Ofsted inspectors have found Oasis Academy MediaCityUK has made good progress in some areas but improvement is still needed in achievement, curriculum and leadership.
The inspection report found that safeguarding standards had been met successfully, alongside results that displayed a marked improvement in attendance, behaviour, inclusion, personal development, and student wellbeing.
Oasis Academy had suffered leadership instability and staffing issues, which in turn led to an increase in disruptive behaviour throughout the school.
With support from the Oasis Community Learning Trust, the school had been able to refine behaviour management strategies, leading to fewer suspensions and improved behaviour.
A recent change in senior leadership had proven beneficial to the academy and work to improve the school had been accelerated across the board, including behavioural issues and curriculum modifications.
Though a great deal of progress had been made, Ofsted reported three main areas slated for improvement – achievement, curriculum, and leadership.
Pupil achievement at Oasis Academy has been significantly below average for over three years, with the percentage of pupils who achieved grade 5 or above in English and Maths GCSE coming in at nearly half that of the national average of 45%.
Ofsted inspectors identified that a potential leading cause for this issue may lie in a lack of individual support towards helping pupils develop the key literacy and numeracy skills required to progress through education soundly.
This is a citywide issue because Salford’s literacy rate comes in notably low, with 36.7% of pupils entering primary school without the required reading and literacy comprehension ability.
“Some of the work to develop pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills is still in its infancy. As such, some pupils do not develop the foundational skills in reading, writing, and mathematics that they need to access the curriculum as well as they could”, reported Ofsted.
School leaders had made strides towards countering this issue, enhancing teaching strategies to improve achievement for vulnerable pupils. However, a lack of consistent teaching across all subjects had only further contributed to gaps in pupil learning.
“Teaching across the school does not consistently emphasise the most important knowledge in each subject. As a result, at times, pupils do not develop a deep enough understanding of the subject content as they move through the curriculum,” said Ofsted.
School leaders had begun to further reinforce the support provided to pupils to secure their abilities in reading, writing, and mathematics. However, a lack of personally tailored support for students often left assistance very general and did not work to counter the specific issues that had led to the reduction in literacy and numeracy rates.
An attempt to contact the academy for a comment was made but no response was received.
To review Ofsted’s full findings on Oasis Academy’s progress and areas needing improvement, see the full report HERE.
