Bodriggy Academy

Inspection of Bodriggy Academy Humphry Davy Lane, Hayle, Cornwall TR27 4DR

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

The quality of education Requires improvement Behaviour and attitudes Requires improvement Personal development Requires improvement Leadership and management Requires improvement Early years provision Requires improvement Previous inspection grade Outstanding 15–16 January 2020

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What is it like to attend this school?

Most pupils enjoy coming to school. Positive relationships exist between staff and pupils. Pupils told us they particularly like the various after-school clubs and residential visits. These help pupils to enjoy learning in a range of different environments. Pupils adore the school dog, Sprout, who is always there to provide a little extra care when needed.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Behaviour in lessons and around school is not consistently good. Some pupils complain that play during breaktimes is too rough. However, pupils and parents feel that bullying is not an issue and is dealt with well. Pupils become easily distracted when lessons do not hold their attention, which stops them from achieving as well as they could.

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What is it like to attend this school?

A few subjects, particularly music and physical education (PE), instil a love of the subject, so pupils progress well. Many subjects, however, are not well planned to build pupils’ knowledge over time. Weaknesses in the phonics strategy mean too many pupils are not getting off to a strong start with reading, including in the early years.

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better?

The standards that pupils achieve in the school have declined significantly since the previous inspection. However, following the appointment of the headteacher and since joining the Truro and Penwith Academy Trust, the school is beginning to recover. Morale is high. Pupils, staff and leaders are working purposefully to keep improving the school.

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better?

Nevertheless, there are still too many weaknesses that hold pupils back. The school’s curriculum has not been designed with the unique needs or distinctiveness of Bodriggy’s pupils in mind. Leaders have not considered what they want pupils to learn to make up for any contextual barriers that pupils face. As a result, some pupils have difficulties academically, while others struggle in terms of their personal development.

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better?

Pupils’ experiences and enjoyment of subjects are too variable. Mathematics has improved well. Pupils are made to think through well-chosen activities to deepen their understanding. In music, pupils learn musical notation and love playing instruments together, such as the clarinet. Most subjects, including modern foreign languages (MFL), history and science are not planned well. This means pupils do not acquire knowledge sequentially or at the right time to achieve well.

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better?

Reading is now a priority in the school. Leaders and teachers recognise that pupils’ reading has been poor for too long. Since September 2019, there has been significant investment in reading and leaders have revised how it is taught. They have raised their expectations of what pupils must know to be able to read well. 15–16 January 2020

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Visiting authors and daily activities, including interventions for those pupils who need to catch up, are working well. Pupils talk about books and authors enthusiastically. They look forward to hearing their teacher read a story at the end of the school day. This includes children in the Nursery who listened most attentively to the story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ before they went home.

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Previous weaknesses in the school’s reading strategy have led to gaps in pupils’ knowledge and understanding of age-appropriate vocabulary. This still hinders pupils’ fluency and confidence in reading. Over recent years, leaders have been too slow to tackle this or to overcome the limited vocabulary of many children when they start in the early years.

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Leaders have introduced a daily phonics programme to ensure that pupils learn their letters and sounds, from the Nursery classes onwards. The programme does not work well for all pupils, particularly those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Teachers are not confident in checking what pupils know. Teachers’ assessments are unreliable. Consequently, expectations of pupils in lessons and reading books are sometimes mis-matched. A few staff who lead phonics sessions lack the knowledge needed to correct or guide pupils. At times, this contributes to pupils’ misconceptions and is a barrier to good learning.

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The approach for supporting pupils with SEND is not good enough. Leaders do not check that individual plans for pupils are in place or work well. Pupils with SEND do not achieve consistently well and are often overly reliant on adults for help. This is also the case for children in the early years. The new special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) and headteacher are working with the trust to improve procedures for pupils with SEND to raise their achievement.

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Pupils are keen to take on roles and responsibilities and to help in school, such as being part of the school parliament. Pupils like the new behaviour policy (‘be ready; be respectful; be safe’). There is increasing awareness of the importance of respect. However, there is still more to do to ensure that the behaviour policy is consistently applied so that all pupils feel comfortable and happy during the school day.

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There are times when pupils lack confidence, resilience or independence. This interferes with their academic, social and emotional development. It can hold some back in their readiness for the next stage in their education. However, along with Sprout, a dedicated pastoral team ensures that pupils are well cared for and are getting better at taking care of themselves. Pupils talk confidently about mental health issues and know what they need to do to stay fit and well.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Leaders and staff are determined to keep pupils safe. There is a strong culture of vigilance and safeguarding. Staff recruitment, training and induction are thorough. 15–16 January 2020

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All staff are confident and know how to refer concerns. Leaders take immediate action and work well with external partners to help pupils and families in need.

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Leaders’ and governors’ high expectations of safeguarding, including their checks and monitoring, permeate the work of the school. Pupils feel safe and trust staff.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 The school does not have an ambitious curriculum that ensures pupils acquire a good range of knowledge over time. This leads to gaps in pupils’ academic, social and emotional development. Leaders need to implement a curriculum, based on the unique context of the pupils, that prepares pupils well for the next stage of their education, including developing vocabulary.  The school does not have a robust SEND strategy. This means too many pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they could. Leaders need to ensure that every pupil with SEND receives high-quality teaching and provision which is monitored closely, including in the early years.  The school has implemented a new phonics programme. There are too many inconsistencies, particularly in the use of teachers’ assessments and staff’s subject knowledge. This leads to pupils, including those who need to catch up and those with SEND, struggling to read fluently. Leaders need to assure themselves that

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

there is a high-quality phonics programme in place for all pupils.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to find out what other parents and carers think. We use Ofsted Parent View information when deciding which schools to inspect, when to inspect them and as part of their inspection.

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How can I feed back my views?

The Department for Education has further guidance on how to complain about a school.

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How can I feed back my views?

If you are the school and you are not happy with the inspection or the report, you can complain to Ofsted .

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Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

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Further information

In the report, ‘disadvantaged pupils’ refers to those pupils who attract government pupil premium funding: pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years and pupils in care or who left care through adoption or another formal route. 15–16 January 2020

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School details

Inspection number 10111637 Type of school Primary

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School details

Date of previous inspection 11–12 June 2014

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Information about this school

 The school was judged as outstanding in 2014. This is the first inspection since that time.  The school has an early years unit. This caters for Nursery- and Reception-aged- children.

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Information about this inspection

We carried out this inspection under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. We deemed the inspection a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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Information about this inspection

 We worked with many leaders during the course of the inspection. These included: the headteacher; the English and phonics leaders; curriculum leaders (mathematics, science, history and PE); and the SENCo.  We also met with the child welfare coordinator, governors and trustees of the school. The chief executive officer, chair of the local governing body and director of education were present during a meeting with trust leaders.  We scrutinised the school’s safeguarding records, including the single central record, and evaluated the effectiveness of the school’s safeguarding procedures. 15–16 January 2020

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This involved talking to staff and pupils about their understanding of safeguarding, bullying, and health and safety.  We undertook deep dives in these subjects: reading, history, mathematics and MFL. This involved visiting lessons, talking to pupils, looking at pupils’ work and talking to teachers. On the second day, we also looked at music, PE and science.  We checked Parent View (Ofsted’s online survey) and took account of any additional letters that were sent into the team during the inspection.

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Inspection team

Stewart Gale, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Clair Harrington-Wilcox Ofsted Inspector

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Inspection team

Heather Barraclough Her Majesty’s Inspector 15–16 January 2020

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regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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