One Degree Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that the needs of the most able pupils are met further by providing opportunities to deepen their learning across the curriculum.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The trustees opened this school with the ambition to have a positive impact on all pupils, enabling them to succeed educationally and ‘lead a great life’. They have overcome many challenges, including having to relocate from their original site. In just two and a half years, they have developed a school that puts pupils first in every respect. This strong vision, high expectations and an uncompromising focus on removing barriers to pupils’ learning have ensured that this school is outstanding. It is no surprise that parents are highly supportive of the school.
• The highly evaluative principal leads the school with passion and determination. He has created a highly effective network of partnerships with other providers. He is very well supported by leaders and other staff, who share his high expectations and commitment to the school. Leaders set regular targets for staff regarding aspects of their practice and aspirational targets for pupils’ outcomes.
• School improvement plans are detailed, focused and include measurable outcomes. Leaders and governors review the effectiveness of the school thoroughly against these outcomes. Consequently, leaders and governors have an accurate understanding of the strengths and the areas that the school needs to develop further.
• Leaders have designed a highly effective curriculum which they articulate clearly. The broad and balanced curriculum is focused on providing pupils with the knowledge and skills to practise, embed and deepen their learning. Specialist teachers provide high-quality teaching and learning opportunities in Spanish, physical education (PE) and music to enhance the curriculum offer.
• The curriculum is further enhanced through enrichment activities such as yoga, volunteering, farming and music. These provide pupils with a wide range of opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge further, including in real life contexts. Regular ‘VIP’ visits provide pupils with the opportunity to learn about and question aspirational role models from a range of backgrounds.
• Throughout the school, staff are dedicated and highly motivated. Staff express pride in being part of the team and feel valued by leaders. They appreciate that leaders care about their work-life balance. For example, each term staff are given a ‘golden week’ where they do not participate in any work after the school day. Staff who spoke to inspectors and who completed the online survey demonstrated a real commitment to the school.
• Leaders have ensured that there is a strong emphasis on staff development. Leaders understand that, as the school grows, they will need to continue to nurture and grow their staff. Therefore, a well-developed programme of professional development ensures that staff feel empowered to take control of their own learning. Through the ‘reading club’, staff use classroom research evidence-based books to develop their teaching strategies and deepen their subject knowledge. Leaders provide opportunities to visit other schools and participate in high-quality training courses, for example university masters courses. As a consequence, staff are skilled and enthusiastic.
• The leadership of provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is extremely strong. The special educational needs coordinator has a thorough understanding of each pupils’ needs. Robust assessments and a range of interventions ensure that appropriate procedures are put in place to enable pupils to be successful learners. Leaders closely monitor the impact of the support that pupils receive. Pupils with SEND make excellent progress from their starting points as a result of individualised support and strong leadership.
• The pupil premium funding is used exceptionally well to provide academic, social and emotional support for these pupils and their families. Leaders and governors ensure that the achievement of disadvantaged pupils is monitored closely. Additional support ensures that appropriate measures are put in place to tackle pupils’ individual barriers to learning. Consequently, disadvantaged pupils make excellent progress from their starting points.
• Sports premium funding is spent wisely to improve sporting opportunities and exercise for pupils. Teachers work alongside a specialist PE teacher, and this has enhanced the quality of PE provision. Funding is used to provide opportunities for pupils to take part in a wide range of sports, for example gymnastics and dance after-school clubs and participation in a recent multi-skills tournament.
• Leaders have ensured that exceptional parent engagement is at the heart of their work. Through ‘family learning’, an innovative parent coaching programme with a psychotherapist, parents learn about and observe their children’s progress in school. As a result, parents are empowered to support their children’s learning at home and have opportunities to enhance their own parenting skills. Parents are very appreciative of this approach.
• Overwhelmingly, parents who spoke to inspectors or responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, are extremely positive about the school.

