Royal School for the Deaf Derby Ofsted Report

Full report

In accordance with section 13(4) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that the school no longer requires special measures.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Strengthen the effectiveness of leadership and management, by:
  • developing the role of middle leaders so they can lead improvements to the quality of teaching, particularly in key stage 2
  • checking how well the new curriculum meets the requirements of the national curriculum, particularly in key stage 2
  • ensuring that governors hold senior leaders to account for the achievement of pupils.
• Improve the quality of teaching and raise pupils’ achievements, by:
  • ensuring that teachers set work which appropriately challenges the most able pupils
  • ensuring that the new assessment system for each subject is accurately used by all staff to promote faster pupil progress
  • using the assessments of children in the early years more precisely to plan the next
  • steps of their learning increasing the number of opportunities for pupils to problem-solve and to develop pupils’ reasoning skills in mathematics.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

• Senior leaders have not yet secured consistently good teaching across the school, particularly in key stage 2. As a result, some pupils do not achieve as well as they could.
• Middle leaders have not contributed well enough to improve the quality of teaching through the school. Most are new to their roles and they have not yet checked the quality of teaching for their subject across the school. These leadership roles are underdeveloped.
• Leaders identified that the curriculum in the primary phase was not meeting the needs of pupils in all subjects. There were gaps in pupils’ knowledge, particularly in science and computing. As a result, leaders have changed the curriculum but it is too early to judge the impact of these changes.
• Leaders have not ensured that the most able pupils are being challenged well enough across the school. Consequently, this group of pupils are not achieving as well as they could.
• Senior leaders have established a positive environment for learning. They have high expectations and they are successfully improving pupils’ outcomes. Last year, pupils made good progress in key stages 4 and 5 from their starting points.
• Staff are very positive about the leadership team and feel that the school is moving forward in the right direction. All staff who responded to the staff questionnaire enjoy working at the school.
• Senior leaders accurately judge the strengths and weaknesses in teaching. They communicate their findings clearly to teachers and plan tailored support to help teachers improve their practice. Leaders then check to see if the support has had a positive impact. The new leader for the primary phase is leading by example with her teaching. Consequently, the quality of teaching is improving across the school.
• The system for the performance management of teachers is robust. Leaders gather a range of information from different sources to make their judgements. Teachers are being held to account for the progress of the pupils in their lessons.
• The school takes great care to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain and to promote pupils’ social, moral, spiritual and cultural development. Pupils are gaining a good understanding of different faiths through visiting different places. For example, pupils have visited a gurdwara and studied how the festival of Eid is celebrated to expand their knowledge and understanding of different faiths. In addition, the latest news stories are displayed around the school and discussed in lessons to ensure that pupils are aware of current affairs.
• The school offers a range of extra-curricular activities to complement the curriculum. Pupils get the opportunity to take part in theatre workshops, gardening, chess and geography clubs. In the last academic year, the school provided opportunities for pupils to take part in residential visits to the Peak District and Blackpool to help promote their independence.
• The school uses the primary physical education and sport funding well to promote pupils’ involvement in sport. The school has its own specialist sport teachers as well as using sport coaches to deliver extra-curricular programmes. This expertise has increased the staff’s confidence and skill to deliver good-quality physical education lessons.
• School leaders carefully plan how the pupil premium funding for disadvantaged pupils is allocated. Each pupil who receives support through the funding has a plan to show how the money is being spent. These plans are reviewed termly to ensure that the funding is having a positive impact. If an intervention action is not working, the school stops the programme and provides an alternative. As a result, the disadvantaged pupils made faster progress than non-disadvantaged pupils at the school from their starting points in key stage 4. The difference between the achievements of this group compared to other pupils across the school has diminished rapidly. The Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium ensured that good progress was made across key stage 3.
• The complex needs coordinator has good links with health professionals to help support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Each pupil with complex needs has an intervention plan which details the specific support allocated for each pupil. A team of professionals reviews these plans every six weeks and adjustments are made accordingly. Consequently, the school uses the special educational needs funding well. The needs of these pupils are being met through close working with several external agencies.
• Parents who spoke to the inspector were very positive about the school. They felt their children were safe at school and that communication between the school and home was very good. Parents were pleased how the school teaches their children to be safe; for example, how to stay safe online.
• Careers advice and guidance is well planned through the school. In Year 7, pupils look at particular jobs and the skills needed for those jobs. In Year 9, pupils have access to impartial careers advice through the Derby Connexions Service. Leaders promote both vocational and academic courses to meet the needs of the pupils.
• The school has received good support from the local authority. The adviser has provided many training events for staff and governors. She has conducted lesson observations with senior leaders to quality assure their judgements. As a result, the quality of senior leadership’s monitoring has improved at the school.

