Ormiston Endeavour Academy 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?

• Improve achievement in subjects where standards lag behind by:
  • ensuring that schemes of work have suitable levels of challenge and ambition for all pupils
  • securing high-quality teaching throughout key stage 3 and key stage 4.
• Improve outcomes for pupils who are in danger of underachieving because of their reluctance to engage with the school by:
  • nurturing positive attitudes and strong self-esteem
  • raising pupils’ expectations of what they can achieve at school and in later life
  • working with parents to ensure that pupils attend well and are motivated to succeed at school
  • ensuring that individuals have the necessary academic support and guidance in their personal development.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Since the previous inspection, and particularly in the last 12 months, leadership and management at all levels have been transformed. The clear lines of accountability start with the academy trust and filter into each classroom through effective senior and middle leaders. Everyone understands their role and responsibilities, and how their performance will be judged.
• The principal has worked with remarkable energy and resilience to implement the necessary changes to staffing, including an overhaul of key leadership responsibilities. These have driven improvements in the quality of teaching and in the day-to-day life of pupils by establishing a calm, purposeful and orderly environment for learning.
• Leaders’ work to improve the quality of teaching has been highly effective. Senior leaders model their expectations, not only in the way that they interact with pupils and engage parents, but in defining excellence for all to achieve. ‘Excellence as standard’ is a suitable aspiration for all.
• The senior leadership team has skilfully galvanised staff so that teachers work hard to respond to all that is asked of them. Clear expectations have been established for every aspect of teaching, learning and assessment, for example for how teachers will plan pupils’ learning, manage pupils’ behaviour and mark their work. Leaders plan high-quality professional development for staff and use performance management effectively to improve teaching.
• Senior leaders and subject leaders have developed as a confident and cohesive team, so that proposed changes can be quickly agreed, implemented and amended. The ‘rapid improvement plans’ demonstrate this well. Improvements have been successfully introduced because staff are given detailed guidance on what is expected and instant feedback on the impact of their work. This means that staff apply agreed changes with an impressive level of consistency that was hitherto lacking.
• Leaders’ new confidence encourages a ‘can do’ attitude to solving problems, where new ideas are readily shared and trialled. This is illustrated by the introduction of the daily reading time for pupils in Years 7 and 8, and the compulsory ‘period 6’ for Year 11 pupils three days a week. Each has been successful because staff have been determined to make a success of the proposals.
• Curriculum changes give suitable breadth and balance to the diet of subjects that pupils must do, and what they can choose. Previously, the structure of the curriculum and weaknesses in certain subjects limited pupils’ GCSE choices and capped the school’s published results. All pupils in Year 9 can now follow the full range of EBacc subjects (the English Baccalaureate is a government performance measure covering five core GCSE subjects) and can opt for two modern foreign languages at GCSE, should they choose to do so.
• A good range of extra-curricular activities, including drama, sport and the Duke of Edinburgh Award, gives pupils opportunities to develop wider interests and personal qualities that build their self-confidence and skills.
• The school promotes well pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and promotes British values to reinforce pupils’ positive social and cultural attitudes. The establishment of a new school council exemplifies this well. Pupils of all ages have been keen to stand for election, to represent their peers, and have eagerly embraced the democratic process.
• The balance of opinion from the few respondents on Parent View (Ofsted’s online survey) is less positive than in most schools. The academy is working successfully to better engage parents, some of whom have negative perceptions of the school. The parent forum is developing well, attendance at parents’ evenings is increasing year-on-year and home-school communication is better. Stronger recruitment into Year 7 reflects the school’s improving status locally.
• Pupils receive clear guidance about their options for when they leave school at the age of 16, and for higher education and career options in later years. This includes a personal interview, which pupils say provides helpful and detailed advice that is suitably tailored to their individual aspirations and aptitudes. The fact that all but one of the Year 11 pupils successfully progressed into employment, training or education this year is testament to the school’s work.
• Colleges and other providers provide ample information about options if pupils choose to stay in education, but pupils say that advice on apprenticeships is not as informative. The school does not do enough with its youngest pupils to raise their aspirations. For example, pupils do not readily talk about the possibility of going to university, and some work experience placements do little to widen pupils’ career horizons.
• Leaders’ additional funding, such as the pupil premium and Year 7 catch-up funding, is allocated efficiently to maximise its impact on pupils’ progress and outcomes. Year 7 pupils who start secondary school with low standards in mathematics and English are helped to catch up quickly.
• The positive impact of pupil premium funding is demonstrated in improved results. Outcomes in 2016 for disadvantaged pupils in Year 11 showed marked improvement, compared with previous years. The progress made by most disadvantaged pupils is broadly in line with all pupils nationally, although the disengagement of a small number of individuals skewed the school’s results for this group in 2016.

