Nottingham Girls’ Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Nottingham Girls' Academy is an inclusive school that provides an exceptional and broad education.

The school serves a diverse community and provides a welcoming environment where all pupils flourish. Pupils are very happy to attend the school. They enjoy mutually respectful relationships with caring staff.

Older pupils are proud to act as role models and mentors for their younger peers.

The school has the very highest expectations for what all pupils can achieve. The wide range of subjects and courses on offer have been well chosen to match pupils' interests and aspirations.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) receive ex...cellent support. Pupils achieve exceptionally well. Students in the sixth form benefit from a curriculum designed to precisely meet their individual needs.

Many go on to aspirational destinations.

The school supports pupils' wider personal development remarkably well. Pupils maturely and enthusiastically discuss issues such as race, religion and gender equality.

Some pupils have formed an 'equalities group' that actively campaigns for social justice, including lobbying local politicians. Many pupils benefit from opportunities to pursue their sporting or artistic talents. All pupils receive excellent careers guidance from a wide range of sources including colleges, universities and employers.

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

The curriculum is rich and highly ambitious. Subject curriculums identify precisely the knowledge that pupils need to learn and remember. They are structured to ensure that pupils build on what they already know towards increasingly challenging aims.

The school has thought carefully about the wider knowledge that pupils should learn. This includes themes like diversity and equality, as well as cultural knowledge. These ideas are purposefully woven into the subject curriculums.

The curriculum is very well planned to meet the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND and those who speak English as an additional language. Pupils with more complex needs benefit from ambitious personalised curriculum planning. There is a focus on literacy and building pupils' vocabulary.

Staff support pupils to develop their reading skills so that all can access the curriculum in full.

Knowledgeable staff consistently deliver the curriculum well. They explain and model new concepts clearly.

Pupils benefit from frequent opportunities to recall prior learning. This helps them to remember what they have learned and make links to new knowledge. Staff expertly check pupils' learning and address misconceptions quickly and accurately.

They routinely adapt lesson activities to support all pupils to gain knowledge and develop skills. Pupils thrive. They enthusiastically discuss their learning and take pride in their work.

In the sixth form, staff know the students very well and routinely provide personalised learning activities. Lessons are challenging, but staff make sure that students have the knowledge and vocabulary they need to rise to the challenge. They encourage students to think deeply and stretch their understanding through clever questioning.

The curriculum for personal, social and health education is exceptionally well planned and delivered. The topics are well chosen to reflect the issues that affect pupils. The school provides excellent support for pupils' mental health.

This includes advice for pupils to care for their own well-being, as well as excellent pastoral care and counselling when pupils need help.

Pupils consistently demonstrate mature and positive attitudes in lessons and around school. Incidents of poor behaviour are rare.

When they do happen, staff deal with them quickly and effectively. The school works tenaciously to promote high expectations for behaviour and attendance. Staff provide excellent support for a small number of pupils who struggle to meet these expectations.

Pupils are very well prepared for their next steps in education and future careers. They receive impartial advice about the different options that are available to them. Students in the sixth form are very well supported to find out about universities and apprenticeships that interest them.

The school provides a wide range of extra-curricular activities. All pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, benefit from these opportunities. Pupils enjoy trips that enhance their experience of the curriculum, such as a trip to Bletchley Park linked to mathematics and history.

The school provides music lessons for many pupils. There are a variety of clubs that include a range of sports, dance, drama and debating.

The school, supported by the multi-academy trust, has firmly established a culture of the very highest expectations.

Staff are proud to work in the school. They work together to ensure that all pupils benefit from the rich, ambitious curriculum and broad set of experiences that the school offers.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.