Ivingswood Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 21 January 2025

Pupils are proud to belong to the school. They are happy here and feel safe. Pupils talk warmly about their teachers. They like that staff are always on hand should they have any worries or concerns. Relationships are positive and warm. Pupils are really pleased with the recently improved lunchtime outdoor equipment and activities on offer. Most pupils behave sensibly and try their best in lessons. They respond well to the school's expectations for them to 'be ready, respectful and safe'. Pupils who need support to manage their emotions are supported kindly and sensitively. The school's extra-curricular clubs contribute well to pupils' enjoyment and experience of school. From yoga to sporting clubs, pupils say that there is something for everyone. Older pupils enjoy having extra responsibilities, including being peer mentors to some younger pupils. Visits to London and the pantomime hold lasting memories for many pupils. The school aspires for all pupils to achieve well and to enjoy learning. Despite this ambition, pupils do not currently benefit from a good-quality education. This is because of weaknesses in the curriculum and teaching. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) do not always get the support they need.

What the school should improve

• Teaching approaches and the curriculum are not consistently adapted well enough to meet the needs of pupils with SEND, particularly pupils with very significant needs. This means that some pupils with SEND are not achieving well enough. The trust must ensure that staff have the expertise they need to adapt learning to fully meet pupils' diverse needs.
• The school's approach to the teaching of writing is not fully effective. Too little focus is given to securing handwriting and sentence construction. Gaps in pupils' knowledge are not being systematically addressed. This means that children in early years and pupils in key stage 1 are not securing this important knowledge, and weaknesses in their writing persist into key stage 2. The trust must take effective action to strengthen the school's approaches to the teaching of writing.
• In the early years, the school has not yet identified clearly enough the knowledge children need to learn as they progress through the curriculum towards the early learning goals. This means that staff are not clear enough about children's next learning steps when they are planning activities and guiding and teaching children. As a result, children are not building well enough on what they already know. The trust needs to strengthen the school's early years curriculum and ensure that it is implemented consistently well.
• Learning activities are sometimes not well matched to what teachers intend pupils to learn. As a result, pupils are not building their knowledge securely. The trust should ensure that learning activities are more consistently and carefully designed to maximise pupils' learning and improve achievement.
• The school's strategic analysis of some aspects of its work, such as attendance and behaviour, is not sufficiently robust or precise. This means that the school does not have a clear enough strategic view of trends over time to inform its decision-making. Additionally, this limits the information the trust has to support its accountability processes. The trust needs to strengthen this aspect of its work.

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