Orion Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a welcoming and supportive school where pupils receive a high level of support.

Staff understand pupils' social and emotional needs well and build positive relationships. Pupils feel safe and trust staff to help them. Bullying is not an issue.

When pupils display challenging behaviour, well-trained, caring staff are on hand to help them settle and refocus. However, pupils do not attend school as often as they should.

Since joining The Gallery Trust in February 2020, leaders have overcome many challenges, such as the pandemic, staffing changes and transition to a new-build site.

However, the trust has been too slow to implement an ambitious cu...rriculum. Pupils are not taught well enough in all subjects, and the school has not given enough consideration to how learning will build year on year. As a result, pupils do not achieve as well as they should.

The school is now improving. The new leadership team has successfully established a positive, aspirational community culture with high expectations for behaviour. The team is rightly focused on redesigning the curriculum.

Improvements have been made, but there is still work to ensure the curriculum is ambitious and caters effectively for pupils' special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

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

After a period of challenge and change, the school is now on a positive journey. Concerns around site safety and standards of behaviour have been addressed successfully.

However, the school's curriculum is not currently effective. Curriculum planning does not meet the needs of mixed-age and mixed-ability classes well enough. As a result, teachers are having to work hard to make it work.

Reassuringly, recent improvements in some subjects have added clarity and ambition to the curriculum, enabling pupils to achieve well. However, in other subjects, the knowledge that pupils should learn, and in what order, has not been defined.

The quality of teaching is inconsistent.

Teachers do not always have the subject knowledge needed to deliver the curriculum confidently. Some staff adapt their lessons in response to pupils' needs or what pupils know, while others do not. This leaves some pupils disengaged and unable to access their learning.

As a result, some pupils are not making the progress they should. Similarly, where staff use pupils' education, health and care (EHC) plans well to guide their work, learning is broken down carefully into small steps, enabling pupils to build on their prior knowledge. However, this is not yet consistently the case.

A rigorous early reading curriculum is now in place. When pupils join the school, accurate and precise assessments are used to check their reading knowledge. Staff receive high-quality training that enables them to ably support pupils with learning to read.

As a result, many pupils are becoming confident and fluent readers.Too many pupils do not attend regularly, which means they miss out on everything the school has to offer. Rigorous systems are in place to establish pupils' whereabouts and seek assurances about their well-being.

However, the school is yet to develop an effective strategy to improve attendance.

When in school, pupils behave well. Staff act swiftly and effectively to tackle any signs of low-level disruption.

Reward systems help motivate pupils to behave well. Regular 'check-ins' with pupils about their feelings help them manage their emotions. When pupils are upset or angry, a well-trained pastoral team is on hand to help them calm down using consistent and positive language.

As a result, learning is rarely disrupted.

Personal development is a real strength. Pupils access a raft of fun and engaging activities.

Trips and experiences enrich pupils' curriculum, building their confidence and supporting them in developing pro-social behaviours. A well-established careers programme ensures that pupils receive effective support to plan their next steps at age 16. An ambitious personal, social and health education curriculum helps pupils understand how to stay safe online and issues such as consent.

Leaders have acted decisively in recent times to improve the school. The school is considerate of staff's well-being and workload. As a result, staff feel valued and eager to participate in the school's improvement journey.

The trust and trustees are supporting the school through the recent introduction of a 'rapid improvement board', which is intended to strengthen governance further. However, those responsible for governance do not, collectively, evaluate the school's priorities accurately, which impedes the effectiveness of their support and challenge.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Too many pupils do not attend school regularly, adversely affecting their education and causing them to miss out on important personal development opportunities. The school should urgently establish a coherent strategy to improve attendance, ensuring that rigorous oversight enables it to monitor and assure itself about the impact of this work. ? The curriculum is not currently mapped out clearly or implemented to a high enough standards.

Consequently, pupils do not learn well enough. The school should ensure that curriculum planning clearly identifies what pupils must learn in each subject and that staff have the knowledge to teach this content successfully. They should also support staff in using assessment consistently well to check pupils' understanding and inform future teaching.

There are gaps in how pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted. This means pupils are not as prepared for life in modern Britain as they could be. The school must continue to improve the personal, social and health education curriculum to ensure that pupils gain the important knowledge they need, so they leave school with an understanding of different faiths and cultures, fundamental British values, and protected characteristics.

• Those responsible for governance do not always have an accurate view of the school's priorities and do not rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of improvement work. This means that they do not effectively challenge and support leaders, and have been ineffectual in addressing some important weaknesses in a timely fashion. Those responsible for governance must ensure that they are fully informed about the school's priorities and hold leaders accountable for addressing areas for improvement effectively and promptly.