Knowle DGE Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 11 June 2024

Pupils are safe and well cared for. Typically, pupils enjoy attending school. Pupils, including students in the sixth form, work hard in lessons. Pupils understand the school rules because staff apply agreed approaches consistently. Staff and pupils form strong relationships. On occasions, when pupils get overly anxious or find it difficult to maintain self-control, staff use effective techniques to re-engage pupils in learning as soon as possible. Carefully planned social times facilitate pupils' independence, alongside developing their social skills and interactions with one another. For example, 'Lego club' on the double decker bus is a favourite for many. Outside, pupils enjoy a range of small group games. For those who need quieter lunchtimes, there are well-supervised areas inside and out. The curriculum broadens pupils' experiences well. Pupils benefit from activities like paddle boarding, theatre visits and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. Staff support pupils to grow their individual interests through art, music production and animal care, for example. Pupils learn how to manage money and how to cook. Pupils value that they can study a mix of academic and vocational curriculums. This gives them the core knowledge and skills they need to go on to study at college and for future employment.

What the school should improve

• The school's work to refine the way in which it uses assessment to find out what pupils know, remember and can do, against their EHC plans, is not complete. This means that some targets are too broad for pupils to achieve, or that teaching is not well directed to what pupils need to know next. At times, teaching does not demand enough of pupils. The school and trust must ensure that the use of assessment supports pupils to progress through the curriculum successfully and achieve highly.
• The school's work to provide a bespoke curriculum for pupils who find it difficult to attend classes with their peers or are at risk of permanent exclusion is still very new. The trust and school do not have strong enough oversight of it, so the impact of this provision is still to be fully determined. The school and trust must ensure that this provision supports pupils' successful re-integration into lessons, so they benefit from the full breadth of the curriculum.

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