Oasis Academy Arena

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils and parents and carers have noticed improvements in their experiences of this school. Leaders have brought consistency to many aspects of the school's work.

Pupils feel safe and are interested in their lessons. They behave respectfully and treat each other well. They appreciate the new expectations and routines for behaviour, and it is clear that these are working.

The school has a secure curriculum in place that is ambitious for what pupils should learn. However, the teaching of the curriculum is not consistently leading to good learning in the classroom. Lessons can move on quickly, and this leads to gaps in some pupils' understanding of key knowledge.
...r/>Teaching routines are not securely in place to ensure that pupils benefit from the learning opportunities available.

The school has a positive focus on pupils' well-being and mental health. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe.

They are given the advice needed to plan their next steps in education or employment. Pupils take part in the clubs and other activities provided by the school. This includes pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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

The curriculum in place is ambitious and broad. It is set out in a way that ensures that the work provided to pupils builds on what they have been taught before. Resources from the trust have been used to strengthen curriculum thinking.

Teachers are knowledgeable about their subject and receive further support and training from the trust.

Leaders check how well pupils can read when they join the school. They accurately identify those who need additional help with their reading and provide appropriate support to build up these pupils' fluency.

However, this work does not securely transfer to other subjects and into adaptations to help weaker readers access the curriculum.

Pupils' experiences in the classroom vary. Sometimes, subjects are delivered well, with teachers checking pupils' understanding at each stage.

At other times, understanding is not routinely checked and then acted on in class. When this happens and misconceptions are not addressed, learning moves on quickly and before pupils are ready. This means that important learning is not embedded in pupils' memory.

The school makes efforts to improve pupils' attendance. Leaders have set out clear strategies to help minimise time missed from school. They work with external agencies to address any cases of poor attendance.

The school has established policies to improve pupils' attitudes and behaviours. Clear systems, which are well understood by pupils, are leading to positive behaviour in the classroom. When disruption does occur, it is dealt with well by teachers.

This helps everyone to focus on learning. On occasion, pupils quietly opt out of learning activities, and this is sometimes not identified or challenged. Bullying incidents are rare, and the school takes effective action to respond to any reported incidents.

Pupils feel safe. Staff take a caring approach when pupils have any concerns.

The school provides clubs and activities to meet pupils' interests.

Many pupils benefit from this provision. For pupils in the specially resourced provision, these activities provide a caring environment in which specific interests can be explored with guidance from skilled teachers. Pupils are introduced to the 'nine habits' to develop their character through the school's personal development curriculum.

Activities and trips are planned to celebrate these traits, such as humility, honesty and being considerate. Pupils enjoy the personal development programme and confidently talk about how they have been taught key skills, including for keeping themselves safe when online.

Leaders have reduced the proportion of pupils who do not go on to meaningful opportunities following their time at the school.

The school has established a careers development programme that includes work experience and mentoring from qualified experts. This helps pupils to make successful decisions about their next steps.

Trustees have a clear understanding of their roles.

However, some of the systems in place to provide oversight of important areas of the school's work are not working as well as they could. This means that trustees do not consistently have the information they need to challenge leaders' actions.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Pupils are safe. However, statutory requirements are not consistently met for reporting pupils missing from education to the local authority. Safeguarding records have gaps, and systems do not have rigorous oversight to check that actions are routinely completed.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school and trust do not consistently ensure that systems relating to the oversight of safeguarding are in place, embedded and effective. This means that records have gaps, and statutory requirements are not met for reporting on children missing from education. The school should ensure that safeguarding processes are rigorous, and oversight systems for trustees are strengthened.

• Pupils' misconceptions are not consistently responded to in lessons. This leads to gaps in their understanding and knowledge. The school should ensure that misconceptions are accurately and swiftly identified and addressed before teaching moves on to more complex ideas.

• The needs of weaker readers are not routinely addressed across curriculum subjects. This means that these pupils do not make rapid progress in improving their reading skills and using these to access the full curriculum. The school should embed effective strategies to support readers across subjects.