Wardle Academy receives government praise

Wardle Academy

A monitoring visit to Wardle Academy was carried out by Her Majesty’s Inspector, Pippa Jackson Maitland, on Monday 20 March to determine whether effective action is being taken to deal with the areas requiring improvement.

The inspector found that senior leaders, governors and the Trust are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section five inspection in order to become a good school.

Mrs Maitland met with students and staff as well as senior leaders and members of the Governing Body and the Wardle Trust. She observed a range of different lessons, carried out a scrutiny of pupils’ work, achievement data and other school documentation.

Improvements noted in the HMI report March 2017:

• Governors now have a very clear focus on the academy's performance. Governors are ambitious for the academy and are 'dynamic' and 'strategic' in their approach.
• The academy now has 'clear lines of accountability' which ensure that staff are held to account by governors for pupils' outcomes.
• Fixed term exclusions have been significantly reduced and a much more strategic approach is being taken, which is driven by the need to protect the learning of all students.
• Pupils’ behaviour has improved and there is now a clear focus on developing good learning habits.
• All academy staff are now aware of the need for strong outcomes for SEND and disadvantaged pupils. (These were already much improved in 2016 compared to 2015 and for SEND students they were very good when compared to other schools but we recognise the need to maintain this improvement).
• Overall attendance has improved.
• There is now a 'relentless focus' on teaching and learning and the three initiatives, 'Strong starts', 'Green Pen Tasks' and 'Go Green Weeks' are all starting to have a positive impact.
• Preparation and planning for lessons is now much stronger.
• Questioning in lessons is now being used much more carefully to ‘encourage engagement, focus thinking, challenge misconceptions and deepen understanding’.
• Monitoring programmes (Book Looks, lesson drop-ins, data checks) are now more rigorous and are bringing about improvement.

The HMI Report also says that the academy should take further action to:

• Identify those pupils who have already met or exceeded their academic targets, celebrate their achievements and set new targets.
• Revise the school’s action plans so that they are succinct and have clearly defined deadlines.

Carole Fisher, Headteacher, said: “Whilst we are very pleased that the HMI Report recognises the improvements which have been made and the hard work of students, staff and governors, we are now looking forward to continuing the process so that we can provide the very best education for all our children.

"We are grateful for the support we receive from you, parent/carers, as this is vital in helping us become the best school we can possibly be.”