Northfield St Nicholas Primary Academy

Overview

Pupils at Northfield St Nicholas Primary Academy are described as “happy and safe,” benefiting from a curriculum designed with “high aspirations for all pupils.” The inspection highlights that leaders’ focus on helping pupils thrive is “paying dividends,” resulting in strong behaviour and effective support for those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Strengths

• Leaders have placed reading at the centre of the curriculum, ensuring books are “closely matched to their phonics knowledge” and providing “well-targeted support” for those with gaps.
• Pupils with SEND “do well at this school,” as teachers adapt learning to help them understand the “same complex curriculum as their peers.”
• Governors “hold the leaders to account exceptionally well for the standard of education” and consider staff workload closely.
• The personal development programme allows pupils to be “community-minded” through responsibilities and activities such as “sleeping under the stars.”
• Early years staff are “well-trained” and extend children’s language effectively, helping them get off to a “good start.”

Areas to improve

• Leaders must ensure all teachers have the “subject knowledge needed to teach the curriculum” and a shared understanding of how to check pupils’ knowledge, as explanations sometimes “lack clarity.”
• Leaders should ensure the curriculum broadens pupils’ awareness of culture and faith, as some older pupils make “inaccurate generalisations about people whose faith or culture is different to their own.”

Safeguarding

The report states that “the arrangements for safeguarding are effective,” with leaders rigorously following up concerns and ensuring staff receive regular training.