St Andrew's CofE School Ofsted Report

Full report

In accordance with section 44(2) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires significant improvement, because it is performing significantly less well than it might in all the circumstances reasonably be expected to perform.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management so that:
  • leaders and governors secure rapid improvements in pupils’ outcomes leaders maintain an effective programme of monitoring teaching and learning across the curriculum, which leads to improvement in outcomes
  • pupils have access to a high-quality personal development curriculum
  • governors check closely the impact and deployment of pupil premium funding so that disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes improve.
• Improve the quality of teaching and learning by:
  • ensuring that teachers in all curriculum subjects plan learning activities that are tailored to the needs of pupils with a range of abilities
  • improving teachers’ use of questioning to deepen pupils’ understanding
  • checking pupils’ learning systematically in lessons
  • raising the standard of literacy so that pupils improve their spelling and grammar
  • using feedback to inform the development of pupils’ learning, in accordance with the school’s policy
  • reducing the differences in the rates of progress for disadvantaged pupils, boys and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) so that they make progress similar to other pupils nationally
  • making sure that teachers have consistently high expectations of pupils’ learning and what they can achieve
  • reducing the inconsistencies in teaching, particularly in science and mathematics
  • making sure that pupils are challenged and complete their work to their full potential.
• Urgently embed the changes in the school’s behaviour system to ensure that all teachers consistently address low-level disruption in lessons.
• An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium funding should be undertaken to assess how to use this to improve outcomes.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• The new headteacher has provided clear direction for the school since taking up his role. He has established a renewed culture and ethos. Pupils, staff and governors reported that the school has changed for the better because staff show more care about pupils’ learning and behaviour.
• Since the headteacher’s appointment, the standard of behaviour has improved. This is because of the introduction of a clear behaviour policy and raised expectations. The entire school community is positive about these changes. However, some teachers do not consistently apply the behaviour policy.
• Senior leaders have an accurate understanding of the school context, which is challenging as a result of significant underachievement over time. School plans are now focused on improving pupils’ outcomes.
• Until very recently, senior leaders of the school had not taken action swiftly enough to improve teaching and pupils made weak progress. Currently, systems introduced by leaders to improve accountability for pupils’ progress across the school show early evidence of impact.
• Middle leaders share the vision of the headteacher and participate in professional development activities to improve the quality of teaching in their departments. Additionally, many teachers are new to the school, and some are at an early stage of their career. There is a programme of induction for staff that aims to support improvement in pupils’ learning.
• The school provides a broad and balanced curriculum for its pupils, who are all in key stage 4. Leaders provide a range of pathways, offering academic and vocational courses to ensure that pupils’ needs are met.
• Until recently, the pupil premium funding has not been used effectively to address barriers to pupils’ learning. As a result, disadvantaged pupils have made weak progress by the end of Year 11. New leaders and managers have started to consider how to address these weaknesses but there has not been an impact on the progress of current disadvantaged pupils yet.
• Changes introduced by senior leaders are relatively recent, but emerging evidence shows that the new systems of using pupils’ performance information in lessons are beginning to have an impact. This is especially so in the quality of teaching in English and humanities.
• Senior leaders are challenging the historical culture of low aspiration across the school. For example, the headteacher has introduced the ‘excellence framework’ as a way to promote positive behaviour, linked to the school’s values of ‘ambitious, committed and selfless’. Pupils have responded well to these raised expectations.
• Over time, senior leaders have been too slow in addressing the improvement points identified in the last inspection report. New leaders have introduced changes in the school and now focus attention on improving teaching and learning. For example, teachers’ work with other schools means that assessments are more accurate.
• Leaders actively promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through a range of well-planned activities. The school provides pupils with a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities, including trips and visits to enrich their learning.
• Senior leaders ensure that newly qualified teachers are appropriately supported through their induction programme.

Governance of the school

• Since the previous inspection, governors have not provided sufficient challenge to ensure that leaders are held accountable for tackling weaknesses. A number of changes have been made to the governing board, including the appointment of a new chair of governors, since the last inspection.
• New governors have an accurate understanding of the school’s context and of the community the school serves. They bring with them experience from the fields of education and business, which they helpfully apply to their roles and responsibilities as governors.
• Governors are better equipped and placed to ask the right questions. New governors are committed to improving standards in teaching and learning. They have begun to increase accountability. Their decision to establish a three-member team to monitor the school’s performance is at an early stage of development and, while there is some evidence of change, it is too soon to evaluate the impact of this work.
• Governors have not ensured effective oversight of the use of pupil premium funding. Hence, the progress of disadvantaged pupils has lagged significantly behind that of other pupils nationally.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective and meet statutory requirements.
• Pupils informed inspectors that they feel safe at school. They understand how to keep themselves safe when outside of school and when using the internet.
• Leaders and governors have ensured that rigorous safeguarding arrangements, including for safer recruitment and the vetting of staff, are in place.
• Because of the strong safeguarding culture in the school, pupils and staff know how to report any concerns and identify risk. The procedures in place for child protection are effective. Leaders keep accurate records, make timely referrals and work well with external agencies.
• Staff and governors receive regular updates to training including for the ‘Prevent’ duty.
• School leaders have developed an ethos where pupils and staff feel safe and valued. Incidents of bullying are rare at the school but when they do occur, teachers respond promptly. A large majority of the responses from parents, staff and pupils confirm that pupils feel safe at school.
• Leaders have an accurate understanding of local risks, and they take effective action to ensure that pupils are safe. For example, the school has a robust system for checking the attendance of pupils, including pupils who attend alternative provision.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Inadequate

• Since the last inspection, leaders have failed to secure improvements in the quality of teaching. Teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve are not high enough.
• Planning does not routinely take into consideration pupils’ prior learning. This means that teaching across the school is of variable quality. Consequently, pupils make poor progress across a range of subjects. For example, pupils with SEND, disadvantaged pupils and boys continue to make insufficient progress.
• Teaching in mathematics and science is not sufficiently matched to pupils’ needs. As a result, pupils make weak progress. For example, teachers do not challenge pupils to deepen their understanding of key concepts and the work produced is of variable quality.
• Leaders have not been effective in monitoring the quality of teaching, learning and assessment over time. As a result, teachers do not provide pupils with strong teaching to build on their knowledge and understanding of previous work taught.
• Teachers’ checking of pupils’ learning often does not conform to the school’s feedback policy. Scrutiny of pupils’ work shows that teachers pay insufficient attention to improving pupils’ spelling and grammar and pupils frequently make repeated mistakes in their work.
• Although the headteacher has started to implement routines for monitoring the quality of teaching across the school, they are yet to have a sufficient impact. There remains too much variation within and between departments. Pupils have significant gaps in their knowledge because of ineffective teaching, exacerbated by high staff turnover.
• Currently, disadvantaged pupils make poor progress because there has been too little effective action by the school to meet the needs of these pupils. Governors recognise that past initiatives have not been effective in raising standards.
• A culture of high expectations has started to develop in some classes and is particularly evident when teachers apply their strong subject knowledge to motivate pupils and focus on developing their skills. When this happens, pupils are enthusiastic and make better gains in their learning.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.
• Pupils understand that there are different forms of bullying. They told inspectors that incidents of bullying are rare in the school and teachers deal with any reported bullying promptly. Pupils generally get along well with each other.
• The programme of personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education is not well organised. Teachers do not have sufficiently high expectations, appropriate resources and confidence to deliver the range of topics to be covered. As a result, pupils’ attitudes in these lessons are not positive. Teachers do not use time productively to cover themes that are important to pupils’ personal development and well-being.
• Leaders provide pupils with impartial careers advice and guidance so that they can prepare well for the next phase of their education or training.
• The school uses a well-structured assembly programme where visiting speakers address a range of topics to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Nonetheless, in the survey completed by pupils during this inspection, some pupils reported that support for their emotional and physical well-being by school leaders requires further work.
• The school provides good opportunities for pupils to take part in a mentoring programme to raise their aspirations. For example, a group of Year 11 students work as mentors to Year 7 pupils at another school.
• Leaders ensure that pupils who attend alternative provision are monitored closely to ensure that their needs are addressed. There is an appropriate level of support available through close collaborative work with external agencies to keep pupils safe from local risks.
• The school provides a range of enrichment activities, such as creative writing, drama, football and music. Pupils develop their social skills, keep healthy, and follow their interest in sports.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Pupils and teachers reported that behaviour at the school has been not been good enough over the past three years. However, since the appointment of the new headteacher, the school has introduced a new behaviour system, which pupils and staff have welcomed. The changes to the behaviour system are reflected in the newly established culture of the school. Leaders have ensured that there is a balance of rewards and sanctions to support a positive climate for learning.
• Behaviour has improved; this is reported by pupils, staff and governors. Fixed-term exclusions have increased appropriately as the revised behaviour policy has been applied and the number of serious incidents has significantly reduced. Inspectors observed some low-level disruption in lessons where teachers did not follow the behaviour policy consistently.
• Published information about pupils’ attendance shows a declining picture over time. Pupils’ attendance was below the national average, and the proportion of pupils who were persistently absent was high. The school’s information for the current academic year shows marked improvements. Attendance is now broadly at the national average and the number of pupils who are persistently absent has reduced.
• Teachers do not always challenge poor punctuality after lunch and breaktimes when some pupils are late to their lessons.
• Pupils generally follow the school’s uniform policy. They take pride in their work, presenting it well. The improvements in the pupils’ approach to their learning are due to the relentless focus of the headteacher and leaders to improve standards.

