Parkside Academy

Highlights from Latest Inspection

Main findings

Parkside is an outstanding school that has improved considerably since the previous inspection. Outcomes for students are outstanding because their achievement is good and many aspects of their personal development, including feeling safe, their understanding of a healthy lifestyle, contribution to the community and behaviour, are excellent.

The vast majority of students, staff, parents and carers are very positive about all aspects of the school. The following comments illustrate well how highly the students regard their school; 'It's enjoyable and I want to come back every day' and 'We have a sense of proudness here - everyone is so polite and nice to each other.' Areas for development from the prev...ious inspection have been addressed very well.

For example, governance is now good and the sport specialism impacts well in many areas, including the students' excellent understanding of a healthy lifestyle and their contribution to the community. Large numbers of students are Sports Leaders, promoting a healthy lifestyle for pupils in nearby primary schools. Achievement at Key Stage 3 has improved and is good.

Progress in subjects where it had not been as good, such as in English and in mathematics, is improving rapidly due to very accurate self-evaluation, rigorous monitoring, and changes to the curriculum to ensure that courses are tailored much better to the needs of all students. The curriculum is outstanding, not only in this respect, but also in the wider enrichment experiences for students. The students, eagerly, told inspectors of a visit to a premier league football club where they learnt about team-building skills.

Care, guidance and support are outstanding. Students are known well as individuals and there is a strong focus on respect. This results in excellent relationships and behaviour which impact very well on learning.

The headteacher and her strong leadership team are central to the improved success of the school. Subject leadership is improving strongly. Embedding ambition and driving improvements, effectiveness of partnerships and the quality of opportunity for students are all outstanding.

Self-evaluation is rigorous, resulting in significant improvements, although the school agrees that its monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning have not always been focused clearly enough on learning or on the previous areas for development. Despite this, teaching has improved considerably and is good overall, although at present there are some inconsistencies in the quality of teaching and learning. Outstanding practice is not shared effectively enough at present.

In some lessons, there are not enough independent learning tasks or clear enough guidance for students to be able to tell if they are being successful in their learning. As a result, their attainment is not always as high or progress as fast as they might be. However, the many substantial improvements that have occurred since the previous inspection and the determined drive to be even better, based on extremely accurate self-evaluation, mean that the capacity for further improvement is outstanding.

Information about the school

Parkside is a smaller-than-average secondary school. The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is higher than average. Most students are of White British heritage and there are very few from minority ethnic backgrounds or who speak English as an additional language.

The proportion of students with special educational needs and/or disabilities is higher than average, but the proportion of students who have a statement of special educational needs is lower than average. The school is a specialist school in sport. The school has many awards, including Healthy School status and the International Award for the development of students' understanding of other cultures.