The Lowry Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils joining the school, whether in Year 7 or at other times, quickly settle in. There are clear and well-adopted routines for how pupils should learn and behave. These help most pupils to feel happy in school.

Most pupils work hard to keep up with teachers' ambitious learning goals. They enjoy receiving rewards and badges in recognition of their efforts.

In the past, due to weaknesses in the quality of education provided by the school, pupils did not achieve as well as they should.

This is reflected in the published outcomes for the school in 2023. The school has worked systematically to address these weaknesses. Older pupils appreciate the positive transf...ormation that has taken place during their time at school.

Pupils who attend school regularly now learn and achieve well.

Pupils develop their talents and interests from accessing a broad offer of clubs and activities. These include coding and cooking clubs and a 'knit and natter' group.

An assortment of sports, such as badminton, basketball and football, are offered to different year groups so that everyone can participate in physical activity. Pupils enjoy opportunities to perform, including in musical productions and the school's rock and jazz bands.

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

The trust has supported the school to develop a suitably broad and ambitious curriculum.

This is exemplified by the rapidly increasing number of pupils choosing to study the EBacc suite of subjects. Most pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), are now developing the knowledge that they need to achieve well.

The school ensures that teachers know what pupils should learn and when.

Teachers are trained in a consistent and effective approach to deliver curriculum content. They value the availability of high-quality resources and frequent opportunities for collaboration that help to reduce their workload.

Teachers regularly work together to evaluate the impact of recent lessons on pupils' learning.

This helps them to recognise and address any misconceptions that pupils develop. Typically, teachers check that pupils can remember their learning over time. However, at times, these checks are not as effective as they should be in identifying learning that pupils have forgotten.

This hampers teachers' efforts to address gaps in pupils' knowledge.

The school has strengthened its processes to identify pupils with SEND. Staff make sensitive adaptations that enable these pupils to progress through the curriculum.

The school quickly identifies pupils who struggle with their reading and provides targeted support that helps these pupils to increase their reading expertise.

Classrooms are typically calm and purposeful environments that match the school's intention for 'disruption-free learning'. The school supports pupils who find it difficult to comply with behaviour expectations.

This work has brought about a meaningful reduction in the number and severity of behaviour incidents.

Most pupils understand the importance of attending school each day. Staff systematically review attendance information.

They identify and support pupils whose attendance is lower than it should be. Despite this, too many pupils are persistently absent from school. These pupils miss valuable learning which prevents them from achieving all that they should.

The school has developed a personal, social and health education programme to inform pupils about a great variety of topics, including healthy relationships, finance and the law. However, the time devoted to this programme for older pupils, particularly those in Year 11, is limited. This hinders the breadth and depth of older pupils' learning.

The school is committed to raising pupils' aspirations. It provides pupils with a wide range of useful careers information over their time at the academy. Skilled staff support pupils to make well-informed choices regarding their next steps.

The trust has been instrumental in supporting the school to bring about the many required changes. Clear accountability structures ensure that trustees and local governors share and act upon information about the school's progress towards ambitious improvement goals.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• From time to time, teachers do not check pupils' prior learning as carefully as they should. This means that they are unaware of gaps in some pupils' knowledge that persist over time. The school should ensure that teachers rapidly identify and address forgotten learning so that pupils learn all that they should.

• Some pupils do not attend school with sufficient regularity. As a result, they miss out on important learning which hinders their achievement. The school should continue to strengthen its efforts to identify and tackle barriers to pupils' attendance, in order to reduce levels of pupil absence.

• Pupils in key stage 4 have limited time devoted to personal, social and health education. This impedes their ability to develop a broad and deep understanding of these topics. The school should ensure that older pupils have the time that they need to develop and embed this important knowledge.