Outcomes for pupils

Inadequate

• Over the last three years, there has been a decline in standards at the school. Published information shows that progress made by the end of Year 11 has been well below the national average for the last two years.
• Disadvantaged pupils make insufficient progress. There was significant underachievement in the 2018 GCSE results for this group of pupils, when compared with the national average. Inspection evidence confirms that low standards remain evident for current pupils.
• Most-able pupils do not make strong progress. This is because teachers do not have high expectations of what pupils can achieve. For example, in mathematics and science, teachers’ planning fails to address misconceptions and promote challenge to deepen pupils’ knowledge.
• Although there are early signs of improvement in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, the strategies developed have not been implemented swiftly enough to lead to improved outcomes for current pupils.
• Pupils’ progress in books is inadequate and there are significant gaps in pupils’ learning. This is particularly the case in Year 10, where pupils make too little progress to support their preparation for GCSE examinations or the next stage in their training or education.
• The quality of work seen in pupils’ books and folders shows a high level of variability across pupil groups and subjects. The 2018 validated achievement information and the school’s assessment information for current pupils confirm that pupils with SEND and boys make inadequate progress across the curriculum.
• In a small number of subjects where teaching is effective, such as in English and humanities, current pupils make gains in their learning equivalent to their peers nationally. Too often, the teaching in mathematics and science is characterised by low expectations of pupils’ learning.
• The promotion of literacy skills across the curriculum is not of the high standard needed to support pupils in making strong gains in their reading and writing.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 101813 Croydon 10054355 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Secondary comprehensive School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Voluntary aided 11 to 16 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 235 Appropriate authority The governing board Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Lucasta Grayson Jonathan Harris 0208 686 8306 www.standhigh.net/ office@standhigh.net Date of previous inspection 1–2 November 2016

Information about this school

• St Andrew’s Church of England School is a Christian school and accepts pupils of all faiths. It is a voluntary aided school within the diocese of Southwark.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized mixed comprehensive secondary school.
• Since the last inspection, governors have decided to stop providing key stage 3 education. Only pupils in Years 10 and 11 are currently educated at the school. A high proportion of pupils join the school at times other than the usual transition points.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is higher than the national average.
• Most pupils are from minority ethnic heritages and a high proportion speaks English as an additional language.
• The proportion of pupils with SEND at the school is above the national average.
• The diocese of Southwark and Croydon local authority provide support to the school. The school works closely with other schools in the local area.
• The school uses alternative provision for a small number of pupils who attend on a permanent basis at ‘The Write Time’ and ‘Rise Education’, alternative providers in Croydon. Also, 24 pupils across Years 10 and 11 are educated for one day each week at ‘Road to Success’ alternative provision.
• The headteacher has been in post since September 2018.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited an assembly and observed teaching and learning in 40 lessons. Some observations were carried out jointly with senior leaders.
• Inspectors evaluated pupils’ work in lessons across the range of subjects and year groups. Additionally, inspectors worked with senior leaders to scrutinise samples of pupils’ work.
• Pupils’ behaviour was observed during lessons, at break and lunchtimes.
• Documentary information was evaluated. This included: the school’s self-evaluation and policies; assessment information; records relating to safeguarding, attendance, exclusion and the quality of teaching; behaviour information; and minutes of governors’ meetings.
• Inspectors held telephone conversations with alternative providers named by the school.
• Inspectors held meetings with the headteacher, senior leaders, middle leaders, newly qualified teachers, a representative from the local authority, a representative from Southwark diocese, governors and groups of pupils.
• Inspectors considered the responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire completed by 33 members of staff and by 19 pupils.
• Views of parents were considered through the eight responses on Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, as well as the six free-text comments made by parents.

Inspection team

Jeffery Quaye, lead inspector David Boyle Laurence King

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector