East Birmingham Network Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 14 January 2025

Relationships at this school are firmly rooted in mutual respect. Pupils value the positive interactions they have with teachers and each other. They are proud to belong to the school. Pupils know they are listened to and helped if they get things wrong. All pupils are greeted with a handshake from senior staff when they arrive in the morning. This helps to set the expectations for the day. As a result, behaviour in lessons and at social times is nearly always calm and focused. Pupils join the school at different times of the year. Most have experienced a disrupted education. Pupils benefit from this school's close partnership work with their home schools. Staff from both schools, as well as parents and carers, are fully involved in all decisions that are made about each individual pupil's education. This helps pupils to settle in quickly, learn to manage their behaviour more effectively and attend well. The school is determined that all pupils should achieve well. It helps pupils to be ambitious about their future. Pupils are aspirational about what they can do next. However, at times, staff prioritise their care for pupils over expectations for their academic achievement. This means that some lessons do not provide the appropriate challenge for pupils.

What the school should improve

• The curriculum is not as broad as it should be to meet the needs of pupils at the school. This means that some pupils are not being prepared for their next steps as well as they should. The trust should review the school's curriculum to make sure that it meets the needs of all pupils.
• The school does not have a systematic approach to making effective use of the information it has on pupils' learning gaps when they join the school. This means that some pupils do not get off to the best start possible. The trust should review the transition and induction arrangements for pupils to make sure they get the information they need, and act on this information quickly.
• The school does not prepare pupils for adulthood well enough. Pupils do not have the information they need to learn about potential careers, how to keep safe and how to be independent. The trust should support the school to review its personal development programme to ensure that it matches the school's high aspirations for its pupils.
• Pupils do not experience a range of wider opportunities to enrich their learning or develop their talents and interests. This means that pupils have few opportunities to enhance or extend their learning, which limits pupils' ability to do as well as they could. The trust should make sure that all pupils have access to a suitable range of experiences that enhance their education.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)