Charlton Park Academy converted to academy status in August 2012. When its predecessor, Charlton School, was last inspected by Ofsted it was judged to be satisfactory overall. All students have a statement of special educational needs; over half of the students have an autistic spectrum condition and severe learning difficulties, and have challenging behaviour as a result of these conditions. About a quarter of students have profound and multiple learning difficulties. Other groups include those with sensory, physical, and medical needs. The majority of students are boys. The proportion of students from ethnic backgrounds other than White British is well above average. The proportion of students who speak English as an additional language is above average. The proportion of students eligible for the pupil premium , which is extra funding from the government to schools, based on the numbers of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals, pupils in the care of the local authority and those from families in the armed forces, is well above average. The school provides outreach to other schools and colleagues through the Centre for MicroAssisted Communication, its own advisory service. The sixth form has an additional small class based on a local college site. A small number of students use the school’s residential provision on week days during the school terms. Each boarder has a personalised package of time and support in the residential provision. Some students attend courses off site at local colleges in animal care, information and communication technology, and horticulture for part of the school timetable. What does the school need to do to improve further? Improve the quality of teaching so that more is outstanding and raise students’ achievement by: making sure teachers always set work at the right level of difficulty, particularly for the mostable students ensuring the marking of work consistently gives students clear advice on how to improve further. Strengthen the quality of leadership and management, including in the residential provision, by: – improving the quality and use of the information collected on the effectiveness of the school’s work by summarising it more sharply and consistently, so that it is easy to identify trends, strengths and where improvements need to be made. – ensuring the quality of record keeping across the residential provision is always of a consistently high standard.