St Agnes Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils are curious, compassionate and courageous at St Agnes Primary Academy.

They thrive on a rich, exciting curriculum that extends well beyond the academic.

An exceptional enrichment programme complements the curriculum seamlessly. Pupils develop their sense of local, regional and global citizenship in meaningful ways.

Everyone is encouraged to take part in these activities, and most do. As a result, pupils who are disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are included in all parts of school life.

Pupils' behaviour is exemplary.

This starts in Reception, where children quickly respond to adults' hig...h expectations. They show high levels of self-control, sharing and collaborating well during learning. Pupils build positively on this, showing increasingly strong attitudes to learning as they get older.

They have great respect for one another. The school's 'tweak for the term' keeps a focus on the little things that make the biggest difference. This helps maintain exceptional standards of behaviour.

The school's partnership with parents is particularly strong. Pupils benefit hugely as a result. For example, attendance is significantly improving for many.

Pupils understand that attendance and punctuality are life skills that will help them in the future.

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

The school has designed a highly effective, ambitious curriculum. Curriculum content has been precisely selected to match the school and the trust's vision for pupils.

Character development and oracy are key. Pupils understand their Cornish heritage and life in modern Britain, and how this relates to the global community.

Reading and mathematics are highly effective elements of the curriculum.

Reception children begin to master the fundamentals of letters, sounds and numbers. Well-designed activities help children to practise their learning through play. These experiences are meaningful and challenging, and build children's cumulative knowledge.

Children can sustain focus for long periods. As a result, many children are learning very well.

The early reading curriculum is implemented consistently well.

Teachers use their strong subject knowledge to check on pupils' learning continuously. This enables misconceptions to be picked up and remedied immediately. The strong focus on making sure that pupils keep up with the programme means that the help for individuals is timely and effective.

Pupils then benefit from a very carefully designed reading curriculum once they have learned their phonics. High-quality books, covering a range of genres, topics and structures, enable pupils to become competent readers. Pupils achieve well because they can read confidently when learning in other subjects.

The school is not complacent. It continually refines the curriculum to ensure that it matches the ambition of the vision. For example, in music, the school decided to teach slightly less content each year so that pupils could spend more time developing their composition skills.

In this way, pupils progress securely from note names to notation. By Year 6, pupils are confidently composing their own pieces using music technology. They are extremely well prepared for the Year 7 music curriculum by the time they leave the school.

The school is highly inclusive. It is committed to meeting the needs of all pupils to ensure that they learn and take part fully in school life. Trips and residential visits are adapted appropriately to support pupils with physical disabilities or medical conditions.

This helps to ensure that there are no barriers to pupils benefiting from the exceptional extra-curricular programme. Within the curriculum, teaching is adapted exceptionally well to meet pupils' needs. Staff benefit from high-quality training in SEND.

This helps to ensure that pupils with SEND learn exceptionally well.

Pupils have a good understanding of equalities and difference. They recognise that people can have different opinions or beliefs.

They respect this. Pupils understand what discrimination is. They relate this to the protected characteristics.

The curriculum supports and develops this understanding. Pupils learn to appreciate different cultures and challenge stereotypes.

The trust and local governors work highly effectively with the school to accurately evaluate the school's work.

They invest in training that helps staff to develop as experts. As a result, staff feel highly valued.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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