Rochdale Islamic Academy is a warm and friendly school. Staff forge positive relationships with pupils. This helps the school to create a caring and respectful atmosphere. Most pupils enjoy coming to school. They relish the strong friendships that they make. This helps pupils to feel a sense of belonging. Most pupils behave well. They respond well to the high expectations that staff have for their conduct. Pupils display focused and positive attitudes to their learning. As such, most classrooms are calm and purposeful. The school has high ambitions for pupils’ academic success. However, the school’s expectations for all pupils’ achievement are not entirely realised. The school has not fully addressed the weaknesses in the design and delivery of the curriculum in some subjects. This limits how well some pupils progress through the curriculum and achieve in these subjects. Pupils are encouraged to build their confidence through a broad range of extracurricular opportunities. Pupils enjoy taking up roles of responsibilities such as pupil mentors, reading leads and school councillors. This helps the school to establish a sense of community among pupils. Pupils relish opportunities to visit art galleries, theatres, museums and different places of worship. These opportunities expand pupils’ knowledge of the wider world and better prepares them for life in modern society.