Ormiston Chadwick Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Ormiston Chadwick Academy is a friendly and caring community.

Pupils have positive relationships with their peers and staff. Pupils are happy and they feel safe in school.

The school has high expectations for pupils' learning.

In most subjects, pupils achieve well. Mostly, pupils behave well and they engage purposefully in their activities. Strong pastoral support underpins pupils' positive attitudes to their education.

Pupils value their positions of responsibility. For example, some pupils act as reading buddies for younger pupils. Other pupils contribute to trust-wide forums to share their views.

The school and the trust listen carefully ...to pupils' ideas and act on this feedback.

The school provides pupils with a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities. These include participation in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme, choir, drama and a varied range of sports clubs.

The school supports pupils, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to broaden their interests and experiences.

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

The curriculum is broad and ambitious for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This is reflected in the increasing number of pupils who are choosing to study the English Baccalaureate suite of subjects.

Subject curriculums identify what pupils should learn. In most subjects, this enables teachers to design learning that builds pupils' knowledge over time. However, some pupils have gaps in their knowledge from the previous curriculum.

This makes it difficult for them to connect and deepen their learning when new concepts are introduced.

Teachers typically check that pupils have learned subject content. Usually, teachers help pupils to overcome any misconceptions.

However, teachers sometimes do not go beyond making sure that pupils can recall basic facts and terminology. This means that, sometimes, they do not spot gaps in pupils' understanding. This hinders some pupils from deepening their learning over time.

The school identifies pupils with SEND effectively. Staff use the information that they receive about pupils' needs to adapt their delivery of the curriculum well. This enables pupils with SEND to succeed in their learning.

There is a strong focus on developing pupils' vocabulary and their enjoyment of reading across different subjects. Staff quickly identify pupils who find reading difficult and give them the support that they need to catch up.

Pupils generally have positive attitudes to learning.

This contributes to the calm and orderly environment in classrooms and around the school site.

Attendance is a high priority within the school. The school's actions have had some success.

Some pupils attend school more regularly than they did in the past. Even so, the school's work has not gone far enough in tackling the low attendance rates and poor punctuality of a considerable proportion of pupils. These pupils miss out on valuable learning time and all that the school has to offer.

Pupils follow a well-designed programme that promotes their personal development. They learn about a wide range of issues to prepare them appropriately for life in modern Britain. Staff provide pupils with opportunities to debate moral and social issues.

Pupils also hear from a range of external speakers. Pupils learn to celebrate the differences between people. They apply this learning in their respectful behaviour towards each other.

Pupils receive effective guidance and advice to help to inform their future steps in education, employment or training.

The school, including trustees and members of the local governing body, are well equipped to carry out their roles. They have appropriate processes in place to ensure that they hold the school to account for the quality of education that pupils receive.

Staff feel well supported by the school and the trust. For example, opportunities to collaborate with each other and networks for subject design has reduced staff's workload.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a few subjects, some pupils have gaps in their learning from the previous curriculum. This makes it difficult for them to connect their learning when they are introduced to new subject knowledge. The school should ensure that teachers help pupils to bridge the gap between the previous curriculum and the heightened expectations in the revised curriculum.

• In a small number of subjects, some teachers do not use assessment strategies sufficiently well to make sure that pupils have understood their learning. This hinders pupils from deepening their knowledge over time. The school should ensure that teachers use assessment techniques more effectively so that they are checking pupils' learning beyond their basic recall of facts.

• Some pupils do not attend school as regularly as they should. This hinders how well these pupils progress through the curriculum. The school should ensure that it analyses the impact of its strategies to improve attendance, so that these pupils and their families receive the most appropriate support.

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