St John’s Church of England Middle School Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

This is a happy and welcoming school where its values of forgiveness, love, integrity and perseverance are lived on a daily basis by pupils and adults. Staff know pupils well and support them to thrive thanks to the very strong culture of mutual respect. This is lived in interactions throughout the school, both between adults and pupils, but also between the pupils themselves.

Pupils are supported to achieve well both in their learning, and also in the extensive and high-quality offer of clubs, trips and wider opportunities. Leaders are rightly proud of these as an integral part of the school's offer to its pupils. Pupils thoroughly enjoy these opportunities and relish the man...y leadership positions which the school provides for them.

Pupils are very clear about the role they have in leading in the school and improving the provision.

Leaders' high expectations for all pupils is reflected in a high-quality curriculum which is subject to regular and incisive review and leaders are aware of where they need to continue to make improvements to the curriculum. Leaders and teachers work well together to ensure that the provision at St John's continues to improve.

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

Leaders regularly review the design of the curriculum across all subjects. They have clearly identified the key knowledge pupils need to learn, and considerable thought has gone into how pupils are assessed. This means that, nearly always, teachers identify and close gaps in pupils' understanding rapidly.

There are a few occasions when the curriculum design could be improved in a small number of subjects, or where the selection of activities could be better suited to the pupils' learning. Leaders are aware of this and are continuing to work to improve the provision. Pupils with SEND sit at the heart of the curriculum.

They have their needs identified accurately and appropriate adaptations and support are put in place to enable them to access the whole curriculum. These pupils, therefore, achieve well.

Reading is central to the curriculum, with a strong culture of reading embedded across the school.

Pupils who the school identifies as having weaker reading ages are supported to catch up rapidly. As part of an ongoing review process, leaders have updated the school's catch-up reading programme and are training staff in this. Pupils who access the additional support make rapid progress in their reading.

Thanks to leaders' efforts, a calm and orderly environment with well-established routines is the norm across the school. This means pupils are able to learn well and, indeed, show significant motivation and resilience when faced with more challenging work. Staff care for pupils and ensure that any pupils who need support to meet the school's behaviour expectations receive this.

This reinforces the universally positive and respectful culture. In this, pupils take a lead in establishing the high expectations for behaviour and attitudes across all aspects of school life across many leadership roles. For example, pupils worked with other schools to deliver an assembly on 'stigma'.

Pupils attend school well and, where they find this harder, leaders work extensively to ensure their attendance improves and draw especially on strong relationships they have established with parents and carers to achieve this.

The school's provision for pupils' personal development is especially strong. The personal, social and health and economic education is well designed and comprehensive.

There are extensive opportunities for pupil leadership responsibilities, including the school council, sport and arts council, mentoring, anti-bullying ambassadors and an eco-school group. This means that nearly half of all pupils hold a position of responsibility. There is a rich array of carefully planned extra-curricular activities with a large majority of all pupils taking part in these, including high numbers of pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils.

Indeed, the school goes to considerable lengths to ensure that pupils who are disadvantaged access the many opportunities they provide. The school goes well beyond the statutory requirements for careers, including meaningful encounters with employees.

Leadership is another significant strength at the school.

Staff at all levels are highly engaged in the process of school improvement, and benefit from significant bespoke professional development opportunities. Staff also reported very high levels of satisfaction about how leaders' work collaboratively with them to manage workload. Governors and trustees have clear oversight of their statutory duties and hold leaders to account effectively.

The trust provides support and challenge to the school to ensure all aspects of provision continue to improve. The school uses its pupil premium funding in an intelligent and focused way to close learning gaps, and to extend the range of opportunities available to these pupils.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In a small number of subjects, the curriculum design and/or selection of learning activities are not as effective as others. This means that pupils do not securely build on their knowledge and skills as well as they might. The school should ensure that the curriculum in these subjects is coherently planned and delivered so that pupils deepen their learning over time in all subjects.