St Augustine Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

St Augustine Academy is a small, caring school. Leaders' values of courage, compassion and community underpin their approach to education.

Pupils enjoy a wide choice of subjects and activities. Their exciting enrichment programme gives all younger pupils the chance to widen their horizons. Activities range from weightlifting to sign language and chess.

Parents positively describe these opportunities as 'fantastic'.

Leaders make sure that pupils behave well and are safe. A strong pastoral team gives help to those who need it.

The school's Autism Resource Centre (ARC) provides skilled support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilitie...s (SEND). Pupils are lively, direct and speak their mind. They know that bullying is not tolerated.

Pupils' performance in recent public examinations has been disappointing. Leaders want pupils to learn more and achieve better. There is now a strong training programme for teachers, led by the multi-academy trust.

This has led to improvements in English and mathematics but, overall, pupils are not achieving well enough.

Too many pupils have gaps in their learning because they are often absent from school. This particularly affects pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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

During the past year, leaders relaunched the school's behaviour policy. They have insisted on more consistent standards of conduct. Pupils have responded well to this and there are now far fewer incidents of poor behaviour.

Pupils now behave very well in lessons and around the school. This has helped teachers and pupils to focus on learning.

School leaders have planned a curriculum that is ambitious.

Pupils get a broad, interesting choice of examined options at key stage 4. More pupils now take a modern foreign language. This means a greater number will meet the government's national ambition for the English Baccalaureate.

Subject leaders use sound, whole-school guidance to plan what pupils will learn and when. This ensures that topics are taught in a logical order, so that new information builds on what pupils already know. Most departments do this well.

Most teachers have strong subject expertise. However, some are less skilled at adapting the curriculum or resources in the best ways to help pupils learn. Sometimes, teachers use resources that pupils struggle to relate to, or draw meaning from.

The school's 'passports' for pupils with SEND ensure that staff are well informed of pupils' needs. These provide helpful guidance about how to meet pupils' social and emotional needs. However, staff do not currently receive enough guidance about how they can support pupils to learn and remember more.

As a result, pupils with SEND are not always supported well enough to achieve their best in some subjects. In contrast, the specialist support for pupils who are still at an early stage of learning to read is effective. These pupils, including many who are disadvantaged, are making swift progress to catch up with their peers.

Teachers routinely give pupils feedback during lessons on how to improve their work. This helps to deal with misconceptions at an early stage. Sometimes, assessments have limited value.

This is because they do not link well enough to what leaders intend pupils to learn. As a result, staff are unable to use these effectively to address gaps in pupils' knowledge. Leaders have organised training to improve the quality of teaching and assessment.

This programme is reducing inconsistency, although it has not yet had impact across all subject areas. Staff value and welcome this investment in their professional development to help strengthen learning across the school.

The school has a well-structured careers programme for all ages.

Work experience gives Year 10 pupils insight into life after school. The comprehensive personal, social and health education course promotes a strong sense of citizenship among pupils. Assemblies and the chaplaincy help pupils to reflect on their ideas and beliefs.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Safeguarding leaders are experienced and knowledgeable. All staff receive key safeguarding information.

They know how to identify or raise a concern. The school carries out thorough employment checks on its staff and makes referrals to outside agencies, when appropriate.

However, not all aspects of safeguarding record-keeping are systematic enough.

Sometimes, staff have not recorded actions in enough detail using the school's systems. Leaders' and governors' audits of their procedures had not picked up on the omissions. Therefore, this has the potential for key safeguarding information to be overlooked or missed.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The attendance of some pupils is too low, especially for those pupils from a disadvantaged background. This has led to some pupils having gaps in their learning. Leaders should strengthen their recent work to improve attendance, particularly for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Leaders, trustees and governors should maintain close oversight of attendance, to ensure that leaders' actions are having the intended impact. Staff do not adapt learning well enough to meet the learning needs of pupils with SEND. As a result, pupils with SEND are not achieving well enough across the curriculum.

Leaders should ensure that staff have the knowledge they need to successfully adapt the curriculum to meet pupils' needs. ? The culture of safeguarding in the school is effective. However, some aspects of safeguarding record-keeping are not systematic enough.

This risks important knowledge about pupils being overlooked or omitted. Leaders should ensure that staff have the knowledge they need to record safeguarding information confidently and accurately using the school systems. Leaders need to maintain oversight of safeguarding records to ensure that all the expected processes are being consistently followed.

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