St Philip Howard Catholic Voluntary Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of leadership and management by ensuring that the pupil premium strategy is highly effective in improving outcomes and attendance and reducing the incidence of exclusion of disadvantaged pupils.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, by:
  • eradicating the inconsistencies in teaching quality, particularly in science and mathematics
  • ensuring that all teachers have high expectations for what pupils can achieve, use high-quality questioning to probe and deepen pupils’ understanding, and provide them with work that is appropriately challenging and meets their needs
  • ensuring that teachers apply the whole-school assessment policy consistently well
  • ensuring that teachers check pupils’ understanding before they move learning on to the next stage.
• Improve the quality of pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare, by:
  • ensuring that the whole-school behaviour policy is consistently applied by all staff and the number of pupils excluded from school is reduced
  • ensuring that all pupils and groups of pupils attend school at least as frequently as other pupils nationally.
• Continue to improve pupils’ overall attainment and progress, particularly at key stage 4.
• Ensure that disadvantaged pupils, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and the most able make good progress from their starting points. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Leaders have worked tirelessly, often under difficult circumstances, to improve the school. Many significant issues have been addressed, including those associated with finance, staffing and with the structures required for a school to function well. Their actions have been effective and the school has improved. More is needed, however, to ensure that pupils make the progress that they should, regularly attend and are not excluded from school.
• The pupil premium strategy has not been effective. Disadvantaged pupils underachieve. Some are regularly absent from school, some are excluded from school. Recently, the leadership of the pupil premium strategy has changed. The strategy has improved. Even so, more improvement is needed in order that disadvantaged pupils succeed as they should.
• Effective performance management is now in place and leaders have used it well to improve the quality of teaching. Teachers are increasingly held closely to account to ensure that pupils progress as they should. Line management is strong. Leaders are aware of the inconsistencies in the quality of teaching and the pace of action required to address these.
• Leaders have a clear vision of how the curriculum can ensure that pupils are prepared well for the next stage in their education, employment and training. Previously, some curriculum areas were weak. This restricted the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) curriculum offer for some pupils. This issue has been addressed in some subject areas, particularly MFL. Improvements are still required in science and in aspects of mathematics.
• The programme of continuous professional development is well received by staff. Now the school has recruited permanent teaching staff, more can happen to train and to build a successful teaching team. Middle leaders, many new to the school, are overwhelmingly positive about the training received in order for them to successfully conduct their roles. Although the quality of teaching remains inconsistent, there are many signs that it is improving.
• Leaders regularly check the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. They routinely examine pupils’ work and the impact of teaching on the progress pupils make. They know well the issues for the school. They are putting in place the correct actions. The pace of some of these actions needs to further improve.
• The Year 7 literacy catch-up funding is successfully supporting those pupils in Year 7 that failed to achieve the expected standard in English in Year 6. All of these pupils have been supported well to catch up. The funding to support pupils who fail to reach the expected standard in mathematics has been less effectively deployed, but currently there are signs of its better use.
• Leaders are now ensuring that special educational needs funding is more sharply focused on ensuring that eligible pupils make the progress that they should. Previously, pupils who had SEN and/or disabilities were well supported but did not always receive the rigorous academic challenge needed.
• Leaders ensure that pupils experience a full range of experiences outside of the school day. The Catholic ethos permeates the school’s work and pupils have many opportunities to be involved in their community and to support those in need. Pupils fundraise; for example, the gratitude club raises funds for the less fortunate within the local area. A range of opportunities exist for pupils’ spiritual development, including the opportunities for some pupils to attend a retreat. The chaplaincy provision supports pupils’ personal reflection and growth, along with many opportunities for collective worship. Sport is popular and many pupils are involved in additional opportunities to compete and to enjoy keeping fit. British values are embedded in the curriculum. Pupils’ suggestions are heard and positively responded to.
• Leadership support from Nottingham Roman Catholic Diocesan Education Service (NRCDES) has had impact, particularly at times of most challenge.
• The recognised improvement ‘brand’ for the school is #TEAMSPH. After a particularly challenging time, leaders are now increasingly successful in ensuring that the community of the school are ‘on board’.

