Scartho Junior Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Scartho Junior Academy continues to be a good school.

The principal of this school is Neville Rice. This school is part of Scartho Junior Academy Limited, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Sarah Louise Smith.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils who attend the school benefit from doing so. They achieve well. This is reflected in published outcomes.

Pupils' wider development is given the same priority as their academic studies. Leaders' vision to provide a holistic education to pupils is being realised.

Pupils conduct themselves well around school....

They act maturely. They are welcoming to, and interested in, others. Pupils hold a positive view of the school.

They accurately describe an environment where people get along with each other and help one another. Many pupils hold leadership roles, such as play leaders, which contribute positively to the school community. Disruption to learning is rare.

Staff address instances of poor behaviour calmly and effectively. Adults care for the well-being of pupils at the school. Parents and carers value the school's effective work to support their children's development.

The school integrates opportunities for pupils' personal development throughout the curriculum. The school uses residential trips, such as the Year 5 trip to London, to develop pupils' independence and cultural understanding. Pupils' learning in subjects such as science is enriched with workshops delivered by visiting experts.

Pupils in Year 6 combine work from several subjects in a project that helps them to learn about careers that interest them. Opportunities such as these prepare pupils well for their next steps in education.

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

Pupils learn an ambitious academic curriculum.

They have a strong understanding of this. Pupils talk confidently about the knowledge and skills that they learn in individual subjects. For example, in art and design, pupils understand how different shading techniques can be used to create texture within an image.

The school's curriculum links pupils' learning in different subjects effectively.

Teachers implement the school's curriculum well. Where this is most successful, the knowledge that pupils learn is revisited regularly.

Teachers check what pupils know and use the information that they gather to adapt their future teaching effectively. Staff provide pupils with opportunities to use and apply their knowledge in different contexts. This deepens pupils' understanding of the subjects that they study.

Adults support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) well in lessons. This enables pupils with SEND to learn the same ambitious curriculum as their peers.

Pupils regularly read books from a range of authors and genres.

Reading for pleasure is promoted well by the school. Staff model reading effectively and recommend texts that they think pupils may enjoy. Pupils receive rewards for reading frequently.

A small team of trained staff provide additional support for pupils who are in the early stages of learning to read. This helps these pupils to catch up. However, an increasing number of pupils require this additional support.

Some staff lack expertise or experience in teaching phonics. As a result, there is inconsistency in how the school's approach to teaching phonics is implemented. Leaders have identified this and taken steps to make improvements.

These are not fully embedded.

During the school's well-being lessons, pupils learn important knowledge, such as how to eat healthily or to maintain their physical and mental health. Through this curriculum, pupils learn to understand their emotions and how these have an impact on their behaviours.

The school teaches pupils how to manage this impact. This effective work helps pupils learn to regulate their own behaviours consistently.

Regular attendance is well promoted by the school.

It analyses the data it collects on pupils' attendance to identify patterns. The school works well with families to understand the reasons for pupils' absence and takes targeted actions to help pupils attend school more frequently.

Leaders have a clear understanding of the school's strengths and areas for development.

New initiatives are introduced carefully. Staff training supports these initiatives to be implemented successfully. Staff across many roles have been helped by the school to develop new skills or gain professional qualifications.

Staff at the school feel valued and appreciate the support that leaders provide.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Some staff lack expertise or experience in teaching phonics.

As the number of staff required to teach phonics has increased, this has caused inconsistency in how well phonics is taught. The school should ensure that staff have the knowledge and skills that they need to teach phonics consistently well.

Background

When we have judged a school to be good, we will then normally go into the school about once every four years to confirm that the school remains good.

This is called an ungraded inspection, and it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on an ungraded inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which is carried out under section 5 of the Act.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the ungraded inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the ungraded inspection a graded inspection immediately.

This is the second ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in March 2014.

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