Monkwearmouth Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 15 November 2023

Monkwearmouth Academy is a rapidly improving school. The school has included a programme of 'ME time' into the curriculum each week to enable all pupils to access a wide range of opportunities. Pupils can take part in clubs such as community club, pet club and environment club, as well as sea cadets, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme and the school's football academy. Pupils follow a 'curriculum for life'. This ensures that pupils know how to stay healthy and safe. Pupils have many opportunities to develop their leadership skills. They enjoy being peer mentors, house captains, head students and members of the school council. Most pupils behave well in the school. Pupils are courteous, and they treat each other with respect. There is a culture of tolerance, and all pupils and staff have made a 'commit pledge' to challenge and report prejudicial behaviour if they see it. Pupils appreciate this commitment. The school is calm and orderly. Staff know pupils very well. As a result, pupils receive high levels of care and support. The school has recently developed its curriculum. The impact of these recent developments has not been fully realised through published examination results. Some pupils, including the most disadvantaged, do not attend school as often as they should. This is limiting their progress.

What the school should improve

• Some pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, are not attending school as often as they should. This means that these pupils have gaps in their knowledge and, for older pupils, this is preventing them from doing as well as they could in their public examinations. The school must continue to develop its strategies to support attendance, particularly for pupils who are more disadvantaged.
• In a minority of subjects, aspects of curriculum planning lack detail. This is limiting the quality and consistency of what pupils are taught in these subjects. The school must ensure that all subjects have a planned curriculum that covers the subject in depth and identifies precisely the important knowledge that pupils need to learn.
• As a result of previous curriculum limitations, there is variation in the extent to which pupils remember the most important content in some lessons. As a result, some pupils struggle to learn new content. The school must continue to develop strategies to help pupils remember important knowledge in the long term.
• Some parents, including parents of pupils with SEND, have expressed some concerns about the levels of communication with the school. This is causing some parents to feel frustrated. The school must continue to improve the ways it communicates with parents.

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