Lincoln Christ's Hospital School 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?

• Reduce the remaining variations at the school, with respect particularly to:
  • the quality of teaching, learning and assessment
  • the attendance of disadvantaged pupils
  • the progress of boys.
• Ensure that all groups of students in the sixth form make consistently good progress in all subjects.
• Implement fully the outcomes of the external review of governance.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Through their concerted efforts since the last inspection, the senior and other leaders at the school have ensured a notably higher level of consistent practice throughout the school, including in the sixth form. They have set out their expectations clearly and persistently. They set aspirational targets for the achievement of the pupils.
• The leaders’ work to check on the progress of the pupils and the quality of the teaching and learning is extensive. It provides the leaders with detailed information about the school. The leaders use the information carefully and identify things that are strengths accurately and also things that need improving.
• The senior leaders seek out the views of external advisers, including from the local authority, to assist them in evaluating how well the school is doing and what needs to be better. They act successfully on what they learn.
• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment has improved substantially since the previous inspection. The leaders have introduced a range of effective ways of spreading good practice, providing professional development for the staff, and managing the performance of the staff.
• The school’s approach to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils is carefully planned and broadly based. It incorporates many activities to develop the pupils’ understanding of British values, for example, through termly themes on topics such as freedom. The impact of the work can be seen in the typically respectful attitudes demonstrated by the pupils.
• The school promotes equalities well. For example, it makes very effective use of a range of links with external bodies, such as Stonewall, the International School award, and the RE (religious education) Quality Mark, to provide the pupils with a broad range of experiences and opportunities to learn about different people and cultures. The leaders do not analyse all of the information that they collect about the pupils, in order to ensure that equalities are promoted effectively at every opportunity, for example, in relation to the operation of the school’s behaviour management systems.
• The school’s work on careers education and guidance helps the great majority of the pupils to make positive choices about what to do post-16. The work begins appropriately early. For example, the inspectors witnessed successful work with Year 8 pupils that got them thinking carefully about their futures and the choices that they will need to make. The information provided to the pupils ensures that they are aware of the range of opportunities open to them post-16, such as apprenticeships.
• Additional funding, including the pupil premium, the Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up funding, and the funding for pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities, is used in carefully considered ways. Those ways are leading to demonstrable improvements in the progress made by the groups of pupils concerned. The school is now implementing the outcomes of an external review of its use of the pupil premium, which was called for by the previous inspection.
• Some variations in the effectiveness of subject leadership are still apparent, though these are not major.

Governance of the school

• The governing body is well informed. It receives detailed information from the senior leaders about a broad range of aspects of the school’s work.
• The governing body has been involved closely with senior leaders in drawing up a ‘rapid improvement plan’ in response to the outcome from the previous inspection.
• The members of the governing body demonstrate commitment to the school.
• The governing body has begun a process of putting into practice the outcomes from an external review of governance that was called for by the last inspection. As a result, it has better working structures now that are helping the members of the governing body to understand and to focus more clearly on how to improve the school. Governors are increasingly asking more-pertinent questions, but are not yet as fully effective in both supporting and challenging the senior leaders as they need to be.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The staff are kept up to date with safeguarding matters. They undertake routine and regular training on a range of safeguarding matters.
• The staff use the school’s systems for reporting any concerns, be they seemingly small or major.
• The school works well with a broad range of agencies, for example the education welfare service, to provide effective support for pupils and families who need additional help.
• Detailed information about individual cases is kept carefully. The designated leaders have a deep knowledge of the cases.
• The school’s record of the checks carried out on the suitability of staff is maintained scrupulously.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• The teachers use information about the pupils’ learning effectively to inform their planning for lessons. As a result, the pupils mostly get work that is appropriate to their individual needs.
• The teachers’ planning for learning is good. Weak examples are still evident, but they are exceptions to the general picture.
• The teachers use their records of the pupils’ learning to work out what questions precisely to ask of individual pupils. They follow up by testing what the pupils have learned during lessons so that they can adapt the questions that they ask.
• The teachers help the pupils to understand what it is that they have learned and how to improve their work. When the school’s policy on assessment is used carefully, the teaching leads to demonstrable improvements in the pupils’ learning.
• Some less-than-effective assessment practice is still evident. When this is the case, the teachers do not respond quickly enough to what the pupils have learned. That results, for example, in individual pupils either not being challenged sufficiently, or struggling with the work. Sometimes, these pupils are among the most able and sometimes among the less able.
• The staff build the pupils’ confidence as learners well. They know the pupils well. Confidence tends to be lower among the less able pupils than others, though this is not widespread.
• The pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are supported well. As a result of the staff’s efforts, these pupils are often confident learners. They are, for example, fully able to help their teachers by stating when ‘something isn’t working for me’, as one of them told an inspector.
• Both the pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and the most able pupils are typically given suitably challenging work.
• The pupils discuss difficult and sometimes controversial topics maturely and confidently.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• The pupils are supervised well during breaks and lunchtimes. On these occasions, the pupils typically engage in civilised conversations among themselves and with the staff.
• The pupils feel safe at the school. They know which staff with whom to raise a concern, should they have one.
• The pupils are given good information about how to keep themselves safe, for example, about e-safety and the risks of sexual exploitation.
• There is little evidence of bullying and the pupils are confident that, when it happens, the staff deal with it effectively.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• The school is characterised by typically respectful relationships between the pupils and with the staff.
• The pupils learn about equalities. They are, for example, able to empathise with people who have disabilities.
• The pupils conduct themselves sensibly around the school. They respect the rather-tired accommodation. There is little evidence of litter, graffiti or wilful damage to the buildings, which are in some need of refurbishment.
• The pupils are generally well motivated towards learning, including the pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities.
• The pupils’ attendance is now broadly average. The level of persistent absence remains too high, but is improving well. Disadvantaged pupils attend less often than other groups at the school.
• The pupils are punctual to school and to lessons.
• The school’s ‘discipline for learning’ policy enables good behaviour to be recognised. It has a positive effect on the attitudes of the pupils. The pupils take care with and show pride in their work.
• The number of incidents of misbehaviour is not high. Occasionally, minor misbehaviour disrupts lessons and is not always managed effectively by the teachers.
• The levels of exclusions for serious misbehaviour have historically been high. They have reduced markedly and are now broadly average.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• The pupils made good progress in 2017. This was a very marked improvement on 2016.
• This year, the pupils have so far sustained the improved rates of progress seen in 2017.
• The disadvantaged pupils and the pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities make better progress than similar groups nationally. Currently, the pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities are making better progress than they have previously.
• There are no large-scale differences between the progress of different groups of pupils at the school. The disadvantaged pupils at Lincoln Christ’s Hospital School still do not do as well in examinations as other groups at the school.
• The proportion of pupils achieving the English baccalaureate is higher than average.
• The pupils read fluently and confidently. The pupils who struggle with reading are given effective help to improve.
• The pupils are generally well prepared for the next stage of their education. Only a few do not go on to further education, employment or training.

16 to 19 study programmes Good

• The leaders in the sixth form have notably improved the quality of teaching, assessment and learning in a short space of time. They have done this by increasing significantly the amount of effort put into checking on the quality of the students’ learning.
• The leaders have a good grasp of how well the students are doing currently. Information about how well the students are doing is used much more effectively now to bring about improvements in the quality of teaching and learning.
• The leaders are less secure in their evaluation of how the students have done in the past.
• The students are typically well motivated and able to learn independently.
• As in the main school, relationships between the staff and the students are strong. The students value the relationships greatly and remarked to the inspectors about the noticeably ‘better rapport’ on which the staff have worked since the previous inspection.
• The students value the broad and balanced curriculum offered by the sixth form. In addition to the subjects which they study, they get good opportunities to develop leadership skills and to contribute to the school community. For example, many volunteer to help around 100 Year 11 pupils on Saturday mornings with a 12-week programme to help the younger pupils with their learning.
• All of the students are offered the opportunity to undertake work experience, although they do not all do so currently.
• The students are making good progress currently. The disadvantaged students, particularly, are making better progress than previously. This is relatively recent and variations between subjects and groups of students are still apparent.
• The students on vocational courses make good progress.
• One of the factors that is helping the students to make better progress is the much-improved guidance with which they are provided by the teachers.
• Another factor contributing to the students’ current progress is the work by the staff to ensure that the students start courses for which they are appropriately qualified.
• Much of the students’ work seen by the inspectors shows high standards of presentation and attention.
• The improvements in the sixth form are evident not only in the progress being made currently by the students, but in much-improved attendance, better punctuality, and more positive attitudes towards learning.
• Simple developments, including the introduction of lanyards worn by the students and the issuing to them of privilege passes for leaving and re-entering the school, have contributed very effectively to the students feeling safe at the school.
• As with the main school, the guidance and support that they receive helps most of the students go on to higher education, or further training, or employment.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 137447 Lincolnshire 10040259 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 Secondary School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Gender of pupils in 16 to 19 study programmes Academy converter 11 to 18 Mixed Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 1,325 Of which, number on roll in 16 to 19 study programmes 291 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Kate Wilson Martin McKeown 01522 881144 www.christs-hospital.lincs.sch.uk mmckeown@lchs.eu Date of previous inspection 15–16 March 2017

Information about this school

• The school is larger than the average-sized secondary school.
• The pupils are mainly of White British heritage.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is above average.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is above average.
• The school did not meet the government floor standards in 2016.
• The school meets the Department for Education’s definition of a coasting school based on key stage 4 academic performance results in 2014–2016.

Information about this inspection

• The inspectors observed lessons throughout the school in all year groups, some with leaders from the school. They carried out other visits to classrooms to look at particular aspects of the school’s work and scrutinised examples of the pupils’ work.
• The inspectors held meetings with leaders and other staff at the school and with members of the governing body.
• They spoke with the pupils in groups, in lessons and around the school.
• The inspectors checked the 142 responses on Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View. They looked also at the results of a survey of parents’ views carried out by the school.
• The inspectors took account of the staff’s views and the pupils’ views as recorded in surveys that the school undertook.
• The inspectors looked at a range of documentation, including the school’s development plan and self-evaluation, policies and records relating to safeguarding, the school’s information about the pupils’ attendance, behaviour, attainment and progress, and other information about the work of the school and the governing body.

Inspection team

Clive Moss, lead inspector Stephen Long Kathryn Hobbs Rachel Tordoff Eddie Wilkes Clive Worrall

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector