Saint Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 17 April 2024

Staff foster positive relationships with their pupils. Most pupils are happy at the school. Pupils told inspectors that they feel safe. Staff know their pupils well and promote positive attitudes to learning. Pupils know whom they can talk to with any worries they may have. The school is ambitious for pupils to succeed. Pupils are increasingly benefiting from the improvements that the school has made to the quality of education that it provides. However, pupils learn better in some subjects than in others. This is because the curriculum is not delivered consistently well. The school has raised its expectations of how pupils behave in school. Pupils' behaviour during breaktimes and when moving between lessons is generally calm. However, there remain a small minority of pupils who misbehave in lessons and do not follow the school's behaviour policy. Pupils told inspectors that their learning is disrupted in some of their lessons. An increasing number of pupils benefit from a variety of extra-curricular activities. The school has recently improved the range of activities that pupils can attend after school. Pupils spoke enthusiastically about visits to the theatre, opportunities to participate in music and sports competitions and a variety of after-school clubs.

What the school should improve

• The curriculum is not delivered consistently well across different subjects. As a result, in some subjects, many pupils have gaps in their knowledge and understanding. This hinders how well they progress through the curriculum. The school should ensure that teachers are fully equipped to deliver curriculum content consistently well so that pupils know and remember important knowledge.
• Some teachers do not check pupils' understanding well enough. This means that pupils develop misconceptions and gaps in their knowledge which go unchecked. The school should ensure that teachers identify and address gaps in pupils' knowledge so that they can build on what they know when new learning is introduced.
• Some teachers do not adapt their delivery of the curriculum to support pupils with SEND well enough. This means that some pupils with SEND do not learn as well as they should. The school should ensure that teachers are suitably trained to support pupils with SEND to achieve well.
• A small number of pupils in each year group continue to cause disruption in lessons and around school. This is because some staff do not apply the behaviour policy consistently and effectively. As a result, other pupils are not able to learn as well as they should. The school should ensure that staff implement behaviour strategies consistently and effectively so that learning is not disrupted.
• Some pupils, including some with SEND and some who are disadvantaged, do not attend school often enough. These pupils are not accessing the full curriculum and miss out on important learning. The school should develop further its analysis of patterns of attendance and seek out different strategies to work constructively with parents and carers to overcome the barriers that stop pupils' from attending school.

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