Harris Lowe Academy Willesden

Overview

Pupils at Harris Lowe Academy Willesden “achieve well and are prepared successfully for their next academic steps” within a culture that fosters “belonging, mutual respect and ambition.” The inspection found that the school provides a high-quality education with strong leadership, noting that pupils are “happy, make friends easily and enjoy learning.”

Strengths

• The curriculum is “ambitious and outlines clearly what pupils should learn,” with teaching that typically supports pupils to build secure knowledge, particularly in subjects like English and modern foreign languages.
• Pupils demonstrate excellent behaviour; they are “regularly focused in class and disruption to learning is rare,” with staff intervening swiftly when necessary.
• The school offers a “comprehensive careers programme” and enriching extra-curricular activities, including competitive sports and educational outings, which widen pupils’ understanding of the world.
• Sixth-form students are “guided closely to select the best subjects” and achieve well, supported by teachers with “strong subject knowledge.”
• Governance is effective, with the trust providing access to curriculum expertise and ensuring staff workload and wellbeing are mindful considerations.

Areas to improve

• The trust must ensure that pupils at the early stages of learning to read English receive sufficient support to “catch up quickly with their peers” and read with age-appropriate fluency.
• The curriculum at key stage 3 needs to be “routinely adapted to meet the needs of all pupils” to ensure they fully understand subject matter and have adequate practice to master what is taught.

Safeguarding

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