Stalham Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 29 November 2022

Pupils feel safe and are happy to come to school. They enjoy learning all the different subjects on offer to them, as well as taking part in extra activities like the Stalham Sixty, trips and having visitors into school. Every child is expected to take an active part in their learning, and they do. For instance, pupils use hand signals to show if they disagree or agree with a speaker. This encourages pupils to listen carefully. In lessons pupils behave well and show respect to each other. Pupils say that bullying sometimes happens, but that when it does, it is dealt with quickly. They know who to speak to if they are worried about anything. Pupils say that the staff really care about them. Pupils enjoy the extra responsibilities that leaders give them, such as being part of the school council, ambassadors or on the eco committee. Pupils say that this has given them confidence to speak in front of others when showing round visitors or making a speech. They feel they make a real difference in the local community, visiting the local care home or running charity events. Pupils enjoy taking part in lots of different clubs, including girls' football, quidditch and yoga.

What the school should improve

• In a few subjects, leaders have not set out sufficiently clearly the specific knowledge that pupils should learn as they progress through the curriculum. This limits teachers' ability to plan lessons that build on what pupils have learned before. Leaders should set out the important knowledge that pupils should be taught in all subjects and ensure that teachers help pupils to understand the connections between the different things that they learn.
• Although leaders have developed an approach to ensure that learning is adapted to meets the needs of all pupils, this is not yet consistently applied across all subjects and classes. As a result, there are some limits placed on learning for some pupils. Leaders should ensure that the agreed approach of scaffolding and adapting teaching is consistent, so that all pupils, where possible, reach the same curricular end points.

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