The Archbishop Lanfranc Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Diminish remaining differences in outcomes between groups of pupils and subjects by leaders ensuring that:
  • teachers’ training develops their skills so that lessons are consistently well planned to meet disadvantaged pupils’ needs and challenge the most able pupils
  • the assessment system is embedded so that pupils’ progress information is effectively used to support their progress across the curriculum
  • careers advice and guidance strategies are refined so that all groups of pupils access suitably aspirational 16 to 19 study programmes, training or employment
  • good attendance is maintained and White British pupils’ attendance improves.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• The principal, supported by his leadership team and those responsible for governance, has established a culture within the school where pupils want to learn and expect to do well. Robust routines are in place to check teachers’ work, leaders’ actions and their impact on pupils’ performance. As a result, leaders have a precise view of the quality of education provided by this school.
• Leaders are ambitious for pupils’ future, rightly addressing all aspects of pupils’ experience of school when tackling potential barriers. These include pupils’ attendance, attitudes and preparation to learn. Leaders’ plans for development are securely informed by their evaluation of all aspects of the school’s work.
• Middle leaders are increasingly effective in holding their teams to account while year group leaders have been pivotal in improving pupils’ attendance and attitudes to learning.
• The Coloma Trust has provided effective support to the school. The executive principal and acting chief executive officer have a very firm grasp of the strengths of the school and how to support the remaining weaker areas.
• Historic challenges have been overcome in order to focus on raising standards. More pupils are now joining the school in Year 7, in part as a result of leaders’ work to establish effective links with primary schools. These links have refined leaders’ plans for the curriculum, boosting pupils’ learning in English and mathematics in Year 7 by building effectively on their primary school experiences.
• Staff turnover has been a significant challenge to improvement in the past. Leaders have been effective in raising staff morale and teachers are happy to work at the school now. Teachers reported to inspectors that they feel the school works in the best interest of its pupils. Leaders are building on this momentum by using performance management and professional development opportunities to quickly identify and remedy remaining weaknesses in teaching, learning and assessment.
• The curriculum is well planned to support pupils’ achievement on appropriate courses. Leaders’ review of the curriculum means that pupils continue to learn through a core of subjects that include religious studies and citizenship while building on pupils’ personal interests. Leaders recognise that staffing challenges have, in the past, been a barrier to providing the curriculum they would like but this is no longer the case.
• Leaders have ensured that pupils develop the skills and qualities needed to be productive members of society. The core curriculum, alongside assemblies, tutorial periods and enrichment activities, prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain.
• The pupil premium and Year 7 catch-up premium are used effectively to support disadvantaged pupils and those who start secondary school with weak literacy and numeracy skills, respectively. Governors hold leaders firmly to account for the impact of this additional funding. Strategies including additional literacy and numeracy sessions help pupils to catch up with their peers. Interventions and enrichment opportunities have improved disadvantaged pupils’ aspirations and attitudes to school.
• Leaders ensure that additional funding to support pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is used well to support those pupils. Staff understand pupils’ needs and cater for them well, both inside and outside of lessons.
• Leaders are accurate in their evaluation of the work needed to further develop the school. Leaders’ ambition and enthusiasm underpin the highly effective work they have done to improve this school and pupils’ life chances. Embedding the assessment system, reducing remaining differences in outcomes, and improving the impact of careers advice and guidance are appropriate goals to further raising standards.

