Cloughwood Academy

Overview

Cloughwood Academy provides a nurturing environment where staff build strong relationships to re-engage pupils who have previously disaffected with education. The school is praised for its highly effective support for attendance, behaviour, and inclusion, creating a calm atmosphere where pupils feel safe and valued. While personal development and vocational pathways are strong, the report identifies inconsistencies in curriculum precision and phonics teaching that require refinement.

Strengths

• Leaders are "highly effective at breaking down barriers" to ensure notable improvements in attendance, even for persistently absent pupils.
• Staff are "highly skilled in nurturing pupils" to become well-behaved, with disruption to learning being rare and bullying addressed swiftly.
• The "Cloughwood profile" helps staff successfully address complex needs, ensuring pupils feel included and ready to learn.
• The personal development programme effectively raises aspirations and prepares pupils for adulthood through industry-standard vocational qualifications.
• Pupils enjoy a "calm atmosphere" and maintain positive friendships, feeling accepted for who they are.

Areas to improve

• Leaders must provide support to deliver the phonics curriculum with "greater precision" to help pupils secure reading knowledge.
• The curriculum needs refinement to be "more specific about the key knowledge" in some subjects to deepen understanding.
• Trust and leaders should check curriculum quality more closely to ensure subjects are "consistently and highly effectively taught."

Safeguarding

The safeguarding standards are met, with leaders establishing an open culture where concerns are actively identified and managed to ensure pupils feel safe.