Governance of the school

• The governing body has made improvements to how it challenges and supports senior leaders following the last inspection. Senior leaders are held to account for the actions they have taken to improve teaching, and the school is improving. However, governors have not consistently questioned leaders about the progress of pupils at the school. Some pupils, particularly the most able and pupils in key stage 2, are not making as much progress as they could.
• The vice-chair of the governing body keeps himself up to date with the latest government guidance about safeguarding and checks the school’s safeguarding systems rigorously. He questions leaders about the actions they take and ensures that the school’s procedures for safeguarding are followed by all staff. All governors review safeguarding issues at every meeting. Consequently, safeguarding is a high priority and the school’s practice is regularly reviewed to help keep pupils safe.
• The governing body has questioned senior leaders about how they are improving the performance of teachers. Governors want to know what support has been put in place to help improve teaching and if it has been effective. Governors scrutinise the leaders’ reviews of teachers’ performance to ensure that only good performance is rewarded.
• Governors have scrutinised how the pupil premium funding is spent. They have monitored the impact of extra speech therapy, which the funding has supported, to ensure that the achievement gap between disadvantaged pupils and others is diminishing rapidly across the school.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The school has rigorous systems for safeguarding pupils. The school’s system for making referrals to external agencies is well understood by all staff. Two designated senior leaders review each case to ensure that appropriate action has been taken. Leaders take prompt action when a referral is made and record all their actions. Records are detailed, of high quality and securely stored. The school has good links with external agencies to help meet the needs of pupils.
• Staff receive regular training about safeguarding. Recent training has included an update on the latest government guidance concerning safeguarding in schools, carrying out risk assessments and completing the ‘Prevent’ duty programme to identify pupils who may be at risk of radicalisation. All staff who responded to the staff questionnaire feel that pupils are safe at school.
• Risk assessments are in place for all activities and are regularly reviewed. The process for safeguarding pupils on school visits is well understood by staff. Each pupil has a risk assessment and control measures are in put in place to reduce the level of risk.
• All the necessary checks on those working with children are completed before they start work. Recruitment files are well organised and the checks documented.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Teachers have not consistently set work to challenge the most able pupils in lessons. Questions and activities do not make the pupils problem-solve and extend their thinking well enough. Consequently, pupils in this group do not make as much progress as they could.
• In mathematics, pupils do not have enough opportunities to progress from their previous learning. Too much time is spent on completing written calculations of the same difficulty without deepening their knowledge through problem-solving or developing their reasoning skills.
• Teachers have started to use the new assessment system to judge the progress that pupils make in English and mathematics. However, this information is not used sufficiently well enough to plan activities to challenge all pupils. The school is currently writing new assessments for subjects other than English and mathematics to better judge the progress that pupils make in these subjects across the school.
• Teachers are enthusiastic and there are good relationships in the classroom between adults and pupils. Teaching assistants are deployed well and ask good questions to ensure that pupils remain focused on their learning.
