Five Spires Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school Senior leaders and governors have established a school with a clear ethos, 'everyone inspire, everyone aspire'. Pupils experience a breadth of opportunities and most are working at the level expected for their age. Governors are focused on continuously improving the quality of education.

As the school expands, they need to further refine their approaches to hold leaders to account. The senior leadership team is highly effective. Due to the current size of the school, middle leadership roles are yet to be fully developed.

The school is well supported by the sponsoring multi-academy trust. The quality of teaching and learning is good. Leade...rs and teachers are working together to develop consistency in the approaches to teaching.

Leaders and teachers make effective use of assessment information to help pupils make good progress. They have a clear understanding of pupils' progress in English and mathematics. However, this is not as well developed in other subject areas.

Phonics teaching is highly effective. By the end of Year 1, almost all pupils are able to use their phonics skills well to help them read. There is a strong focus on developing pupils' vocabulary and reading has a high profile.

Pupils enjoy coming to school and now rarely miss a day. They are friendly, polite and generally behave very well. Pupils are safe in school and safeguarding is effective.

Pupils know that they can trust the adults in school to help keep them safe if they have any worries. Teachers have good subject knowledge and generally have high expectations about what pupils can achieve. In some lessons, teaching is not matched closely enough to pupils' needs.

As a result, there is sometimes a lack of challenge, especially for the most able. When this happens, pupils do not make as much progress as they could. Children in the early years get off to a positive start.

Although almost all children make good progress from their individual starting points, the most able could achieve even more. Teachers and teaching assistants use skilful questioning to develop pupils' understanding. However, teaching assistants do not always make the best use of time to maximise pupils' progress.

Leaders regularly review the curriculum to ensure that it meets pupils' needs. New approaches, such as in mathematics, need time to embed fully to impact on pupils' outcomes, especially in key stage 1.

Information about this school

Five Spires Academy opened as a new academy in September 2015 to meet the increasing demand for primary school places in the south of the city of Lichfield.

It is sponsored by REAch2 Academy Trust. There are currently four classes in school, Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. When the school reaches full capacity, in September 2021, there will be one class in each year group from Reception to Year 6, in addition to the Nursery.

Nursery children attend on either a part-time or a full-time basis. Children in the Reception class attend full-time. The local governing body works with the headteacher and deputy headteacher to oversee the work of the school.

The local governing body reports to the regional governance board for the multi-academy trust which, in turn, reports to the board of trustees. The headteacher and deputy headteacher have been in post since the school opened. The majority of pupils are from White British backgrounds.

The remainder of pupils are from a range of minority ethnic backgrounds. A small number of pupils speak English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is below the national average, as is the proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan.

Very few pupils are known to be eligible for the pupil premium. The school offers breakfast and after-school clubs. The governing body manages this provision.

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