Outwood Academy Normanby

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 27 February 2024

The school has raised its expectations of what pupils can achieve. Supported by the trust, leaders have developed a broad and ambitious curriculum. The school also promotes pupils' personal development effectively. It has improved the way it prepares pupils for life in modern Britain and for their next steps in education. However, despite high expectations, the school has struggled to establish a positive and respectful culture where all pupils thrive. While many pupils do meet the school's high expectations, a significant minority of pupils show a lack of respect for both adults and their peers. They show negative attitudes to the value of good conduct and good behaviour. The behaviour of these pupils contributes to several pupils not enjoying school. The trust is supporting the school in addressing such behaviours. Low-level disruption in lessons is not tolerated and there have been recent signs of improvement in pupils' punctuality to lessons. The school has reduced the frequency of bullying and discriminatory behaviour. It deals with such behaviour with appropriate rigour. Pupils who attend regularly benefit from a well-taught curriculum. However, many pupils do not attend school regularly enough. Some of these absences are from pupils who have been suspended from school owing to their poor behaviour. This results in too many pupils not achieving well.

What the school should improve

• A significant minority of pupils show a lack of respect for adults and other pupils. They have negative attitudes to school and do not see the value of good conduct and good behaviour. This results in persistent poor behaviour from these pupils which has a negative impact on the experiences of other pupils in the school. The school should ensure that it improves the consistency with which staff implement the school's behaviour policy. More significantly, with support from the trust, it should ensure that it sustains a rigorous and central focus on improving the behaviour of those pupils who consistently fail to behave in an appropriate manner.
• Many pupils do not attend lessons regularly, owing to persistent absence, suspension from school and time spent removed from lessons within school. This means that many pupils miss out on too much of their education, develop gaps in their knowledge and do not achieve well, not least in external examinations. The school should continue to reduce the time that many pupils spend out of lessons owing to their poor behaviour and/or persistent absence.
• The school does not provide pupils with sufficient opportunity to visit places of cultural interest. This means that pupils' learning is not enriched as fully as it could be. It also means that pupils do not gain new experiences which could raise aspirations for what they can achieve. The school should ensure that it provides all pupils with a wide range of enrichment opportunities that are integrated meaningfully into the school curriculum.

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