The Archer Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

The Archer Academy has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

The headteacher of this school is Lucy Harrison.

This school is part of The Archer Academy single academy trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Avis Johns and the chair of the governing board is Claire Straus.

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils receive an exceptional education at The Archer Academy.

Pupils and staff live and breathe the school's values of 'achievement, respect, curiosity, hard work and enjoyment'.The school fosters a... happy, welcoming and inclusive environment where academic excellence and personal development hold equal importance. Staff are committed to the belief that every pupil has the potential to succeed and thrive.

They work diligently to provide high-quality learning opportunities for everyone. As a result, pupils achieve highly, including in public examinations, and grow into confident learners.

The school's provision for pupils' wider development is exemplary.

The enrichment programme provides a significant variety of experiences for pupils, including chess, golf, and Mandarin. The school forges strong partnerships with its local community to enrich pupils' wider experiences. Through these experiences, pupils' cultural capital is further enhanced.

This contributes to pupils developing as happy, well-rounded young people.

Behaviour is highly positive. The school fosters a calm and productive atmosphere, ensuring a safe environment for all.

Pupils typically demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning, actively collaborating with their peers during lessons to maximise their learning. Parents and carers are highly supportive of the school. They value the school's recognition of each child as an individual and its holistic, caring approach.

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

Leaders are highly ambitious for all pupils. They have designed a broad and exceptionally rich curriculum, which prepares pupils incredibly well for their next steps in education. This ambitious curriculum matches, and, in some cases exceeds, the scope of what is expected nationally.

Pupils develop in-depth knowledge and skills across a variety of subjects and, as a result, achieve highly.

The school has put reading and vocabulary development at the heart of the curriculum. Pupils are routinely expected to read widely and use subject terminology accurately.

For example, in art, pupils learn how to draw contour lines and show confidence in explaining their impact on the dimension and depth of their work. Similarly, in English, pupils use and justify the term 'alienation' when analysing a character. Those who are at the earliest stages of reading are extremely well supported to become confident and fluent readers.

This is because the school provides exceptionally well-designed additional reading sessions that help these pupils catch up quickly.

Teachers have strong subject knowledge and present ideas clearly. They model their expectations for pupils' work well.

Checks on pupils' learning are used effectively to deepen pupils' understanding, close any gaps in pupils' knowledge and address misconceptions. Teachers skilfully adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. This helps pupils to develop increasing levels of independence.

Pupils benefit from a very strong careers programme. High-quality information and experiences such as 'take my child to work day' as well as the 'bright ideas' lecture series are provided so pupils and their parents understand the many choices available.

Pupils enjoy school and attend regularly.

They benefit from excellent relationships with each other and with staff. Pupils are cared for well and have adults they trust, who they can talk to if they have problems. The school has recently made some very well-received adjustments to its behaviour approaches, with a greater focus on rewards, as well as explicitly teaching positive behaviours linking to its core values.

The governing body knows the school very well. It challenges leaders rigorously to ensure decisions are always made in the best interests of pupils and staff. There is exceptional support and consideration of workload.

This helps to ensure that staff are best placed to provide an ambitious and high-quality education for pupils. Staff are immensely proud to work at this school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted's website. From September 2024 graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade.

This school was, before September 2024, judged outstanding for its overall effectiveness.

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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's work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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 first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be outstanding for overall effectiveness in May 2019.

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