Co-op Academy Beckfield

Overview

Co-op Academy Beckfield provides a “safe, inclusive and aspirational environment” where pupils are “confident and happy.” Leaders have driven “rapid improvement” since the previous inspection, resulting in high expectations for achievement and behaviour that an increasing number of pupils now meet. The school is praised for its “ambitious curriculums” and effective support for early years and reading.

Strengths

• Pupils enjoy school, reflected in “improving attendance” and a “calm and orderly” environment described as a ‘bully free school’.
• Teachers demonstrate “secure subject knowledge” and effectively check pupil understanding in most subjects to close knowledge gaps.
• The phonics programme is taught effectively, ensuring “few pupils move into key stage 2 unable to read.”
• Staff make appropriate adaptations for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), allowing them to “access learning successfully alongside their peers.”
• The trust provides “effective support and training,” fostering a strong team approach where staff “feel valued.”

Areas to improve

• The school must improve its process for monitoring the effectiveness of provision for pupils with SEND, as current methods to measure progress against targets are “not practical.”
• Staff need support to use assessment strategies effectively in subjects like PSHE and RE, where they do not currently check if pupils are remembering what they have been taught, leading to “gaps in their knowledge.”

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective.”