a school not in a category of concern of Dixons Allerton Academy

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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DRAFT - not for publication 16 June 2025

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Danny Carr Principal Dixons Allerton Academy Rhodesway Bradford West Yorkshire BD8 0DH

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Allerton Academy

This letter sets out the findings from the monitoring inspection that took place on 15 May 2025, on behalf of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. The monitoring inspection was carried out under section 8(2) of the Education Act 2005 and took place because the school meets the monitoring threshold as set out in the Monitoring Inspection Handbook .

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Allerton Academy

The purpose of a monitoring inspection is not to grade the school’s key and (where applicable) provision judgements, but to identify and report on the school’s progress. It is to highlight to the school and parents any improvements that school leaders have made since the school’s previous graded inspection.

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Allerton Academy

During the inspection, I discussed with you and other senior leaders, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the trust and trustees the actions that have been taken to improve the school since the most recent graded inspection. We discussed the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also visited a sample of lessons, met with groups of pupils, observed pupils during social times and considered the actions that the school takes to ensure that pupils are safe. I have considered all this in coming to my judgement.

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Main findings

Since the previous inspection, you have made changes to staffing in key areas of the school’s work. For example, you have appointed a new leader to oversee attendance and increased the number of staff in the attendance team. This is to provide additional capacity to improve pupils’ attendance. In addition, a new leader responsible for personal, social and health education (PSHE) took up post recently. This has helped the school to revise and improve the PSHE curriculum. You have stepped back from your wider trust role in order to secure improvements at the school. Trust leaders have supported the school with improvements to quality assurance processes.

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Main findings

You and your team have focused on improving the way that the curriculum is implemented. To achieve this, you have introduced a comprehensive system of quality assurance, professional development and coaching. This is improving the quality of teaching. In particular, you have put processes in place to encourage teachers to routinely check pupils’ knowledge and adapt their teaching when needed. This is beginning to have a positive impact. Pupils are demonstrating their recall of important knowledge increasingly well. However, questioning and lesson activities do not consistently allow pupils to think more deeply. There are too few opportunities for pupils to develop their oracy and apply their learning. You acknowledge that there is more work to do in this area.

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Main findings

Trustees are supporting you in your work to improve the school. They have a keen insight and understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. The trust has provided resources, expertise and innovative developments to help the school to make improvements. One such example is the development of the school’s ‘multiple vulnerabilities register’. This system is helping staff to have a nuanced understanding of each pupil at the school. As a result, staff are able to provide more precise support for pupils than before. This is having growing signs of impact across multiple areas of the school, including behaviour and the support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Main findings

Trust leaders have completed a thorough revision of the school’s attendance strategy. As a result, the school now challenges poor attendance at much earlier stages. This is beginning to have an impact, although overall attendance figures have not yet improved. You and your team have carried out work to help families understand the importance of regular attendance and how this links to improved outcomes in examinations. The school has developed a new community hub to build relationships with parents and carers. This is providing much-needed support for parents across education, health and social care. You have plans to develop this to strengthen links with the community further.

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Main findings

You have refined the behaviour strategy at the school. Key expectations about behaviour are regularly communicated to pupils. You provide ‘reset time’ at the start of a new term to reaffirm these expectations. Staff are well trained to recognise pupils’ social, emotional and mental health needs. They are now better placed to adapt provision accordingly. You have relaunched the school’s restorative behaviour policy to embed positive relationships between staff and pupils. These strategies are resulting in significant improvements in pupils’ behaviour. The number of suspensions and repeat suspensions have fallen substantially. There have been no permanent exclusions in the past year. Pupils describe behaviour as usually calm and positive. However, they also say that, on occasion, the poor behaviour of some pupils can disrupt their learning.

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Main findings

You have revised the PSHE curriculum. This now includes more opportunities for pupils to learn about diversity and different cultures. You have also provided additional curriculum time for pupils to explore and discuss topics in more depth. During discussions with pupils, they demonstrated their knowledge of protected characteristics and their understanding of the importance of tolerance. Leaders have undertaken work to ensure that the PSHE curriculum complements the school’s safeguarding work. Pupils are taught about dangers such as knife crime.

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Main findings

You continue to work effectively with a variety of external partners to strengthen the school’s provision. This includes work with the local authority, external counselling services and agencies. You maintain robust safeguarding arrangements. Pupils are unanimous in their view that they feel safe and trust adults at the school to support them.

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Main findings

I am copying this letter to the chair of the board of trustees, and the CEO of Dixons Academies Trust, the Department for Education’s regional director and the director of children’s services for Bradford. This letter will be published on the Ofsted reports website.

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