Northern Saints Church of England Academy

Overview: Northern Saints Church of England Academy is a school where all are welcome, with a strong ethos that everyone is different, but everyone is equal. The school has a well-planned and coherent personal development programme, and pupils benefit from a broad and balanced curriculum. The school has made significant improvements in attendance and behaviour, and pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to learning.

Strengths:

• The school has a strong standard in inclusion, with leaders having high aspirations for every pupil, regardless of their starting point.
• The school has a strong standard in personal development and wellbeing, with a well-planned and coherent personal development programme that equips pupils with the knowledge they need to keep them safe in the wider community and online.
• The school has a strong standard in safeguarding, with leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfilling their specific responsibilities and having established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility.
• The school has a strong standard in mathematics, with pupils becoming proficient in calculations through being given time to practise and developing mathematical fluency.
• The school has a strong standard in leadership and governance, with trust leaders, trustees and the local academy council knowing the school well and having comprehensive oversight of the school.

Areas to improve:

• Leaders should ensure they support teachers to use assessment more effectively to identify gaps in pupils' knowledge and strengthen their learning.
• Leaders should further embed recently introduced strategies so that the gaps in pupils' foundational knowledge, for example in phonics and handwriting, are closed quickly.
• Leaders should ensure that learning activities in the early years are sufficiently challenging, enabling children to accelerate their learning.

Safeguarding: The safeguarding standards are met, with leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfilling their specific responsibilities and having established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility.