Cleadon Church of England Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

This is an outstanding school. It aims high for its pupils, knows itself exceptionally well and is effective in providing a purposeful environment in which all pupils thoroughly enjoy learning. The excellent leadership of the headteacher, ably supported by the very effective deputy headteacher, has been the key to driving change and striving for excellence.

Together, they have empowered the entire staff team to continually improve so that each and every pupil can achieve their very best. Team work is truly at the heart of this school's success. Pupils' overall achievement is outstanding.

From starting points in Reception that are broadly typical for their age, children make good progress acro...ss the Early Years Foundation Stage so that they enter Year 1 with skills and abilities that are above average. This good progress continues across Key Stages 1 and 2, accelerating further in upper Key Stage 2 so that by the end of Year 6, pupils' attainment is high. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities make outstanding progress in their learning.

This is due to the swift identification of their needs and the highly-effective support they receive from skilled staff. Pupils' personal development is excellent in all respects and they mature into extremely considerate and responsible individuals with a full appreciation of the high-quality care and support the school provides. Pupils are rightly proud of their school.

They are articulate, enthusiastic and enjoy fully everything that the school provides. As a result, they have high levels of attendance and demonstrate exemplary behaviour. The quality of teaching is consistently good and sometimes outstanding.

In the most inspiring lessons, teachers provide frequent opportunities for pupils to engage actively in their own learning through regular interaction with their peers and independent working. However, not all teachers consistently provide this level of independence to allow even greater pupil progress. In the Early Years Foundation Stage, staff do not always utilise children's interests fully to enable greater engagement in activities children choose for themselves.

Throughout the school the marking of pupils' work is frequent with evidence of best practice across the classes. However, inconsistencies between classes and subjects remain so that pupils are not always precisely aware of how their work could be improved. All aspects of leadership and management are exemplary.

The school's self-evaluation is rigorous and accurate. It forms the basis of insightful and well-focussed action-planning which indicates precisely what the school has to do to improve further. As a result, the school has made significant improvements since the last inspection.

An unrelenting focus on improvements to provision and the quality of teaching and learning has, for example, enabled the effectiveness of the Early Years Foundation Stage to improve, the curriculum to become richer and for overall pupil achievement to become outstanding. These factors and the maintenance of the highest possible levels of pupils' personal development demonstrate the school's outstanding capacity for continued improvement.

Information about the school

This is a larger than average primary school.

The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is low. The percentage of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is well below the national average, with the percentage of those with a statement of special educational needs being lower than that found nationally. Nearly all pupils are of White British heritage.

The school holds many awards including Healthy School status, the International Schools award, the information and communication technology (ICT) mark and the Activemark for its work in physical education. The school provides accommodation for a privately-managed breakfast- and after-school club which did not form part of this inspection. They will be subject to a separate inspection, the report for which will be available on the Ofsted website.

Inspection grades: 1 is outstanding, 2 is good, 3 is satisfactory and 4 is inadequate Please turn to the glossary for a description of the grades and inspection terms