared for and arrangements to support those who are disabled or who have special educational needs, and those whose circumstances make them vulnerable, are highly effective. Students behave well around the academy site, and their good relationships with each other and their teachers help contribute to the progress they make.

Disruption to learning is rare; in the words of one student, 'it's now cool to want to learn.' Students take advantage of the very wide range of cultural, sporting and other activities that the academy provides. This contributes to their personal development; many develop new interests and skills, including the ability to lead.

Many also develop new ambitions, and the motivation to pursue them. It is not yet an outstanding school because : Teachers do not always use the information they hold on students' prior achievement to plan interesting activities that are of the right level of difficulty for all groups. This has limited the progress of some students over time, particularly in science.

Sometimes, students continue to make mistakes because feedback on their work does not make clear how they can improve, or because they are not given the opportunity to make the changes needed.

Information about this school

The North Cambridge Academy, which is part of the Cambridge Meridian Academies Trust, converted to become an academy on 1 September 2013. When its predecessor school, the Manor Foundation School, was last inspected by Ofsted in 2010, it was judged to be good.

This is a smaller than the average-sized secondary academy. The proportion of disabled students and those who have special educational needs is above the national average. Almost half of students are disadvantaged and supported by the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for students who are known to be eligible for free school meals, and students who are looked after by the local authority.

This proportion is significantly above the national average. The proportion of students for whom English is an additional language is higher than the national average. The academy makes use of alternative provision at County School, Cambridge for a very small number of students.

The academy receives the Year 7 catch-up funding for a number of students who did not reach the expected Level 4 in the Key Stage 2 national tests. The academy meets the current government floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students' attainment and progress. A large number of teachers left the academy at the end of the last academic year.