King's Meadow Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 11 February 2025

King's Meadow Academy is a rapidly improving school. Staff know pupils and their families very well. Parents and carers appreciate the care and support their children receive. It is a school that welcomes visitors and the wider community warmly. Since the previous inspection, leaders have made many positive changes. These have been timely and wide-ranging. For example, the 'well-being quad' is well resourced and is used to support pupils' mental health. The school has increased its ambitions for pupils' achievement. This is reflected in the improving curriculum. However, these changes are not fully embedded, and it is too soon to see the full impact of these changes on pupils' knowledge in the long term. Pupils know the school rules, 'be ready, respectful and safe', and they follow them closely. The school is a calm and nurturing place in which to learn and develop. It is orderly because it ensures that all pupils, including those in Reception, follow the school routines consistently. Pupils are happy and safe. The school offers pupils a range of opportunities to learn outside of the classroom. Pupils enjoy the trips and visits they experience, such as to local museums, wildlife parks and residential visits, where they learn to face different challenges.

What the school should improve

• Recent positive changes to the school's curriculum and how it is taught are not fully embedded. This means that the full impact of the curriculum has not been realised. The school should embed the curriculum and ensure that it is implemented consistently. This way, pupils can learn and remember it and make the progress through it of which they are capable.
• The school's writing curriculum is not having the impact on pupils that it should. Some pupils' achievement in writing is hindered by weaknesses in handwriting, spelling, punctuation and grammar knowledge, and this limits the effectiveness of pupils' written communication. The school should ensure that pupils' literacy skills are developed further and that pupils can use and apply fundamental writing skills accurately across the curriculum.
• Some pupils' resilience and skills to learn independently are not as developed as they could be. To an extent, this is limiting these pupils' academic and social development. The school should further develop ways to build pupils' resilience, sustained concentration and skills to learn independently, ensuring this impacts pupils' academic and social development positively.

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