Penwortham Priory Academy

Overview: Penwortham Priory Academy has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection, creating an environment where pupils feel safe and happy, and achieving well in most subjects.

Strengths:

• The school fosters respectful and caring relationships with pupils, making them feel secure and valued.
• Pupils' behaviour is typically positive, with most demonstrating respect for the school's high expectations.
• The school has a strong programme that promotes pupils' wider development, including leadership roles, eco projects, and fundraising for charity.
• The school offers a rich personal, social, health and economic education curriculum, helping pupils develop a mature understanding of important topics.

Areas to improve:

• Some choices of learning activities do not support pupils to apply and develop their subject knowledge deeply enough, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.
• The identification and support for weaker readers in key stage 4 is not fully developed, hindering how well older pupils build on their reading knowledge and access the curriculum.
• A small number of pupils are not in school as often as they should be, missing valuable opportunities to develop their learning.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.