Governance of the school

• Governors have failed to ensure that the pupil premium is spent well in order that disadvantaged pupils achieve and attend as they should. They have not ensured that special educational needs funding has been spent to improve eligible pupils’ progress. Minutes of the governing body meetings do not suggest that governors have appropriately challenged senior and middle leaders on these pupils’ outcomes.
• Many governors are also directors of the St Philip Howard Catholic Voluntary Academy Trust. They have worked with the headteacher to improve the staffing, the systems and the resources of the school.
• Governors have shown a great deal of commitment. They are ambitious to ensure that the school improves.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Over the last few years, there has been much change. Relationships with some parents suffered at this time. Some of this unrest was linked to the safeguarding and welfare of pupils. Significant progress has been made. The culture of safeguarding and welfare is much improved. One hundred per cent of parents that commented on the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View, said they would recommend the school.
• Some aspects of organisational paperwork require more rigorous management. Many of these matters are administrative and do not impede the culture of safeguarding within the school or on pupils’ safety.
• Arrangements and checks associated with staff recruitment are robust. Training to ensure that all staff are well informed about safeguarding matters is strong. Those routines linked to pupils in most need are well understood. Pupil referrals of concern made by staff are quickly responded to. Leaders follow up actions to check the correct support has been received and has had the required impact.
• Leaders and teachers know pupils and their families well. The most vulnerable pupils and others in need of help receive timely and effective support. Work with external agencies is effective. Many pupils have been able to ‘turn around’ their situations because of the support received.
• Pupils told inspectors they felt safe. They said if they experienced any issues their teachers would work with them to resolve these. One pupil said, ‘There is nowhere I feel more safe than in this school.’ The vast majority of parents who responded to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View, said they believed their children were safe in school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is inconsistent. In English and in MFL, pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and the most able, make the progress they should because of expert teaching. This is not as evident in other curriculum areas, including in science.
• Teachers do not consistently apply the whole-school assessment policy. This means some pupils do not routinely receive feedback to help them improve their work. This slows the progress some pupils make.
• At times, pupils’ spelling, grammar and punctuation errors in their work are not addressed, as required by the school’s policy. Consequently, some pupils repeat their mistakes. In mathematics, some pupils’ presentation is poor; for example, pupils do not routinely use rulers to draw geometric shapes. Calculations and number work repeatedly lack precision.
• Teachers’ questioning is variable in quality and does not routinely extend pupils’ responses or deepen their thinking. Some of the most able pupils are not sufficiently challenged as a result. Where teachers use questions skilfully, pupils fully embrace the opportunity to proffer complex and interesting responses. Inspectors saw evidence of this in history and in English.
• Some teachers move learning on too quickly without checking that all pupils have secured their understanding. This means some pupils fail to have the gaps in their knowledge fully addressed. Pupils’ progress is reduced as a result.
• When teaching is most successful, pupils respond magnificently. For example, in history the teacher had effectively structured learning so pupils were fully engaged and supported to deepen their understanding of historical technical terms and concepts.
• Where learning is effective, teachers use skilfully their good subject knowledge in order to enthuse, engage and challenge pupils. For example, in Spanish planning effectively addressed the needs of all pupils in the class. All received the appropriate challenge in order to correctly use past, present and future tenses, and to recognise the conditions of use.
• Some teachers skilfully provide clear explanations. Consequently, pupils quickly grasp what is expected and proceed independently.
• Teaching assistants provide highly effective support to pupils. In many cases, their actions accelerate pupils’ progress and help them to catch up in lessons. They are an asset to the school.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• Pupils’ experiences in lessons are too inconsistent. In some lessons, pupils’ enthusiasm for learning is held back. Where teaching is effective, pupils experience success and exhibit a love of learning. In physical education, for example, pupils were enthusiastically working together to develop their trampoline skills. In food technology, pupils negotiated and shared tasks in order to produce a chocolate biscuit. They then keenly made certain their equipment and working area were cleaned and dried. However, where teaching is less effective, for example in science, pupils’ attention and enthusiasm wane.
• There is a comprehensive programme in place to educate pupils how to keep themselves safe from harm. This includes a number of assemblies and visits from external specialists. Pupils are aware of a range of topical and local issues, including those relating to radicalisation, forms of abuse and child sexual exploitation.
• A range of pupils spoken with in lessons, around school and more formally, said they felt bullying in school was rare. They said if any issues emerged, these would be dealt with quickly and effectively by their teachers. Leaders are working to better communicate the effectiveness of their work in this area with parents.

Behaviour

• Where teaching does not enthuse them, pupils lose concentration. Some become bored and spend time in lessons waiting to learn. Inspectors saw evidence of this in science and in some mathematics lessons.
• Pupils’ attendance is improving but is not yet good enough. Too many pupils are regularly absent from school. This includes disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities. Nonetheless, the proportion of disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities who are regularly absent from school is reducing.
• The number of pupils excluded from school has reduced significantly; however, the number still remains too high. The proportion of pupils whose poor behaviour needs to be addressed by internal exclusion has reduced dramatically.
• A behaviour policy is in place and is understood by pupils. Where this policy is applied consistently by teachers, pupils’ behaviour is good. Where teachers fail to apply the policy consistently well, pupils’ behaviour declines.
• Pupils arrive to lessons promptly. They settle to their work quickly. Many work cooperatively with their peers in order to check and improve their work. A true spirit of pupils’ positive collaboration permeates and learning is lively and productive.
• Expectations of pupils’ conduct and their work are increasingly being raised. Pupils are smart and wear their uniform with pride. Workbooks are treated with care. There is limited evidence of graffiti or wilful disregard of school policies.
• In the most positive examples, pupils’ work is celebrated and displays are used well to promote pupils’ learning. This is particularly the case in MFL and in English.
• The vast majority of pupils are well-mannered and show respect for their peers, their teachers and their school. During the inspection there was heavy snow and pupils’ conduct in these challenging circumstances was exemplary.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• At the end of key stage 4 in 2016 and in 2017, pupils underachieved overall. They did not attain well across the eight key subjects studied. They made less progress than other pupils nationally.
• In 2016 and in 2017, some groups of pupils did not achieve as well as they could have done at the end of key stage 4. This includes disadvantaged pupils and those who have SEN and/or disabilities and the most able.
• Although their attainment is improving, many pupils still do not achieve at as high a level as they could in science.
• A below-average proportion of the most able pupils achieve the highest grades at GCSE.
• In 2017, the proportion of pupils entered for the EBacc and achieving a pass in this qualification was lower than the national average. This was mainly due to underachievement in MFL and in science. There has been significant improvement recently. Because the quality of teaching, learning and assessment has improved in MFL, more pupils are opting for and succeeding in this subject. More pupils are, therefore, able to enter the EBacc, and more are on track to achieve this qualification.
• Leaders’ information, work in pupils’ workbooks and evidence from lesson observations indicate that, overall, current pupils are making much better progress. A greater proportion of pupils are making good progress from their starting points. Pupils achieve particularly well in key stage 3.
• More groups of pupils are beginning to achieve well from their starting points. Disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are beginning to make the progress they are required to in order to catch up with the outcomes of other pupils in the school and nationally. This is particularly the case at key stage 3.
• The vast majority of pupils who leave the school move on to education, employment or training. Leaders are aware of the destination of all pupils.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 142042 Derbyshire 10044851 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Secondary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Academy 11 to 16 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 432 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mr Martin O’Connell Mrs Louisa Morris 01457 853611 www.sph.academy info@sph.academy Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• The school is part of the St Philip Howard Catholic Voluntary Academy Trust. The trust is a single-school academy trust. The governing body is made up of directors of this trust.
• The school is sponsored by NRCDES and has received support from this sponsor, including school improvement and leadership support.
• The school is due to join the St Ralph Sherwin multi-academy trust in September 2018. This is a Nottingham Catholic Diocese multi-academy trust.
• The school sources alternative provision from NSPP Vocational Training, Glossop. Too few pupils attend this provision to report without identifying individuals.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized secondary school.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is slightly above average. Almost a third of pupils are disadvantaged. The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is lower than average and in the bottom 20% of all schools nationally.
• The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is in line with the national average.
• The vast majority of pupils are of White British heritage and very few speak English as an additional language.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards for pupils’ achievement in English and mathematics at the end of key stage 4.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited 29 lessons, some of which were seen jointly with senior leaders. During lesson observations, inspectors sampled pupils’ books and talked with pupils in order to evaluate the quality of their learning. Inspectors also made short visits to tutor time and an assembly.
• Inspectors observed the behaviour of pupils at break and lunchtime and as pupils moved around the school.
• Inspectors scrutinised, in detail, a range of pupils’ books in a range of subjects. They looked particularly at the work of the most able and disadvantaged pupils.
• Inspectors held a number of meetings with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders, the chair of the governing body and a foundation governor. A telephone conversation was held with staff from the centre which provides alternative education for pupils. The lead inspector spoke to the diocesan representative who provides school improvement support.
• Inspectors spoke with pupils in meetings, in lessons and around the school at break time.
• The inspection team looked at a wide range of the school’s documentation, including the school’s evaluation of its own performance, the school action plan, data on pupils’ attainment and progress, attendance and behaviour records, safeguarding procedures, evaluations of the quality of teaching, minutes of the governing body meetings and school improvement reports.
• Inspectors took account of 24 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and 60 responses to the online pupil questionnaire.

Inspection team

Jayne Ashman, lead inspector Annabel Bolt Clare Considine Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector