All Saints CofE Academy Denstone

Overview

All Saints CofE Academy Denstone continues to be a good school where pupils thrive in a calm, caring environment. Leaders maintain high expectations, fostering strong community links and promoting Christian values of love, kindness, and respect. The curriculum is well planned, ensuring pupils build knowledge year on year, though specific improvements are required in mathematics and phonics implementation.

Strengths

• Pupils enjoy school because they ‘learn lots of new things’ and benefit from a wide range of experiences through the ‘50 things before you’re 9’ programme.
• Relationships are ‘warm and caring’, with pupils feeling safe and knowing staff will resolve issues quickly.
• The curriculum is ‘well planned and sequenced’, allowing pupils to build on prior knowledge, particularly in subjects like geography.
• Early reading is a priority, with pupils developing into ‘confident, fluent readers’ through daily practice and community involvement.
• Staff morale is high, supported by effective trust training and workload sharing across the academy group.

Areas to improve

• The mathematics curriculum is not ambitious enough, meaning some pupils find work too easy and do not sufficiently develop reasoning skills.
• Leaders must ensure the new phonics scheme is fully embedded across all phases to maintain pupils’ fluency and comprehension.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, with staff receiving appropriate training and being clear on how to report concerns.