The Keystone Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 28 January 2025

Pupils' best interests lie at the heart of this caring and vibrant school. The Keystone Academy is a new school with a big heart. Pupils are safe and happy here. Pupils join at different points of their education. Many begin with negative prior experiences and interrupted learning. At the start, pupils may need immediate support with their emotions and social interactions. The staff are highly skilled and expert at supporting pupils to settle and manage their behaviours positively. Furthermore, pupils' mental health and well-being are supported effectively. Relationships across the whole school community are respectful and nurturing. Pupils hold their teachers in high regard. Pupils behave well. On some occasions when bullying occurs, this is dealt with promptly and sensitively. The school supports pupils to understand how their behaviours impact on others. Consequently, this careful approach and support leads to pupils' behaviours improving over time. The school's motto, 'be yourself, be brilliant', is promoted well. Pupils' individuality and differences are celebrated here. Pupils told inspectors how they feel valued, understood and how for some they feel for the first time that they belong somewhere. The school is highly ambitious and aspirational for what pupils can achieve.

What the school should improve

• The curriculum in the secondary phase of the school does not build coherently from the primary phase. This means that as pupils move between the two key stages, they experience disjointed education, as learning does not build on prior knowledge sufficiently well enough. The school should develop and implement a curriculum offer where pupils experience a greater coherence between the two phases of the school.
• In parts of the curriculum, particularly in the primary phase, the school does not develop some subject areas as well as others. The key knowledge, skills and vocabulary that the school want pupils to learn are not identified or sequenced in a clear and coherent way. This slows down pupils' learning of important information. The school should ensure that it identifies the specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary it wants pupils to learn and remember in each area of the curriculum.
• There is some variability in how well the school delivers the content of the curriculum. At times, some subject matter is not presented clearly or sharply enough. When this occurs, pupils are not clear about how to complete their learning activities. They do not learn some key knowledge and skills as well as they could. The school should ensure that staff have the skills and expertise to help pupils to benefit fully from the school's intended curriculum.

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