Governance

• The governing body is a highly effective group who hold high ambitions for pupils’ development. Governors demonstrate the skills and capability to hold leaders to account for their work, and support the principal in ensuring that underperformance is quickly addressed. The trust supports the governors well in their role. Recruitment of new governors alongside training has developed governors’ skills and allowed them to maintain a close eye on changes within education more broadly.
• Governors’ view of the school’s performance reflects the precision and accuracy of leaders’ work. Governors know the school well, visiting regularly with specific areas of focus so that staff and pupils are aware of who they are and what they are there to do. This further refines the robustness with which leaders are held to account for pupils’ success.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders and governors have ensured that robust procedures and policies are in place that lead to prompt and effective action being taken should a concern arise. Staff are well trained and can identify potential risks including those relating to gangs, knife crime, the ‘Prevent’ duty and domestic violence. Pupils’ awareness of local risks is developed through strong links with the local police liaison officer who visits the school, and through tutorial sessions.
• Pupils told inspectors that they feel safe at school because the diversity of the school’s population is celebrated and pupils are respectful of each other’s backgrounds. Bullying is rare and swiftly dealt with should it occur. Staff and pupils are aware of the risks associated with online safety and have mechanisms in place to deal with matters arising.
• Pre-employment checks are made on all staff and accurately recorded on the school’s single central record. Staff and governors have the appropriate qualifications to perform those checks before staff start work at the school.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers uphold leaders’ expectations of what pupils can achieve during their time in school. Teachers plan lessons that recognise pupils’ needs and progress to date, shaping the activities to suit. Pupils who speak English as an additional language are particularly well catered for, reflecting leaders’ accurate identification of the needs of the different groups of pupils in the school.
• Teachers draw on their strong subject knowledge to test and probe pupils’ skills and knowledge. They ask questions that seek to challenge pupils’ preconceptions and push their learning on. In humanities and social sciences, this is particularly effective in helping pupils to draw links between their own values and those of others.
• Teachers are confident to take appropriate risks in their teaching and to address sensitive issues. This confidence builds on the strong rapport developed with their pupils. For example, in religious studies, pupils were maturely discussing different religious attitudes to the causes of evil. In citizenship, pupils were observed enjoying discussing issues including human rights and current political themes.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported by teachers and learning support assistants who receive carefully reviewed advice on how best to support pupils’ learning. Alongside improved attendance, this group of pupils are now doing better than in the past due to more refined teaching.
• The school’s assessment system has been revised in light of national changes to the curriculum. Leaders also aim to provide teachers, pupils and parents with more useful information about the progress pupils make. Consequently, teachers have a clearer idea of what pupils can and should achieve. This is helping most to challenge the most able pupils effectively. Some teachers do this less well and so some of the most able pupils do not make the progress they are capable of.
• Teachers develop strong routines so that pupils know what to expect when they enter a classroom. Those routines support productive use of time in lessons and additional interventions. Teachers typically provide feedback to pupils that helps them learn and is in line with school policy. However, in some cases, teachers do this less well.
• The needs of disadvantaged pupils are identified through teachers’ planning. The assessment system and other information helps teachers understand these needs. Teachers are developing the skills to more effectively push disadvantaged pupils on, including the most able disadvantaged pupils.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Leaders have ensured that pupils’ all-round development is as much the focus of their work to improve standards as pupils’ academic outcomes.
• Pupils have a range of opportunities to explore new ideas and develop their physical and social skills. Pupils’ mental health is a key priority in teachers’ work through tutorial time activities that also include learning about contemporary issues and provide time for reading.
• Pupils are confident when talking with adults and respectful of the views of others. Bullying is rare and pupils told inspectors that the school feels like a safe place to come and learn. Pupils feel that teachers are there for them and want them to do their best.
• Pupils’ attendance overall has been in line with the average for the past few years. Persistent absence of some groups, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, has been weaker. Strategies to address the barriers to better attendance of those groups have resulted in much improved attitudes to learning, including through developing links with pupils’ families. Enrichment activities linked to good behaviour and attendance serve as effective incentives, raising the attendance of disadvantaged pupils in particular.
• Some White British pupils’ attendance remains weaker than others’ and leaders have strategies in place to address this. However, it is too soon to see the impact on those pupils’ outcomes.
• The careers advice and guidance that pupils received in the past meant that the majority of pupils accessed suitable destinations but some did not. Leaders recognise that further work is needed to secure strong destinations for all groups of pupils, including embedding careers-related opportunities earlier on in pupils’ education.
• Leaders routinely monitor the progress made by the few pupils who attend off-site provision, so that those pupils can re-integrate into the school when appropriate.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Robust procedures and routines are well used by staff and recognised by pupils as being effective in raising expectations for all within the community. Pupils in older years reported to inspectors that the standard of behaviour has risen sharply since the school opened.
