Adelaide Heath Academy

Inspection of Adelaide Heath Academy Longridge, Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 8PA

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Sixth-form provision Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Previous inspection grade Not previously inspected under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

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Overall effectiveness Good

The headteacher of this school is Charlotte Cartlidge. This school is part of Manor Hall Academy Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer, Richard Redgate, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by John Fitchett. There is also an executive headteacher, Sarah Martin, who is responsible for this school and two others. 25 and 26 June 2024

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What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils and sixth-form students who attend this school have often faced considerable barriers to learning in the past. Some have missed long periods of their education. This school provides an opportunity for pupils, all of whom have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), to re-engage with learning.

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What is it like to attend this school?

Staff provide a safe and caring environment where pupils develop their self-esteem and learn to manage their own emotions. Pupils benefit from the warm, nurturing relationships that staff foster. This builds a strong sense of community and helps the school to be a calm, orderly place. Most pupils are happy here. If they should become distressed, staff are quick to provide expert support. Pupils were keen to tell inspectors how the school has helped them to improve their behaviour.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school has high expectations for what pupils can achieve. Staff are determined to prepare pupils well for their future lives. Typically, pupils achieve well. Most pupils gain the qualifications and skills that they need to successfully move on.

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What is it like to attend this school?

The school supports pupils to develop socially and culturally. For instance, pupils enjoy outdoor learning in the woodland area, where they build their independence and self-confidence. They also look forward to contributing to their community, such as by collecting for a local food bank.

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better?

The school has designed an ambitious curriculum that meets pupils’ needs, including their SEND needs, well. Pupils in key stages 2 to 4 study a broad range of academic and vocational subjects. This, alongside a comprehensive careers programme, prepares pupils well for their next steps in education, training or employment.

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better?

In most subjects, the curriculum is well thought out. The school has considered the knowledge that pupils should learn in each key stage. However, in a minority of subjects, this curriculum design is still developing. Curriculum content in these few subjects is less ambitious than in other subjects. Pupils do not learn all that is necessary to achieve highly in these subjects.

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better?

When pupils join the school, their needs are assessed thoroughly. This provides staff with detailed information about pupils’ SEND, including their social, emotional and mental health needs. Teachers are skilled in delivering learning. They choose effective ways to help each pupil to access the curriculum. In lessons, staff are quick to identify and address pupils’ misconceptions, which helps pupils to learn well.

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better?

Pupils have often spent long periods out of education. The school uses a range of supportive strategies to encourage pupils to attend more often. From very low starting points, most pupils make considerable gains in their levels of attendance over time. Despite this, some pupils’ attendance remains stubbornly low. 25 and 26 June 2024

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The school tracks pupils’ progress through the curriculum assiduously. Staff know how well pupils are learning and what knowledge they have not gained securely enough. This includes any learning that pupils have missed due to absence. At times, however, some of the strategies that staff use to remedy these gaps are not as successful as they could be. This is particularly the case for pupils who are persistently absent from school.

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In recent years, the school has opened a sixth form. This allows pupils who joined the school later on, or those whose attendance has taken longer to improve, to complete their studies. Students follow a curriculum designed to compensate for their missed key stage 4 education. This curriculum is carefully shaped around the needs of each sixth-form student. They typically benefit from this additional time at the school. Most students gain the qualifications and skills that will help them to be successful in their future lives.

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Students in the sixth form are not required to attend school full time. Their programme of study incorporates some remote learning and a regular work placement. Some students quickly develop the necessary independence to benefit from this blended approach to learning. For some other students, however, the school’s expectations are not high enough. The positive attitudes to learning that these students developed during key stage 4 sometimes regress as a result.

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The school has raised the profile of reading. Most pupils read well. They are beginning to read for pleasure more often. Staff know how to help pupils who are at the early stages of learning to read. This helps pupils who find reading difficult to catch up quickly.

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Pupils’ personal development is a priority across key stages. Pupils learn about topics such as substance misuse, healthy relationships and consent in an age- appropriate way. Staff also help pupils to engage positively with each other in a range of informal settings. For example, older pupils lead sports activities for their younger peers.

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Staff recognise that support from the trust has helped the school to move forward in recent years. Most said that the trust and the local advisory board take their views into account when making changes that affect their workload.

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 In a minority of subjects, the curriculum lacks ambition. It does not equip some pupils with the knowledge that they need for their future learning. These pupils do not develop as deep a body of knowledge as they could. The school should 25 and 26 June 2024

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refine its curriculum thinking in these subjects so that pupils learn all that they should.  Some pupils have had irregular attendance in the past, and others still do not attend school as often as they should. This creates gaps in some pupils’ knowledge over time. As a result, the depth of their learning across the curriculum is uneven. The school should ensure that staff use effective strategies to address any missed or forgotten learning so that these pupils can build knowledge cumulatively through the curriculum. The school should also bolster its efforts to help these pupils to attend school more often.  Programmes of study in the sixth form do not reflect the school’s ambition for these students. Lowered expectations mean that at times, improvements in the attendance and attitudes to learning of some pupils in key stage 4 regress when they begin Year 12. The school should ensure that its expectations of students in

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the sixth form remain high for as long as they are enrolled so that they can reach their full potential.

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How can I feed back my views?

or to 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’ is used to mean pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND); pupils who meet the definition of children in need of help and protection ; pupils receiving statutory local authority support from a social worker; and pupils who otherwise meet the criteria used for deciding the school’s pupil premium funding (this includes pupils claiming free school meals at any point in the last six years, looked after children (children in local authority care) and/or children who left care through adoption or another formal route). 25 and 26 June 2024

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School details

School category Academy special sponsor-led

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sixth form

Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Information about this school

 Adelaide Heath Academy joined Manor Hall Academy Trust in April 2021. Prior to this, its predecessor school was part of the Adelaide Academy Trust and was known as St John’s Wood Academy. When that school was last inspected by Ofsted, it was judged to be inadequate overall.  Since then, the number of pupils on roll at the school has more than doubled. The school has also increased its age range to provide education for students up to the age of 18.  The school caters for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs. All pupils have an education, health and care plan. Places at the school are commissioned by the local authority.  The school meets the requirements of the provider access legislation, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information and 25 and 26 June 2024

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engagement about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.  The school makes use of one registered alternative provision for a very small number of pupils.

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Information about this inspection

The inspectors carried out this graded inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time judgement about the quality of a school’s education provision.  This was the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Inspectors discussed the impact of the pandemic with the school and have taken that into account in their evaluation of the school.  Inspectors spoke with the executive headteacher, the headteacher, other leaders and members of staff. The lead inspector also met with the chair of trustees and separately with the chair of the local advisory board. He also spoke with a representative of the local authority and an independent consultant who works with the school.  Inspectors carried out deep dives in English, including early reading, art and design and mathematics. For each deep dive, inspectors held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke with teachers, spoke with some pupils about their learning and looked at samples of pupils’ work. Inspectors also

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Information about this inspection

discussed the curriculum in some other subjects.  Inspectors spoke with groups of pupils about their experiences at school and their views of behaviour and bullying.  At the time of this inspection, pupils in Year 11 and students in the sixth form were not on site.  Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation, including leaders’ improvement plans, minutes of local advisory board meetings and records of pupils’ behaviour and attendance.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, the inspectors reviewed the single central record; took account of the views of leaders, staff and pupils; and considered the extent to which the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.  Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted Parent View, including the free- text comments. They also considered the responses to Ofsted’s online surveys for staff and for pupils.

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Inspection team

Ben Hill, lead inspector His Majesty’s Inspector 25 and 26 June 2024

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Dawn Farrent Ofsted Inspector 25 and 26 June 2024

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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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