Trinity Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Outcome

Trinity Academy continues to be a good school.

What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders are ambitious for all pupils to achieve highly. Pupils said that staff provide them with the help they need in all aspects of their learning. Pupils are proud of their achievements, including their academic successes.

Recently, the number of pupils at the school has increased significantly. Pupils are mostly very positive about this. They are enthusiastic about the new approaches introduced by leaders.

Pupils particularly like the 'golden ticket' used to celebrate positive attitudes to learning.

Staff ensure that the school is calm and orderly for pupils to learn. Pupils ...typically behave well.

They said that staff listen and take seriously their ideas and suggestions. Pupils are looking forward to further chances to develop their leadership skills.

Staff keep pupils safe.

Leaders monitor all incidents of bullying carefully. They take prompt and effective action to sort out any issues that arise. Pupils trust teachers to take action if they report concerns.

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

Leaders have designed an aspirational curriculum for all pupils. Teachers have strong subject knowledge and use it well to help pupils learn. In most subjects, teachers consider carefully how to sequence learning.

They provide opportunities for pupils to build on what they have been taught previously. For example, in English, pupils study a wide range of literature as they move through the school. They learn to compare and contrast writers' styles and the themes they cover.

Over time, pupils typically develop secure knowledge across the curriculum and remember what they have been taught.

In Years 7 to 9, pupils study a wide range of subjects, including Latin. In most subjects, leaders ensure that pupils learn essential knowledge and skills in depth.

However, this is not the case in a few subjects, most notably art and design and technology. This is because leaders' curriculum thinking has not established clear and ambitious expectations for what subject content should be learned and remembered. Leaders have already started to address this.

Pupils select from a range of GCSE options to study in Years 10 and 11. A high proportion of pupils choose to study a language and a humanities subject at GCSE. This means that the majority are entered for the English Baccalaureate.

Students in the sixth form have a range of A Levels to choose from. Students said that they enjoy being taught in small teaching groups. They spoke highly of the curriculum as well as the individual attention they receive.

Students typically achieve well and are ambitious about their next steps, with many going on to attain places at their university of choice.

Leaders identify pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). They give teaching staff detailed information about pupils' individual needs.

However, teachers do not consistently use this information to support pupils. Leaders are in the process of giving further training to staff on how to strengthen the quality of adaptations and support for pupils with SEND.

Leaders put great emphasis on developing pupils' reading and literacy skills.

Teachers provide effective support for pupils who need extra help with their reading. This includes additional, small-group sessions to address specific needs and enable these pupils to access the full curriculum. Teachers are precise in the way they teach vocabulary and language.

They insist that pupils speak and write correctly.

Leaders communicate their high expectations of behaviour to pupils. Staff make sure that the school's approaches to managing behaviour are implemented consistently.

Pupils said that classrooms are now calmer than before and this helps them to focus on their work. They appreciate that staff deal with any issues promptly and sensitively. Nevertheless, there are occasions where pupils said that they are not confident to approach staff if something was on their mind.

Pupils are taught to be tolerant and to value differences between people. Leaders provide a range of enrichment opportunities, including debating, sports and music. All pupils in Year 10 value the opportunity they have to take part in a translation competition.

Leaders intend to expand the extra-curricular offer further so that it can include more pupils.

Governors support leaders effectively. They are well informed about the school and provide rigorous challenge.

However, some aspects of leaders' systems for record-keeping are not well organised. This has made it difficult for leaders to access and manage information efficiently.

Staff said that leaders consider issues like workload, and spoke positively about the relevant professional development opportunities on offer at the school.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders ensure that all staff suitability checks are completed. They ensure that staff are trained and updated on safeguarding matters.

Staff know who to turn to when they have concerns about pupils. They use the systems in place to record any concerns. Leaders investigate these promptly and take appropriate action.

They work with external agencies to get the right support for pupils and their families.Pupils learn about keeping safe, including online. Leaders have started to embed the new curriculum for relationships and sex education.

They ensure that pupils learn about issues such as consent.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• The school's curriculum is not yet sufficiently well planned and sequenced in some subjects, notably in art and design and technology. However, it is clear from leaders' actions that they are in the process of reviewing the curriculum in these subjects for September 2022.

For this reason, the transitional arrangements have been applied. ? Staff do not consistently use the strategies they are given to cater for the needs of pupils with SEND. This means that sometimes adaptations to support these pupils in classrooms are not fully tailored to pupils' needs.

Leaders should ensure that staff consistently use effective strategies to support pupils with SEND. ? Some aspects of leaders' record-keeping are not well organised. This means that information, including about pupils, is not always accessible or coherent.

Leaders are in the process of addressing this as part of their wider work on sharpening their systems. This wider work should also include further steps to increase pupils' confidence in sharing concerns they have.

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 a section 8 inspection of a good or outstanding school, because it is carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We do not give graded judgements on a section 8 inspection. However, if we find evidence that a school would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a section 5 inspection.

Usually this is within one to two years of the date of the section 8 inspection. If we have serious concerns about safeguarding, behaviour or the quality of education, we will deem the section 8 inspection as a section 5 inspection immediately.

This is the first section 8 inspection since we judged the school to be good in May 2017.

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