The Highcrest Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 10 December 2024

This is a kind, happy and welcoming school. Parents are supportive of the school and staff are proud to work here. Pupils regularly meet the school's high expectations for behaviour. They conduct themselves well and are respectful to others, both in lessons and outside. The school provides high-quality, inclusive pastoral care. Pupils value the support and empathy shown by staff. They trust staff to provide help when needed. The school has a sharp focus on pupils' personal development. Staff provide a wide range of opportunities to broaden pupils' life experiences and nurture their talents and interests. These include trips, clubs, pupil leadership roles and one-off events based on pupil voice, such as a languages picnic. Staff ensure that there are no barriers to participation. Pupils appreciate these opportunities and participate readily. The school has high academic ambitions. The curriculum is broad and balanced. Pupils in key stage 4, and sixth-form students, study carefully chosen subjects which provide meaningful choices for the future. The school recognises that examination outcomes have not been strong enough recently. It has made changes to address this. However, the school's work to embed the most effective curriculum practice across the whole school requires more time to have their full impact.

What the school should improve

• The school's reading strategy is not yet fully embedded, particularly in its approach to supporting the weakest readers. As a result, some pupils do not catch up with their peers quickly enough and are not consistently supported to access the texts used in lessons. The school needs to continue its work to implement an effective programme to identify and address gaps for pupils who are not yet fluent readers.
• Checks on pupils' learning are not yet consistent across the curriculum. As a result, some pupils do not achieve the standards required to secure strong examination outcomes. The school should continue its work to ensure that the curriculum design and delivery enable pupils to develop increasingly strong knowledge and skills over time, leading to improved public examination results.
• The school is still embedding high-quality subject knowledge and effective curriculum implementation. As a result, teaching approaches are not yet systematically matched to the needs of pupils, which prevents some pupils from achieving the mastery and fluency they need at each stage. The school should continue its work to embed the best classroom practices across the whole curriculum. It should also ensure that quality assurance processes are applied consistently by all stakeholders.

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