• When teaching does challenge pupils, the learning is good. For example, in a Year 3 and 4 lesson pupils were challenged to read a difficult memo from the second world war. They persevered with some difficult text to extend their vocabulary and understanding of the meaning of the text. In a key stage 3 lesson, pupils were challenged to make nets for different 3D shapes. They completed the tasks with great enthusiasm and accuracy.
• Teachers regularly set homework which complements what the pupils have learned at school. The annual reports to parents are detailed and inform parents how well their child has progressed during the academic year.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils demonstrate good attitudes to learning. Secondary-aged pupils know what they have got to do to improve their work. Pupils in the primary classes were less secure about their targets.
• Pupils enjoy school and know how to keep themselves safe. Pupils learn about the potential dangers of being online as well as road safety and being aware of people they don’t know.
• Pupils are actively encouraged to participate in the organisation of the school. The school council organise the school tuck shop and the students in key stage 5 helped design their own common room.
• All pupils participate in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme to develop their independence skills. In addition, pupils participate in extra-curricular clubs such as cycling and multi-sports to develop their physical well-being.
• Incidents of bullying are low. All incidents are recorded and action taken. There were no repeated incidents of bullying involving the same pupils last year. Pupils say that bullying is rare but they know they can go to an adult if they had a problem.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils and students also conduct themselves well when they attend alternative provision.
• Pupils conduct themselves well both in lessons and at breaktimes. There are high levels of supervision at playtime. This supervision helps support pupils who have physical difficulties to participate in challenging physical activities.
• In lessons, pupils’ behaviour is mostly good. Occasionally, there is some off task behaviour which is quickly addressed by the adults in the room. School leaders closely check that the behaviour of pupils and students at alternative providers remains good.
• Pupils are keen to participate in lessons and work well with each other. Pupils in Year 11 were keen to listen to and communicate their views about Mr Hyde from reading ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’.
• The number of pupils excluded from school on a fixed term basis has reduced in recent months. The school has behavioural plans in place to support pupils and works closely with a range of external agencies to improve behaviour. Consequently, the number of repeat exclusions is very low.
• Pupils’ attendance dropped last year due to an increase in the number of unauthorised absences at the end of the summer term. No pupils were persistently absent. Leaders monitor pupils’ attendance closely and quickly follow up any concerns if they do not know where a pupil is.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Pupils do not make as much progress as they could in key stage 2 in English and mathematics. In addition, the curriculum has not been planned well enough to meet the requirements of the national curriculum in key stage 2. As a result, pupils have not made as much progress as they should have done in science and computing.
• In lessons, the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, have not been challenged well enough through the school to extend their thinking and make faster progress.
• Overall, the pupil premium funding has been used well to improve the progress of disadvantaged pupils, including in the early years. Consequently, the difference in achievement between this group of pupils and other pupils in the school has mostly diminished. Outcomes information for 2016 shows that disadvantaged pupils in key stage 2 did not make as much progress as others in the school.
• The school’s tracking information shows that pupils in key stages 1, 3 and 4 made good progress from their starting points in the last academic year.
• The school works hard to develop pupils’ language and communication skills. The staff are highly skilled and ensure that all pupils participate in their learning. Students in key stage 5 are well prepared for their next stage of further education.

