Long Itchington CofE Academy

Overview: Long Itchington CofE Academy is an inclusive school with ambition for all pupils to achieve the skills and understanding they need to succeed. However, this vision is not yet fully realised, and the school requires improvement in several areas.

Strengths:

• Pupils learn well when the curriculum is well-structured and subject leadership is developed, as seen in mathematics and history.
• Pupils appreciate the clubs on offer and the opportunities to widen their experiences, such as working with a local theatre company and learning a musical instrument.
• The school has made some positive changes to how behaviour is managed, and pupils are confident that if bullying were to happen, adults would sort it out.
• The school has developed a curriculum in the early years that fosters pupils' interests and relationships between staff and pupils are warm and caring.
• The trust has been instrumental in supporting the school to make necessary improvements.

Areas to improve:

• The phonics programme is not delivered consistently well, with some pupils not reading books matched to the sounds they know.
• In some subjects, the sequences of learning are not yet precise enough, meaning pupils do not remember or build on previous learning.
• Support for some pupils with SEND is not always as effective as it could be, with adaptations to teaching sometimes not subject-specific enough.
• Children in the early years do not consistently experience the routines and high expectations they need to prepare them fully for their next stage of education.
• The school does not manage and track patterns of poor behaviour consistently well, with learning sometimes disrupted and some pupils feeling anxious about this.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.