King's Academy Northern Parade (Infant)

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 24 September 2024

Pupils learn well at this caring and supportive school. Strong professional relationships between both adults and pupils and between pupils permeate throughout. Pupils focus well on learning, with minimal disruption in lessons. When pupils need extra help to manage their emotions or to focus, the school provides this in a calm and caring manner. Pupils who need support for their mental health and well-being benefit from regular check-ins that help them to feel safe and secure. The school aspires for all pupils to learn the knowledge they need for future success. In the past, the school has not achieved this. This has led to poor national test results in reading, writing and mathematics. However, due to the improvements that have been made over the last two years, pupils' achievement is now much better. Pupils enjoy a range of opportunities to enhance their learning. Trips to local places of interest, such as the D-Day Story and Charles Dickens' birthplace, enable pupils to learn about their city's rich cultural heritage. Pupils' lives are enriched through trips, such as to the pantomime and to a zoo. In addition, clubs such as gardening, board games and dance develop pupils' talents and interests well.

What the school should improve

• In some subjects, the important knowledge that pupils need to learn, and the order in which they must learn it, is not identified precisely enough. When this is the case, teachers do not know what knowledge they need to check pupils understand before moving on to new learning. This means that pupils sometimes develop gaps in their understanding that are not addressed. The school needs to refine the curriculum content and sequencing further so that pupils can achieve consistently well in all subjects.
• Teachers' subject knowledge is not consistently strong. Sometimes, teachers design tasks that do not enable pupils to deepen their understanding sufficiently well. The school needs to develop teachers' subject and pedagogical knowledge so they can give pupils every opportunity to secure their knowledge across the curriculum.

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