Miltoncross Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 13 May 2025

The school provides a welcoming environment. Most pupils are happy there and feel safe. The school has high expectations for pupils' behaviour. It has improved behaviour by being clearer with pupils about how they should conduct themselves. Although more pupils are now behaving well and focusing on learning, some learning is still disrupted by a few pupils. The school also has high expectations for pupils' achievement. It enables many to study important subjects like modern foreign languages at GCSE. Improvements in the quality of education mean pupils learn more than in the past, across a wider range of subjects. Support for older pupils as they prepare for examinations has got better and pupils appreciate this. Nevertheless, improvements in the quality of education are not consistent. This means pupils do not always learn as much as they need to in order to achieve well. Pupils are well supported in learning to get on together and to be respectful of each other. They trust staff if they need help. The school does a good job in widening pupils' experiences through clubs and activities. Pupils enjoy the opportunities they have to take on leadership roles such as being 'ambassadors' and representing the school.

What the school should improve

• Sometimes, the checks on pupils' understanding in lessons do not accurately identify where there are gaps and misconceptions in pupils' learning, notably for those pupils with SEND. This means teaching does not adapt to address these gaps and misconceptions, and pupils' learning does not build securely. The school should ensure that staff have the expertise to accurately identify misconceptions in pupils' knowledge and adapt their approaches to address these.
• On occasion, the school's expected approaches to managing pupils' behaviour are not applied so that some poor behaviour goes unchallenged. This hinders these pupils' achievement and that of others. Support for staff should ensure they are more able to manage behaviour consistently.
• The school's analysis of information about pupils' attendance is not precise enough to identify early where the greatest areas of need are. This means action to tackle pupils' absence it is not as well targeted as it could be. The school should ensure that it accurately monitors its data to identify patterns in attendance and use the outcome to target its improvement work.

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