Early years provision Requires improvement

• Teachers do not always use the assessment information well enough to plan the next steps of learning for all children. Consequently, the questions and tasks that the children are set do not always ensure that they all make good progress.
• The most able pupils are not challenged well enough to make faster progress. Teachers do not carefully assess what these pupils already know so they can extend their learning further.
• Leaders have ensured a caring environment for the children. The classroom and the outdoor area are well resourced and the children show good attitudes to learning. Children were enthusiastic about describing shapes.
• Good links have been established with parents and carers when children arrive at the school. Many parents bring their children to a toddler group which is organised on the school site. Good communication between the school and home is continued through open days and regular homework which complements the learning at school.
• There was only one pupil in the early years in the last academic year. The current cohort of children have made a good start in the Reception Year.
• Leaders have good links with external agencies. The school works closely with an audiologist, speech and language therapists and a physiotherapist to meet the needs of the children.
• Staff at the school have paediatric first aid training and safeguarding children is of high priority.

16 to 19 study programmes Good

• The outcomes of students in the last academic year were good. All students reached their aspirations and secured places at higher education. Most pupils secured places at colleges for vocational courses while two pupils secured places at university. Six learners were supported to pass their driving theory and practical tests.
• Careers guidance and advice is good. All students from the age of 16 have the opportunity to have work experience linked to their college course. This has impacted positively on students’ aspirations and engagement in college courses. Consequently, students achieve well and are well prepared for their next destination.
• Teachers support the students’ ability to communicate in society. In one lesson, students were taught how to ask for clarification if they didn’t understand an instruction. Students gained confidence through the lesson and were able to ask the teacher for clarification regarding her instructions.
• Leaders closely check students’ progress in English and mathematics. Last year, most students made good progress in these subjects from their starting points. However, leaders have identified the need for more students to read more widely to further develop their English skills.
• The school has good links with the off-site providers which the students attend. Teachers at the school know how well students are achieving. School staff offer both study support and emotional support to help students. The school is open three evenings a week for students to have time to complete assignments for their course. Consequently, the retention of students on courses is high.
• Systems for checking the welfare of learners when at college are secure and well understood by all staff. The students are supported in lectures by school staff.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 113044 Derby 10005377 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Special School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Gender of pupils in 16 to 19 study programmes Number of pupils on the school roll Of which, number on roll in 16 to 19 study programmes Non-maintained special 3 to 19 Mixed Mixed 116 23 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Daniel Makinde Helen Shepherd 01332 362512 www.rsdd.org.uk headteacher@rsdd.org.uk Date of previous inspection 27 February–3 March 2015

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• Following the previous inspection, the acting headteacher was promoted to be the substantive headteacher in November 2015. The two deputy headteachers and the leaders for the primary phase and Years 11 to 19 were appointed in January 2016.
• The Royal School for the Deaf Derby is a non-maintained special school for deaf children and young people aged 3 to19. Most places are funded by local authorities from across the Midlands and further afield. Children in the Nursery Year attend part time until they start full time in their Reception Year.
• The school has residential boarding provision, managed by the governing body. There are currently 19 full-time and five part-time boarders.
• All pupils have or are awaiting education, health and care plans or statements of special educational needs. Many pupils also have complex learning difficulties.
• The school provides pupils with access to learning through their preferred language which could be through British Sign Language (BSL) or English. Although some pupils use British Sign Language as their first language on entry, many have no language of communication on arrival.
• An increasing number of pupils arrive part way through their education.
• Approximately two thirds of pupils are boys.
• Just over half of pupils are known to be eligible for free school meals. This is nearly double the proportion seen nationally. The school receives additional funding, known as pupil premium, to support the education of this group of pupils. The school receives the physical education and sports funding for primary pupils.
• Some pupils in key stage 3 and 4 attend alternative provision on a part-time basis. Alternative providers include Saint Benedict Catholic Voluntary Academy in Derby, Woodlands School and Access Training.
• All sixth form students study off-site at alternative provision for some of their week, supported by staff from the school. Alternative providers include Derby College, Burton and South Derbyshire College and Access Training.

Information about this inspection

• The inspector observed parts of 22 lessons, all jointly with members of the leadership team.
• Inspectors looked at pupils’ workbooks in a range of subjects.
• Inspectors met with a group of pupils, listened to pupils read and observed pupils at breaktime.
• Meetings were held with: senior leaders; the leader of English, the leader of mathematics, the early years leader, the primary phase leader, the Year 11 to 19 leader, the complex needs leader, teachers and teaching assistants. A meeting was also held with five governors, including the chair of the governing body and the vice-chair, who has responsibility for safeguarding.
• Inspectors reviewed the school’s self-evaluation and action plan. They also looked at school policies, safeguarding documents and records of behaviour.
• Inspectors spoke to some parents at the beginning of the school day.
• Inspectors took into account responses from 55 staff questionnaires.
• Inspectors were supported by British Sign Language interpreters.

Inspection team

Martin Finch, lead inspector Janis Warren

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector