Dumfries Academy

Overview

The inspection found that young people demonstrate school values well, creating "positive, calm and purposeful learning environments." While learning, teaching and assessment were evaluated as "good," raising attainment and achievement was judged "satisfactory." The report confirms the school has the capacity to improve, with no further visits planned.

Strengths

• Young people are "highly respectful of staff and their peers," contributing to effective learning environments.
• High quality professional learning supports staff, with the “Ready, Respond, Reflect” approach leading to "increasing engagement in learning."
• Conversations between teachers and pupils help young people understand their progress and identify how to improve across most subjects.

Areas to improve

• Senior leaders must strengthen approaches to developing a "shared understanding of standards" and improve the use of assessment data, particularly in S1-3.
• Staff should work together to increase attainment for all learners, with a particular focus on literacy and numeracy.
• Leaders should identify barriers to participation and support young people to develop skills through a "wider range of activities."

Safeguarding

Senior leaders and the local authority have worked together to take forward areas for improvement in safeguarding which "required urgent action," and they should continue to monitor and review the impact of this work over time.