ST Columb Minor Academy has kept up its high standards after being rated as ‘good’ in its Ofsted report.

The quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management and early years provision were all adjudged to be good following the inspection on October 1 and 2. The academy’s previous Ofsted rating was good.

Lead inspector Jason Edge said: “Pupils beam with pride at being a part of this tight-knit community. Their enjoyment of school is reflected in their high attendance.

“The school has raised aspirations for its pupils. They now learn new content well. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have their needs met through skilful adaptations.

“The school has recently changed its behaviour systems. Staff and pupils understand this new approach. Pupils generally behave well throughout the day. They learn in a warm, calm and orderly environment.

“New leadership has resulted in a period of rapid, sustained improvement. Trust support has also been significant. Together, they have addressed a decline in the quality of education and pupils’ behaviour.

“There has been significant support for staff throughout this. They describe how change has been managed well. Staff feel their ideas are heard and valued.

“Teachers state that despite the changes, their workload has decreased. This has helped to create a united vision for the direction of the school.

“The school identified that the curriculum needed greater ambition. Several subjects have been redesigned.

“Pupils now learn a logically ordered and ambitious curriculum. The school has identified the specific knowledge and vocabulary pupils should know. This starts in the early years.

“Consequently, teachers know precisely what to teach. Extensive training has also supported them with their subject knowledge. Nevertheless, on some occasions, teachers do not give tasks which match the high ambition of the curriculum. When this happens, it limits what pupils learn. “

St Columb Minor Academy does have some areas where it needs to improve.

Mr Edge said: “Some subjects are relatively new and are at the early stages of embedding. Furthermore, pupils have gaps in their knowledge due to historical weaknesses in the curriculum.

“As a result, pupils have not developed a deep long-term knowledge and struggle to make links between areas of learning. The trust should ensure that it continues to embed these subjects and check how well pupils are learning them.

“On some occasions, teachers do not provide work which matches the high ambition of the curriculum intent.

“When this happens, pupils do not develop their knowledge as well as the curriculum states they should. The trust needs to support teachers to implement the curriculum well and provide work which is ambitious and builds upon what they already know.”