• The proportion of pupils receiving fixed-term exclusions, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, was high last year. The effective work of leaders and form tutors has resulted in a sharp fall in exclusions needing to be used because alternatives are having the desired effect. Alternative provision is used rarely but is usually successful in improving those pupils’ attitudes to school.
• Pupils’ behaviour over time is good. Few poor behaviour incidents occur and rarely involve prejudicial behaviour. The school environment is calm and reflects pupils’ desire to make the most of their time in school. The physical environment is well respected despite its tired state and the imminent move to a brand new site.
• Pupils are rarely off-task in lessons because teachers typically plan activities that maintain pupils’ interest. The few occasions where low-level disruption occurs are linked to where teachers’ skills are less refined at ensuring that the learning appropriately challenges pupils.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Pupils join the school with significantly lower than average prior attainment. Over time, pupils’ attainment at GCSE has been increasing due to more effective teaching that is helping pupils make good progress from their starting points. In 2016, pupils overall made significantly better progress than the national average.
• Disadvantaged pupils made significantly less progress than their peers and in a range of subjects last year, including English and mathematics. The difference in progress and attainment when compared with their peers has been diminishing over time and continues to do so because of effective intervention strategies and better teaching. Further work remains to ensure that disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged, do as well as their peers. Leaders’ evaluation of strategies funded by the pupil premium is accurate and encourages refinement of effective interventions.
• A large number of pupils join the school in the early stages of English language acquisition. These pupils are well supported through bespoke strategies that help pupils access the broader curriculum quickly.
• The most able pupils made slower progress than other pupils last year. A significant focus on stretching the most able pupils more consistently across subjects means that teachers now more effectively challenge those pupils to make better progress.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities made broadly average progress last year. This continues to be the case due to the support that leaders provide, including highly targeted support for pupils who have education, health and care plans.
• The GCSE options decisions made by pupils from the predecessor school meant that some pupils did not achieve qualifications which would count towards good progress within English Baccalaureate subjects last year (science, humanities and languages). As a result, progress was weak in those subject areas but progress in subjects that count towards the Open element (other subjects included in national performance table measures) was significantly better than average for almost all pupils.
• Pupils now make better progress overall due to better teaching. Revisions to the curriculum mean that pupils are now on more suitable courses that serve them well as they make decisions for education, training and employment after Year 11. Strong links with the other schools within the trust allow many pupils to move on to that institution and other sixth forms and colleges.
• Variations between subjects’ performance are reducing. New staff and focused professional development and training are helping create the consistency of teaching and learning that means pupils now do better than was the case in the past. Leaders’ work is rightly focused on improving the consistency of good and better teaching in English, languages and some creative subjects to ensure that pupils make consistently strong progress across the curriculum.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 141210 Croydon 10031691 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 Academy sponsor-led 11–16 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 487 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Principal Telephone number Website Email address Christopher Kinch Michael del Rio 020 8689 1255 www.lanfranc.org.uk office@lanfranc.org.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish.
• This is a smaller than average-sized secondary school. It opened in September 2014 following academisation led by the sponsor, the Coloma Trust.
• The school does not have a sixth form on site. A few students who are registered at the Quest Academy (another Coloma Trust school) receive some teaching at this school as part of an agreement brokered by the trust.
• The school is due to move into new adjacent accommodation this summer.
• A few pupils attend off-site alternative provision. Currently the school uses RISE in Merton for alternative provision.
• A higher than average proportion of pupils are eligible for the pupil premium and a larger than average percentage of pupils speak English as an additional language. A broadly average proportion of pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities while a smaller than average proportion have education, health and care plans.
• A smaller than average proportion of the school’s roll are girls.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards for pupils’ progress at GCSE.

Information about this inspection

• During this inspection, inspectors:
  • visited 46 lessons, many of which were visited alongside a member of the school’s leadership team
  • scrutinised pupils’ work both inside and outside lessons
  • observed pupils’ behaviour during social times
  • visited the school’s internal exclusion room
  • listened to pupils read during lessons
  • met with leaders, staff, governors and members from the trust
  • met with three groups of pupils formally and held informal conversations with pupils throughout the inspection
  • scrutinised documentation including leaders’ evaluation of the school’s performance and plans for development; assessment and behaviour information including attendance; minutes of governors’ meetings; policies, records and procedures including those relating to safeguarding; the single central record of pre-employment checks made on staff; and the school’s surveys of staff, parents and pupils
  • checked that the school’s website was compliant with the latest government requirements
  • considered the views of 32 staff, three parents and 29 pupils who responded to Ofsted’s surveys.

Inspection team

Matt Tiplin, lead inspector Rebecca Allott David Plumeridge

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector