Saint Nathaniel’s Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils enjoy attending this friendly school. It has a diverse community, and every member of the Saint Nathaniel's family is warmly welcomed and celebrated. The pastoral support the school provides to help the pupils feel secure and settled is effective.

Pupils feel safe in school because of this and due to the strong team with responsibility for providing it.

The school has high ambitions for each of the pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They understand the needs and individual circumstances of each pupil.

This means that for many, this ambition is now realised. The ambition the school has for its pupils is centr...al to the school's values where pupils are encouraged to show the same level of 'ambition, resilience and courage'.

Pupils understand the school's six golden rules.

They follow them well, leading to a school that is calm during lessons and playtimes. Pupils recognise the need for everyone to be included and happy. The 'buddy bench' enables them to spot pupils who need a friend.

This helps them to live out one of the important rules of being 'kind and helpful'.

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

While published data at the end of key stage 2 is below national expectations, the school does provide an effective education for pupils. Many pupils leave and join the school at different times throughout key stage 1 and key stage 2 and throughout the school year.

There is also a very high proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language. This presents the school with many challenges in terms of ensuring all pupils receive an education that is closely matched to their starting points. Current teaching is now helping pupils to make stronger progress from their varying starting points.

The school's phonics programme is well-established. Many staff are expert teachers of phonics, but there remain inconsistencies in the support some pupils receive to help them to become accurate, confident and fluent readers. The school is well aware of this, and additional training is being put in place to ensure all pupils receive the same level of skilled support.

Reading is a high priority throughout the school, and pupils enjoy sharing interesting stories that reflect the school's diverse community. 'Reading ambassadors' relish the opportunity to help select these texts, and ensures that pupils have a voice in what they get to share and enjoy. This starts in the early years where staff places a high priority on developing communication and language for all children.

It is at the heart of the early years curriculum.

A recently introduced mathematics curriculum is helping pupils to make stronger progress. The school places a high priority on returning to prior learning in each lesson, enabling pupils to understand current learning with greater success.

Each pupil uses an iPad to record their work. This supports them to access resources and pictorial support aids that assist them with learning as well as promoting independence. However, there are some inconsistencies in how effectively staff assess the work of some pupils in lessons and over time.

This prevents them from providing support, if necessary. This is also the case in some foundation subjects.

Pupils with SEND are supported well to learn well alongside their peers.

The school provides effective support to enable them to do this. If needed, staff work alongside them to support them further. However, most have developed strategies to work independently.

This is a strength.

Pupils behave well. They try hard in lessons and concentrate and listen sensibly.

They recognise the importance of being kind and respectful, and they are. This is modelled for them by staff who show kindness and respect in all they do. Pupils enjoy playtimes and take full advantage of the many activities available for them outside in the well-kept grounds.'

Bob's garden' provides a beautiful, tranquil space for pupils to explore and to promote a sense of peace and wellness.

The school provides many opportunities for pupils to develop junior leadership roles. They are very proud of these responsibilities and wear their badges with pride so everyone knows the additional commitments they have in school.

Pupils are keen to support the local community and do so in a variety of ways. This includes visiting the local old people's home and collecting donations for the local foodbank – a service that is so important in the community. The school takes full advantage of places of interest nearby by incorporating these into the curriculum and arranging visits to support pupils' knowledge and understanding of the place in which they live.

A wide range of clubs further develop pupils' talents and interest beyond the classroom.

The school, and the trust, want all pupils to achieve of their best. They have a clear vision for how to drive the school on its continued road of improvement.

The trust provides a high level of support in order to achieve these aims. However, the school do not always rigorously check that carefully planned actions are being implemented in precisely the way they aspire for them to be, leading to the outcomes they are striving towards.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Teachers do not use assessment consistently well. At times, there are too few checks to make sure that pupils are learning well. The school must make sure that assessment is used skilfully to support pupils' learning.

• The school has not ensured that all staff have received effective training to deliver the phonics scheme consistently well. This means that some pupils are not making the progress they should in reading. Leaders should ensure that all staff receive the relevant phonics training to improve the teaching of phonics.

• On occasion, monitoring lacks rigour in some areas of the school's work. This means leaders cannot always articulate the demonstrable improvements in place as a result of the actions taken. Leaders should ensure there are rigorous monitoring systems in place, followed by detailed analysis, to further shape school improvement priorities.