Inspectors: school needs to improve

EDUCATION bosses say a Wearside school needs to do better. Ofsted inspectors said Kepier, an academy school in Houghton, requires improvement in all areas apart from the behaviour and safety of pupils which is good.

In their report the inspectors said: “Achievement requires improvement. In English and mathematics too few students make better than expected progress and some groups of students do less well than they should.

“Disabled students and those with special educational needs, and students eligible for the pupil premium, do not reach the standards they should.

“These students achieve less well than other students in the academy and less well than similar students nationally.

“Pupil premium funding is not always used effectively to support these students. The quality of teaching requires improvement because not enough is good or better and it varies too much within and across subjects.”

They said teachers do not always have high enough expectations of the progress students make, marking is not always good enough and leaders to not check teaching and progress made by students in lessons enough to raise achievement.

Inspectors said there are some subjects, including history and geography, in which teaching is consistently good or better, relationships between staff and students are generally positive and supportive and pupils feel safe.

They said: “Leaders and managers have strong ambition to improve the achievement of students. They understand where improvement is needed and are taking steps to bring this about.”

To improve further the school needs to improve teaching for all groups of students and strengthen leadership and management, including governance.