School 360

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

School 360's values of joy, responsibility, curiosity, courage and kindness are seamlessly interwoven through daily life here.

Expectations for behaviour are well understood and consistently applied. As a result, pupils are not only exceptionally well behaved but also kind and considerate. This begins in Reception, where children are encouraged to help each other.

This ethos builds throughout the school. For example, at lunchtime, pupils of all ages sit together. Older pupils help the younger ones.

This promotes a calm and caring atmosphere.

Pupils are kept safe in school. They feel secure because there are lots of grown-ups to look after them.
<...br/>Pupils know they are listened to, and they trust adults to help them and sort out any concerns they may have quickly.

Pupils are highly engaged and enjoy their learning. They follow a curriculum that is broad and ambitious, helping to develop their knowledge and understanding.

Typically, pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education. Pupils are proud to take on additional responsibilities, such as helping to care for the school chickens, 'Macaroni' and 'Cheese'. Eggs are collected each day and used in the kitchen.

The animals' care is an important part of pupils' school experience.

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

Children in early years settle quickly and get off to an exceptional start to their education. The curriculum is well designed and encourages children to become confident and independent learners.

For example, in mathematics, the curriculum breaks down important ideas about number, shape and measure into small steps. Children practise these steps each day through the continuous provision offer, such as exploring numbers to five through different activities. This reinforces number recognition and counting and prepares children well for more complex concepts in Year 1.

Leaders have prioritised pupils' early reading. A love of reading is evident across the school, and pupils enjoy their daily story times. Children begin learning phonics as soon as they start school.

Staff deliver the phonics programme consistently because they have been well trained. Any pupils who fall behind are swiftly identified and appropriate support is put in place to help them catch up. As a result, pupils are typically well supported to read with growing accuracy and confidence.

However, in some instances, the books pupils use to practise reading are not as carefully matched to their stage in the phonics programme. This slows the fluency with which some pupils read.

The curriculum matches the scope and ambition of what is expected nationally.

It provides structured opportunities for all pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to explore, practise and apply what they are learning. Pupils with SEND are identified swiftly and accurately. They receive appropriate additional support tailored to their specific needs.

This enables them, wherever possible, to access the same curriculum as their peers.

Leaders have identified the important concepts and skills pupils should learn. The carefully designed projects and activities provided are well sequenced and typically match the ambition of the planned curriculum.

However, subject-specific knowledge is not consistently reinforced. As a result, some pupils struggle to draw on what they have learned previously and connect it to new ideas. This makes it more difficult for them to develop a sufficiently deep body of subject-specific knowledge.

Behaviour across the school is excellent. Classrooms are calm, orderly and purposeful places, where learning is at the heart. Pupils show high levels of self-control and are fully engaged in their learning.

Effective systems are in place to ensure pupils attend well. Leaders are committed to further improving the already strong attendance.

Provision for pupils' personal development is exceptional.

The curriculum has been well designed to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain. The school's work to develop pupils' awareness of and contribution to social justice is of high quality. For example, there is strong collaboration with local charities that enrich the curriculum and contribute positively to building a community on this completely new school site.

Pupils are given regular opportunity to have a say in their school. For example, all classes vote for the story they want to hear at the end of each day.

Several staff, and leaders at all levels, are either new to the school or their role.

The multi-academy trust board, however, provides strong oversight of the school's effectiveness. This is being further enhanced through the creation of a local school board, which is currently in development. A well-considered plan is in place to ensure leadership, at all levels, continues to develop and embed.

Staff are overwhelmingly positive about the support they get to manage their workload. They value the opportunity to be part of a growing school and feel that their well-being is a priority for leaders.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The subject-specific knowledge that pupils are expected to learn and remember is not consistently reinforced. As a result, some pupils struggle to draw on what they have learned previously when tackling new ideas. The school should ensure pupils have understood and secured the subject-specific content identified in the planned curriculum.

On occasion, the books provided for pupils to practise their phonics are not well matched to the sounds they have learned. When this happens, pupils do not build fluency as securely as they need to. The school should ensure that books are consistently matched to the sounds pupils know.

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