The Olive School, Bolton

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is an outstanding school The principal, senior staff, governing body and the trust have established an excellent school within a very short period of time.

The trust's high expectations of the quality of education pupils attending a Star Academies School should receive are being realised. This has been achieved through the relentless drive by the current principal and her predecessor to ensure their pupils get the very best start in school. All staff respond positively to the challenge of delivering excellent standards and fully support the ethos of the school.

All staff are motivated by a powerful desire to provide children from the local community with ...the best opportunities to enable them to achieve great things in their future lives. This passion ensures all aspects of the school, including teaching and care, are outstanding. Middle leaders also demonstrate determination, expertise and skill, which results in all teachers and learning coaches (teaching assistants) knowing in detail what they have to teach and when.

Consequently, pupils follow a coherent curriculum which is sometimes tailored specifically to meet their individual needs. Teaching is both expertly and skilfully led by leaders who are very clear about the basics that their pupils need to enable them to make outstanding progress. Very strong promotion of pupils' personal development and character are fundamental to the school's vision.

These high expectations are fully achieved through an excellent range of enriching experiences in classrooms, around the school and from educational visits. The combined effect of excellent leadership, care and teaching results in pupils attaining very high standards, sometimes from very low starting points. The rate of pupil attendance is very high because pupils love coming to this school.

Pupils are very happy and enthusiastic and feel secure. There is a sense of joy throughout the school. Pupils work hard and play harmoniously.

Many children join Reception with linguistic skills weaker than those typical for their age. Despite this, and because of excellent leadership, teaching and care, children learn very quickly. Children develop very good social skills and they care for one other.

Since the school opened, it has been in transition as it has grown quickly. The school's leadership team has always coped effectively with the difficulties that rapidly increasing numbers of pupils and staff have provided. The school has three years until it will have reached its capacity.

Information about this school

The Olive School, Bolton opened as part of the government's free schools programme. It opened in a temporary building in September 2016 and continues to operate from that site. It is part of Star Academies, a large national multi-academy trust.

It is a two-form entry school and, when it opened, admitted pupils into Reception and Year 1. It currently has pupils from Reception to Year 3. The school is oversubscribed for places to start in the next academic year when the oldest pupils will be in Year 4.

The Olive School, Bolton is designated as a Muslim faith school. The admission arrangements allow pupils of all faiths and none to attend. The school is expecting to be inspected under section 48 imminently.

The purpose of this inspection will be to evaluate the distinctiveness and effectiveness of the school's religious character. The trust and school were established to extend the educational opportunities of young people in areas that have been characterised by deprivation and underachievement. The school serves a socio-economically disadvantaged community which includes many families for whom English is an additional language and new arrivals to the country.

The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is in line with that seen nationally. This, however, does not reflect the high levels of deprivation that exist within the school's catchment area. About two thirds of pupils speak English as an additional language.

This is significantly above the national average. The proportion of pupils with SEND is above the national average. The school operates a breakfast club.