Stradbroke Primary Academy

Inspection of a good school: Stradbroke Primary Academy Lowestoft Road, Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk NR31 6LZ

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Outcome

Stradbroke Primary Academy continues to be a good school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Stradbroke is a friendly community, where pupils feel happy and safe. They enjoy school and can choose from a range of regular after-school activities. Pupils are also able to contribute to the life of the school through the school council and as reading ambassadors. Pupils are polite to staff and visitors. Classroom ambassadors welcome you to classes, and behaviour is positive. Surveys show that most parents would recommend the school.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders have high expectations of pupils. There are clear routines around the school, and pupils follow these. The expectations ensure that the school is a calm place, where pupils can generally learn well. Teachers encourage the children to work hard. Teachers and pupils have very positive relationships. Pupils trust adults to keep them safe and help them to learn.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils say that bullying happens, but it is rare. The school is a community where pupils accept each other being different and they care for each other. One pupil said, ‘It’s the place I don’t want to leave.’

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What is it like to attend this school?

While most pupils make progress, this is not the case for some pupils. Pupils do not always know more as a result of their learning. They cannot always remember key information they have learned.

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

Reading is prioritised in the early years and key stage 1. In 2022, a high proportion of pupils reached the required standard in phonics by the end of Year 1. Where pupils fall behind, there is regular and specific intervention to support them. Leaders provided evidence that they are working with parents to improve the amount of home reading. However, older pupils do not make consistently strong progress at key stage 2.

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

Leaders are ambitious for all pupils. Most children achieve well, but the impact of leaders’ 2 and 3 March 2023

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planning has not yet been fully realised. Sometimes, gaps in pupils’ knowledge are not identified quickly enough. This means that pupils are sometimes not able to build on or remember what has been taught or explain what they have learned over a sequence of lessons.

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Pupils report some low-level disruption in lessons, but they say that this does not happen often. The school is a calm environment and any disruption is limited and does not affect pupils’ learning. Leaders know exactly where behaviour needs to improve and they take action to ensure this happens. Teachers know the children well and have positive conversations with them. The rewards system works effectively in promoting good behaviour.

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The support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is exceptional. Leaders have very clear plans in place for all pupils. These are regularly reviewed and action taken to ensure that support is appropriate. Leaders ensure that pupils with SEND can access all parts of the curriculum. Pupils with SEND are very well supported when joining the school in Reception. Pupils also benefit from tailored support when joining the secondary school.

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Leaders provide many opportunities for pupils to join in with enrichment activities after school. There are a wide variety of activities, including sport and cultural events. The majority of pupils attend at least one of these activities each week. Pupils are also involved with initiatives within school. Through leadership opportunities, including the school council, eco-warriors and reading ambassadors, pupils have a positive impact on the ethos of the school. Pupils’ broader development is planned into the curriculum through subjects such as geography, religious education and personal, social and health education.

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The school is well led and managed. Leaders benefit from additional support for school improvement through trust-wide specialist leads. Leaders work well with staff to ensure that issues of workload are addressed quickly. Staff report that they feel valued and that leaders take workload into account when planning assessments.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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Safeguarding

Pupils feel safe and are taught to keep themselves safe online. They know how to report concerns and feel confident that issues will be taken seriously.

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Safeguarding

Staff have a good understanding of safeguarding and use the school’s electronic reporting system well. Leaders at all levels ensure a culture of safeguarding through effective recruitment practices and regular training for staff. Safeguarding is seen as everyone’s responsibility. Leaders understand risks in the local community and work with external agencies to ensure pupils keep themselves safe outside school. Designated safeguarding leads in the school act effectively with the local authority to protect children. 2 and 3 March 2023

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Some pupils do not retain sufficient knowledge to be able to make strong progress. This is because strategies for identifying and addressing gaps are not consistently effective. Leaders should ensure that their existing curriculum specifies the key knowledge that pupils must understand and that they put in place effective strategies to support all pupils to remember this content.

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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 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 would now receive a higher or lower grade, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection, which 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.

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Background

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good in September 2017.

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How can I feed back my views?

find out what other parents and carers think. We use information from Ofsted Parent View 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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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. 2 and 3 March 2023

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School details

Website www.inspirationtrust.org/stradbrokeprimary

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School details

Dates of previous inspection 27 and 28 September 2017, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Information about this school

 The school joined the Inspiration Trust in 2014.  The school has a high proportion of pupils eligible for the pupil premium.  The school does not currently make use of alternative provision.

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Information about this inspection

 This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The inspector discussed the impact of the pandemic with leaders and has taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  The inspector met with the principal and other staff. The inspector also met online with the chief executive officer and chair of trustees.  The inspector carried out deep dives in these subjects: early reading, mathematics and geography. For each deep dive, the inspector met with subject leaders, looked at curriculum planning, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. 2 and 3 March 2023

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 To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspector spoke with staff and pupils. The inspector met with the designated safeguarding lead to review their knowledge, records and actions. The inspector also looked at safeguarding records and actions and reviewed information about the safer recruitment of staff.  The inspector met with pupils from different year groups to talk about their learning and experiences at school.  The inspector reviewed a wide range of documents provided by the school, including the school improvement plan, curriculum documentation and school policies.  There were 35 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Ofsted Parent View, and 19 free-text comments from parents.

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Inspection team

Jonathan Rockey, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 2 and 3 March 2023

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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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