St George's Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 18 June 2024

Pupils at St George's Academy are polite and respectful. They enjoy positive relationships with the staff and value the sense of community that they feel in the school. Pupils told inspectors that they feel safe and that they trust staff to keep them safe. The school is aspirational for all. Staff encourage pupils to 'aim high'. However, in recent years, pupils in key stage 4 have not achieved as well as they should. The school has taken effective action to address this. The curriculum has been improved. The school has implemented strategies to address barriers to learning, such as poor attendance and weaker literacy. Sixth-form students achieve well in academic and vocational courses. Many leave the school to ambitious destinations. Expectations for pupils' behaviour are high. When pupils do not behave well, or when bullying happens, the school takes robust action to deal with incidents quickly and effectively. The school provides a range of extra-curricular opportunities to support pupils' wider development. These include community and charity projects. There are opportunities for pupils to pursue their talents in sport and the arts. Many pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), benefit from these opportunities.

What the school should improve

• Currently, staff do not always receive the precise information they need to support all pupils with SEND effectively. The systems in place for identifying pupils' needs, and for sharing information with staff about pupils with SEND, are not as rigorous as they need to be. As a result, some pupils do not always get the support they need to achieve as well as they could. The school needs to ensure that the needs of pupils with SEND are identified precisely and that all staff meet the needs of these pupils effectively.
• The delivery of the planned curriculum is not consistent across the school. Some lessons do not focus sharply enough on the knowledge that pupils need to learn. On occasions, pupils' misconceptions are not addressed quickly and effectively. As a result, some learning is insecure, and some pupils do not achieve as well as they should. The school needs to make sure that the curriculum is delivered consistently well by all staff so that all pupils achieve well across the curriculum.
• The school does not have robust systems in place to monitor the impact of all of the strategies it has employed to support its vision to provide a high-quality education for all. As a result, it is not always clear that these strategies are implemented as effectively or as efficiently as they might be. The school needs to ensure that it employs robust routines for monitoring the effectiveness of its work.

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