West Town Lane Academy

Overview: West Town Lane Academy has taken effective action to maintain the standards identified at the previous inspection, with a focus on refining the quality of education provided. The school has created a family, caring ethos where pupils feel secure and develop into confident and curious individuals.

Strengths:

• Clear, strategic thinking at all levels drives school improvement.
• School leaders, including governors, analyse and evaluate all aspects of the school’s work effectively.
• Teachers skilfully encourage pupils to be fully involved in their learning.
• The curriculum from Nursery onwards is designed well and checks how well pupils learn in different subjects.
• Reading is at the heart of the school’s work, with a rich reading environment and effective phonics programme.

Areas to improve:

• Some pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, who fall behind during the early stages of learning to read do not receive the additional reading support they need.
• At times, assessment information for pupils working below expectations does not identify pupils’ gaps and the precise next steps in learning they need.

Safeguarding: The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.