Governance of the school

• Since the previous inspection, strategic leadership by the academy trust has been strong and effective.
• The combination of a school improvement board, to hold school leaders more directly to account for performance and progress, and a small interim executive board (IEB), fulfilling everyday governance responsibilities, has proved successful. The academy trust’s challenge and support have accelerated improvements and ensure that the gains can be sustained.
• Academy trust representatives, board members and governors are well informed by the briefings and progress information provided by school leaders, and are able to make well-informed decisions, based on their regular monitoring. The focus on ‘impact statements’ encourages leaders to evaluate the effectiveness and worth of planned actions and then identify ‘next steps’.
• The academy trust has provided the right level of support to bolster staffing and assist and advise the principal. The trust has developed a network between different academies in the region that enables leaders to draw on the specialist expertise of others and to explore and share new ways of working.
• Governors take full responsibility for ensuring that the school meets all safeguarding requirements. They make regular checks and undertake audits to be confident that pupils are safe.
• The local governing body has only recently been reinstated and, like its predecessor IEB, is constituted of a small group of specialists or professionals. This enables all governors to have an overview of provision and progress, but does not involve a wider range of stakeholders, such as staff and parents, in the school’s management or development.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• The school has very clear safeguarding and child protection policies. Arrangements are reviewed regularly to ensure that the school is up to date with all statutory guidance and that its procedures keep pupils safe. Suitable recruitment checks are made on new staff, and all staff are trained appropriately in safeguarding children.
• The school places suitable emphasis on ensuring that pupils’ safety and welfare are its top priority. Staff are well trained and vigilant. Close links with external agencies ensure good communication when more serious issues arise.
• Leaders and governors take safeguarding matters seriously. The school has a robust system for making and recording referrals to other agencies, and this aspect of its work is closely monitored. Record-keeping is systematic.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teaching and learning are good because teachers plan work well so that pupils with different aptitudes and abilities are suitably engaged and challenged. At the start of each day, teachers use their cross-subject planning meetings to discuss and reshape their lesson plans.
• Careful consideration is given to how the most able pupils can be stretched and how barriers to learning can be tackled. Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities benefit from teachers’ detailed planning and the targeted support from additional adults.
• Good planning gives teachers confidence to manage pupils purposefully, so that lessons can proceed apace. They use their good subject knowledge to pose questions to check pupils’ understanding and extend their learning.
• Leaders have successfully established the right conditions for learning in classrooms. Pupils are clear about what is expected of them, whether they are working independently, in pairs, in groups or as a class. Behaviour management, which was previously too variable in quality, is good.
• Recent appointments, underpinned by high-quality training and effective support, have addressed the weakness seen previously, and have established consistency in the quality of learning across all subjects.
• Assessment is systematic and effective. Teachers make good use of marking and assessment to ensure that work is pitched at the right level, that gaps in pupils’ prior learning are identified and that improvements can be guided with clear feedback to pupils. Teachers are consistent in following the school’s marking policy, which seeks to establish effective assessment without being too burdensome.
• Work in pupils’ books shows that teachers expect much of the most able pupils. However, some schemes of work, such as topics in design technology and religious education, lack suitable ambition. This means that, even if teaching is effective, there are times when pupils are not stretched to develop higher order skills or to think more deeply about what they are learning.
• Teachers are alert to opportunities to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. In physical education lessons, for example, pupils were asked to reflect on the wider benefits for society if people keep fit and healthy, and the morality of following or breaking rules in sport.
• Teachers have high expectations of the quality and quantity of work that pupils will complete. Underpinning these high expectations is a more rigorous approach to setting targets and monitoring pupils’ progress: any pupils who fall behind, have a lapse in attendance or misbehave are quickly identified and given suitable support.
• Period 6, for pupils in Year 11, is a worthwhile extension to the school day. The additional learning time gives teachers opportunities to revisit aspects of learning, particularly where there are gaps in pupils’ skills and knowledge, and extend pupils’ learning so that they can achieve the highest levels of attainment of which they are capable.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are generally polite, considerate and respectful towards visitors and each other. They are increasingly proud of their school and their own achievements, and will talk confidently about their work on display or in their books.
• Pupils say they feel safe. They acknowledge that the school’s stricter regime has had a positive impact on behaviour and welfare, and that this gives them confidence to report any concerns. For example, pupils are confident that any issues they have about bullying will be dealt with swiftly.
• Teachers take opportunities in lessons, tutor times and assemblies to teach pupils how to keep themselves safe, including when using social media. The school’s zero tolerance of the use of mobile phones reinforces its messages about school being a completely safe zone for its pupils.
• Staff are quick to challenge unacceptable or casual use of derogatory language. This helps to model mutual respect and tolerance of others.
• The school promotes pupils’ welfare very effectively and balances well the need to look after the interests of the majority, while meeting the individual needs of its most vulnerable pupils. The school provides excellent support for individual pupils who need one-to-one guidance, including support plans. In most cases, this enables pupils to reintegrate into everyday life at school and not fall too far behind.
• The school keeps a close track of any pupils who are educated elsewhere, but who remain on the school’s roll, to ensure that their welfare needs are met and that they are making progress academically and in their personal development.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils behave well in lessons and are sensible as they move around the school and when they socialise at breaktimes and lunchtimes. Suitable levels of staff supervision at key times, including the start of the day, ensure that the school is calm and orderly. Staff set the right tone when welcoming pupils and ensure that positive interactions are reinforced.
• Inspectors have seen significant improvements in pupils’ attitudes and behaviour over the last 18 months. Pupils are motivated to do well, show pride in their work and are more determined to succeed. In class, although some still lack confidence, pupils more readily express their views and seek help when they do not understand. The climate for learning is positive across the school.
• Pupils’ attitudes to learning have improved significantly since the last inspection because staff are consistent in their application of sanctions and rewards. Engaging parents, for example with phone calls home, has been helpful in this regard. Being removed from lessons is no longer a ‘badge of honour’, as it was 18 months ago, and pupils know that there will be consequences for their misdemeanours. The dramatic reduction in lesson disruption and repeat offences is evidence of the effective supervision and management of this system.
• In lessons, pupils follow instructions and settle quickly to their learning. Occasional distracted behaviour and off-task chatter are more a consequence of slow-paced teaching rather than a cause of it. If individual pupils do misbehave, they rarely attract the attention or approval of others, who get on with their own work.
• In general, pupils are punctual and attend well. The school has successfully reduced pupil absence since the previous inspection, particularly levels of persistent absenteeism. However, there are small numbers of pupils in each year group whose poor attendance remains a concern because it makes them susceptible to underachievement or vulnerable to more serious potential risks. The attendance of disadvantaged pupils is lower than that of others.
• Over the last year, there has been a sharp decrease in the number of pupils removed from lessons or subject to fixed-term exclusion. Exclusion is used appropriately to secure pupils’ safety and manage the behaviour of the most challenging pupils when all other measures have been exhausted. The permanent exclusion of a small number of pupils shows that extreme or persistent poor behaviour remains a challenge in some instances.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Results in the most recent GSCE examinations in 2016 showed a significant improvement on the poor outcomes in 2014 and 2015. Better teaching and systematic revision helped to salvage the results in 2016, but outcomes were disappointing in several subjects, including physical education, music and humanities.
• The school’s examination entry policy has, in recent years, mitigated against the school’s performance figures. The school’s EBacc results were low, partly because so few pupils opted to take a modern foreign language GCSE. Changes to the curriculum at key stage 3, including additional languages teaching, and options at key stage 4 ensure that pupils are better equipped to achieve well in this measure.
• Evidence from this inspection and previous monitoring visits confirms that pupils are making accelerated progress across all year groups, as a result of better teaching and sharper assessment. However, good achievement is not evident across the curriculum, and leaders acknowledge that previous weak teaching has left a legacy of underachievement in key subjects, particularly for older pupils.
• Prior to 2016, results for disadvantaged pupils were poor. Outcomes for disadvantaged pupils are improving, and differences between their progress and non-disadvantaged pupils nationally are reducing. Most disadvantaged pupils make the progress expected, and the most able achieve well because they are responding positively to the additional support and teachers’ higher expectations.
• A small but significant number of disadvantaged pupils struggle to meet the school’s higher expectations or take advantage of improved provision. The reasons for this continued underachievement are varied, such as poor attendance or personal health issues. Staff understand the individual barriers to pupils’ participation and achievement and work hard to address them.
• The most able pupils are making good progress because the school has successfully raised the expectations of this group, and they are well placed to benefit from better teaching and the school’s emphasis on celebrating excellence. In Year 11, for example, the most able pupils take full advantage of the additional teaching time in ‘period 6’, when they can consolidate and extend their learning.
• Standards in reading are low when pupils start school in Year 7. The daily reading initiative, started in February, has made a marked impact on reading standards of pupils in Years 7 and 8. The school’s analysis indicates that the initiative has boosted pupils’ reading standards, and that the progress made by disadvantaged pupils is particularly impressive.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make expected progress from their individual starting points.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 137674 Suffolk 10020486 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 Academy special sponsor-led 11 to 16 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 417 Appropriate authority Chair Principal Telephone number Website Email address Academy trust Jim Nixon Christine Woods 01473 464545 http://ormistonendeavouracademy.co.uk office@oeacademy.co.uk Date of previous inspection 29 January 2015

Information about this school

• There has been a significant staff turnover and leadership changes since the last inspection, including the way the academy trust holds leaders to account through governance. Following the previous inspection, the trust established an IEB, but reinstated a local governing body in July 2016. Eleven new teachers joined the school in September 2016, several as newly qualified teachers.
• The school meets the requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.
• The school is part of the Ormiston Academies Trust.
• The school is a smaller than the average-sized secondary school.
• The majority of pupils are White British.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is well above average. The proportion of pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan is below the national figure.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils supported by the pupil premium is above the national average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in English and mathematics by the end of Year 11.
• One pupil in Year 11 is educated off-site in residential provision at St Aubyn Centre, Colchester and three pupils, one in Year 10 and two in Year 9, are educated at Parkside pupil referral unit.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors carried out 24 observations, some of which were undertaken jointly with senior leaders, across all year groups and in a wide range of subjects. They also observed teachers’ lesson-planning sessions before school and visited three tutor periods.
• Inspectors held discussions with school leaders, including the principal, the senior team, subject leaders and other middle managers. They also met with five representatives from the academy trust, including Ormiston’s National Director (East), regional directors and members of the local governing body.
• A number of formal and informal discussions were held with staff, including teachers new to the school, and several groups of pupils, including representatives of the newly established school council.
• Inspectors evaluated pupils’ work in lessons and as part of an extended book scrutiny. They listened to pupils reading and talked to pupils about their work and life at school.
• Inspectors reviewed a range of school documentation including safeguarding records, case studies, attendance records, self-evaluation summaries, the school improvement plan and current assessment information.
• Inspectors took account of the views of the 49 responses on Parent View submitted over the last 18 months.
• When the school was last inspected in January 2015 it was judged to require special measures. Inspectors conducted monitoring visits in June and December 2015 and in February and June 2016 to evaluate the school’s progress.

Inspection team

Paul Brooker, lead inspector Susan Aykin Karen Kerridge Her Majesty’s Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector