Adderlane Academy

Inspection of a school judged good for overall effectiveness before September 2024: Adderlane Academy Adderlane Academy, Broomhill Road, Prudhoe, Northumberland NE42 5HX

p.1

Outcome

Adderlane Academy has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection.

p.1

Outcome

The headteacher of this school is Emma Potts. This school is part of WISE Academies, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is run by the chief executive officer (CEO), Zoe Carr, and overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Margaret Stephenson.

p.1

What is it like to attend this school?

Adderlane Academy provides a very warm welcome to pupils and their parents and carers. Pupils are safe and happy in school. They enjoy coming to school each day.

p.1

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils behave exceptionally well in lessons and at breaktimes. They abide by the school’s moral code by ‘speaking nicely, listening carefully, acting kindly and moving calmly’. Pupils enjoy learning. Children in the Nursery Year, for example, jump up and down with joy when singing their favourite counting rhymes.

p.1

What is it like to attend this school?

This first school has high expectations of its pupils. By the time they leave Year 4, pupils are fluent readers, possess strong writing skills and are increasingly able mathematicians. They are prepared well for the demands of middle school education.

p.1

What is it like to attend this school?

Pupils, such as the ‘well-being ambassadors’, carry out roles of responsibility in school willingly and thoughtfully. They contribute fully to the school’s calm and purposeful atmosphere for learning. Pupils’ learning is enhanced through completing 40 ‘pledges’ such as kite flying, beach combing and theatre visiting.

p.1

What is it like to attend this school?

Parents are overwhelmingly happy with the school’s provision for their children’s education. They appreciate the way in which the school recognises and supports their children’s individual talents and needs. 3 June 2025

p.1

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

In this first school, pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, achieve very well in the Year 1 phonics and the Year 4 multiplication tables screening checks. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) play a full and active part in school life. Their individual needs are met well. Pupils with SEND access the same curriculum as their peers and progress through it well.

p.2

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

The curriculum ensures that pupils’ foundational knowledge in the core subjects of English and mathematics builds sequentially from the Nursery Year to Year 4. The phonics programme is delivered with great expertise and confidence. Pupils support each other cooperatively in paired reading activities. The vast majority of pupils are fluent readers on entry to Year 2. The school ensures that pupils who fall behind in reading catch up quickly.

p.2

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

The school, working with local schools to ensure pupils are ready for their next steps, has also implemented detailed curriculum plans in non-core subject areas. Curriculums outline the essential and sequential knowledge and vocabulary the school wants pupils to learn. Sometimes, the knowledge that pupils need to learn is not given sufficient focus in lessons. When this happens, pupils find it difficult to remember the important information that they need to know.

p.2

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

The school enhances pupils’ wider development through an extensive range of well- attended extra-curricular activities, educational visits, residential stays and visitors. Educational visits start in the early years. For example, since the beginning of the academic year, the Reception Year has benefited from a theatre visit to see ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, an inter-generational visit to a care home and a walk around the local town with a pit-stop at a local café. These activities enhance pupils’ speech, language and communication skills.

p.2

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

The school prioritises pupils’ regular attendance. Staff swiftly identify and remove barriers that prevent pupils from attending well. Pupils appreciate the wide range of attendance initiatives and rewards the school provides. The school’s focus on improving attendance means that the majority of pupils now attend well.

p.2

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

Pupils are strong advocates for the school’s values and expectations. They conduct themselves well and are polite to each other, staff and visitors. Older pupils support their younger peers well. The school’s carefully constructed programme of assemblies focuses on fundamental British values, such as the rule of law, through stories. The school’s provision for pupils’ personal, social and health education is strong. Staff adapt the curriculum intelligently based on local or national issues. Pupils’ knowledge and tolerance of others from different cultures and religions are enhanced through the curriculum for religious education. Key stage 2 pupils, for example, eat a traditional ‘Passover Sedar’ meal during their work on Judaism.

p.2

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

The school evaluates its strengths and areas that require further development accurately. Governance, including the local governing body and the board of trustees, is exceptionally 3 June 2025

p.2

3

strong, well organised, skilled and knowledgeable. The trust supports and challenges the school’s work well. In this small first school, in which class teachers lead multiple subject areas, staff workload and well-being are given high priority. Staff appreciate the school’s efforts. Staff turnover is very low. Staff morale is very high.

p.3

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

p.3

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

 Occasionally, learning does not focus sufficiently on the essential knowledge that pupils need to know. As a result, pupils do not have enough opportunities to understand and remember the important information that they need to be able to use. The school should ensure that lessons and activities focus appropriately on the specific knowledge that pupils need, as set out in the school’s curriculum.

p.3

Background

Until September 2024, on a graded (section 5) inspection we gave schools an overall effectiveness grade, in addition to the key and provision judgements. Overall effectiveness grades given before September 2024 will continue to be visible on school inspection reports and on Ofsted’s website. From September 2024, graded inspections will not include an overall effectiveness grade. This school was, before September 2024, judged good for its overall effectiveness.

p.3

Background

We have now inspected the school to determine whether it has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at that previous inspection. 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’s work has improved significantly or that it may not be as strong as it was at the last inspection, then the next inspection will be a graded inspection. A graded inspection 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.

p.3

Background

This is the first ungraded inspection since we judged the school to be good for overall effectiveness in October 2019. 3 June 2025

p.3

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.

p.4

How can I feed back my views?

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

p.4

Further information

You can search for published performance information about the school.

p.4

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). 3 June 2025

p.4

School details

Dates of previous inspection 22 and 23 October 2019, under section 5 of the Education Act 2005

p.5

Information about this school

 Adderlane Academy opened on 1 December 2016. It is one of 16 schools in the WISE Academies multi-academy trust.  The school’s buildings and playground were remodelled extensively during the 2023- 2024 academic year.  The Department of Education has agreed a change in the age range of pupils to include two-year-olds. The school is planning for the first two-year-old cohort of children to be admitted in September 2025.  The school does not use any alternative provision.

p.5

Information about this inspection

 Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation about the quality of a school’s education provision. 3 June 2025

p.5

6

 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 met with the headteacher and other school leaders.  The lead inspector spoke with the trust’s CEO, the chair of the local governing body and another governor, and the chair of trustees and another trustee.  Inspectors visited a sample of lessons, looked at pupils’ work and spoke to some pupils about their learning.  To evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding, inspectors: reviewed the single central record; took account 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 evaluated a range of documentation including the school’s self-evaluation

p.6

6

and improvement plans.  The inspectors considered the views of parents and staff gathered through Ofsted’s questionnaires, including Ofsted Parent View.

p.6

Inspection team

Belita Scott, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector

p.6

Inspection team

Diane Buckle Ofsted Inspector 3 June 2025

p.6

7

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.

p.7

7

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

p.7

7

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open- government-licence/ , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.7

7

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.7

7

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.7