Tame Valley Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Tame Valley Academy continues to be a good school.

The headteacher of this school is Andrew Byrne. This school is part of Greenheart Learning Partnership, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school.

The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Michelle Money, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Sean Starr.

What is it like to attend this school?

Care and respect are two words that sum up the culture of this happy and calm school. There is a strong sense of community, shared by everybody from pupils and their families to the staff and governors.

Pupils love coming to this school, which is evident from their ...warm smiles, friendly welcome and polite comments. Everyone here, especially the staff, talks about the feeling of being part of a family, and there is a real sense of togetherness across the school.

Pupils' behaviour is exemplary; they are polite and courteous in all situations.

The school is a calm and purposeful environment where pupils achieve well. Both in class and around school, pupils display mature, confident behaviour. In class, they are enthusiastic, with positive attitudes towards learning.

Adults care about the pupils and want the best for them. In doing so, they encourage pupils to have high aspirations for themselves and what they can achieve. As a result, pupils achieve well across the curriculum.

The positive culture in which relationships are fostered and nurtured ensures that pupils feel safe and confident that adults will always help them if they have any worries.

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

Across the curriculum, there are high expectations for all pupils. Curriculum subjects are well designed, with intended learning clearly set out to ensure that previous learning is built on.

For example, in mathematics, teachers encourage pupils to recall previous learning and apply their knowledge from earlier lessons to develop a secure understanding.The school has crafted a carefully designed curriculum with content that ensures pupils are prepared for the next steps. Collaborative learning is a feature of the well-designed curriculum.

It has been organised to help pupils learn and remember what they need to know to make progress in each subject. As a result, pupils are able to recall and build on their learning across a range of subjects.

The school is further developing subject-specific vocabulary.

This is having a positive impact. It has set out, precisely, the words pupils should learn in each subject. Teachers model these words to support pupils in using them confidently.

For example, in geography, pupils describe, in detail, complex processes such as the impact of humans on the physical environment, through studies about earthquakes, tsunamis and floods. Pupils talk about the movement of the Earth's floor and volcanic eruption being the cause of tsunamis. Pupils retain knowledge from their previous learning and bring this to life through conversation.

However, their written work sometimes has basic errors which are not corrected. This means that pupils' work is not as accurate as it should be.

Staff have high levels of expertise and knowledge about supporting pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The school's provision for pupils with SEND is clearly planned, with additional resources where required. For children who are not yet ready to access a full curriculum, there is specialist support in a calm and nurturing environment. Targets are based on individuals and adapted from the taught curriculum to meet the needs of a wide range of pupils.

As a result, pupils with SEND make good progress. This demonstrates the fully inclusive environment that is Tame Valley.

Children get off to a flying start in their early education due to the quality of provision and support, particularly in early reading.

Children quickly gain the knowledge and skills they need to become confident, fluent readers. Those who fall behind receive additional phonics support to ensure that progress is made. In Nursery, phonics begins with a focus on communication and language, developed through song, rhyme and modelling of language.

Pupils across the school enjoy reading.

Pupils are enthused by the wider curriculum. They enjoy the trips and the visits into school from a range of people.

Both the curriculum subjects and the wider learning about keeping safe and healthy are covered by regular visits to school from professionals within the community. Pupils enjoy learning about these aspects and say it helps them to be prepared for the world outside.

Staff say that leaders consult with them in all aspects of school improvement work and ensure that the impact on workload is minimised.

They are given time to carry out their roles and develop as professionals through the extensive, high-quality professional development programme.

Trust leaders, school leaders and staff share the same commitment to ensuring that all pupils at Tame Valley have a positive experience, enabling personal growth. As a result of the passion and drive in the school, pupils know that they belong to a caring environment where they will begin their learning journey towards becoming the best version of themselves.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• Pupils' work, across a number of subjects, contains errors in basic skills, including handwriting, punctuation and spelling. These are not consistently addressed.

This hinders pupils from achieving as well as they should. The school should ensure that all staff consistently identify and promptly address pupils' errors.

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 May 2014.