Governance of the school

• The trust board and governing body bring a wide range of skills, knowledge and experiences to their roles. This breadth of knowledge ensures that they are highly effective in providing challenge as well as support for leaders. Trustees and governors ensure that they receive regular information regarding outcomes and pupils’ progress through the governors’ dashboard. They have received safeguarding training and clearly understand the risks faced by pupils in their community.
• Governors know the school exceptionally well, sharing the principal’s vision and high expectations. They have a detailed and accurate understanding of the school’s many strengths. They regularly ask probing questions to ensure that the additional funding that the school receives is used effectively. The governors ensure that they have a ‘commitment to every single child to achieve well’ and that the school continues to improve.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Checks on staff prior to employment are thorough. These checks are organised and recorded well. They are regularly monitored by leaders and the governor responsible for safeguarding.
• Leaders and staff ensure that they are highly vigilant. Through the ‘warmth walks’ in the morning and the ‘team huddles’ at the end of the day, potential concerns are identified and shared. If staff identify a concern at other times, they know exactly what to do, and they pass on information immediately. Leaders ensure that any concerns raised are followed up promptly. Leaders work closely with external agencies to get families the help that they need.
• Staff receive safeguarding training and regular updates to ensure that they are knowledgeable and highly attentive. For example, at weekly briefings staff explore different areas of safeguarding and signs of abuse. This helps them to have a better awareness and understanding, ensuring a culture of safeguarding throughout the school.
• Leaders ensure that the social, emotional health and welfare of pupils are of utmost importance. They provide exceptional, high-quality pastoral support, ably supported by Otto the school dog and early help procedures, which are used effectively. Leaders ensure that an effective range of interventions and therapeutic support meet the emotional and psychological needs of pupils. Leaders ensure that pupils’ needs are closely monitored and tracked.
• Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe through assemblies about road safety or NSPCC workshops which promote personal space safety. Pupils understand how to stay safe online through safer internet days.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teachers and associate tutors have consistently high expectations of what each individual pupil can achieve. The relationships between staff and pupils are excellent. Staff are skilled in providing opportunities to support and extend pupils’ communication and language skills. Complex and technical language is introduced routinely to develop pupils’ vocabulary and deepen their knowledge. For example, during a reading session in Year 1, the word ‘banished’ was introduced and pupils had an opportunity to discuss its meaning.
• Teachers have high aspirations and strong subject knowledge. Teachers’ consistent management of behaviour is highly effective in ensuring that pupils achieve excellent learning outcomes. Through their use of effective questioning, they are highly efficient in assessing what pupils know and understand. They encourage pupils to discuss their ideas together to clarify and explore their understanding. They plan lessons that are suited carefully to the needs of all pupils, including those pupils who are disadvantaged and the most able.
• Teachers gather robust assessment information and use both internal and external moderation effectively to ensure that this is accurate. Consequently, teachers and leaders have an in-depth understanding of each pupil’s progress. This information is used to plan lessons to reinforce and address any gaps in learning.
• The teaching of phonics is highly effective and a real strength of the school. Teachers ensure that a consistent approach is taught across the school. Pupils successfully build on their phonics knowledge to tackle new vocabulary confidently. Pupils read with expression and a deepening understanding. As a result, pupils learn to read fluently from an early age.
• High-quality reading texts are incorporated skilfully into the curriculum to ensure that pupils have access to a wide range of books. The school has an expectation that pupils read regularly at home with their parents. Reading records demonstrate excellent communication between staff and parents, which supports the high standards of pupils’ reading.
• Pupils write for a range of purposes across the curriculum. A focus on grammar, punctuation and vocabulary has ensured that pupils apply these skills in writing. This enables pupils to develop very good writing skills. For example, one Year 1 pupil wrote: ‘One morning I went hunting for treasure. When I got to the magical forest I saw some giant trees.’
• Teachers ensure that mathematics lessons develop and reinforce pupils’ basic skills. Opportunities are provided for pupils to move on to more complex challenges once they have demonstrated a secure understanding. Teachers’ strong subject knowledge enables pupils to apply their mathematical knowledge to solve problems and extend their skills in mathematics. Work in pupils’ books demonstrates excellent progress and illustrates that teachers have high expectations of all pupils.
• Associate tutors are deployed well and make a positive contribution to pupils’ learning. Support for disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND is of a high quality. They also work directly with small groups of pupils in class and provide highly effective interventions out of class. As a consequence, gaps in pupils’ learning are addressed. This ensures a fully inclusive approach for all pupils in which they are supported and challenged successfully.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding. This is because staff share a strong commitment to supporting pupils’ well-being.
• Pupils are polite, courteous and well mannered. For example, they routinely hold doors open for their peers and visitors. Relationships between adults and pupils are extremely positive. Every morning pupils are welcomed into the school by staff, who shake their hands during the ‘warmth walks’. This has helped create an atmosphere of mutual respect. Pupils are kind and considerate to one another. Pupils said that they are safe, as did all staff and the majority of parents who responded to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View.
• The school has a well-established and strongly positive ethos. Leaders and teachers ensure that the school is a calm and purposeful learning environment. Pupils are proud of their school and are keen to share their achievements and celebrate those of their peers. For example, during ‘family dining’, pupils nominate their peers who have demonstrated the school values, and they clap their accomplishments.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is embedded in the school’s work. The school’s own values are consistent with British values. They are woven throughout the curriculum. Pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain, with even the youngest children engaging in debates and votes. For example, pupils recently had discussions about which names to choose for the chickens, and all voted for the names they liked best.
• Parents expressed many positive comments regarding the caring nature of the school. Some parents shared personal stories of how their children have been supported since joining the school. They are highly appreciative of leaders’ focus on education that goes beyond just academic success. For example, one parent praised the school for ‘nurturing each child to thrive’. Another parent explained, ‘My child is thriving. We are included and very much work in partnership with the school.’

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding. Staff have high expectations of behaviour, and pupils’ conduct is exemplary. They move around a complicated school site calmly and safely with remarkable levels of maturity.
• Staff are consistent in their positive approach to learning and behaviour. They set high standards and ensure that everyone follows them. Adults use positive comments and rewards regularly for pupils who demonstrate school values, for example through the issuing of ‘strive tickets’. Pupils who may have challenging behaviour are well supported by staff. As a result, occurrences of poor behaviour are rare, and any incidents are reduced rapidly over time.
• Bullying is not a problem at this school. Pupils know what bullying is, and say it does not happen because any unkindness is dealt with promptly. Pupils demonstrate an age-appropriate understanding of differences and equality. One pupil told an inspector, ‘I’m a girl and he’s a boy; it doesn’t matter.’
• Pupils are proud of their school and uniform. They take care with their work and its presentation. Staff make the environment stimulating through interesting displays of work that pupils use in their learning.
• Pupils have very positive attitudes to school. As a result, attendance is above the national average. This is because leaders work with determination and monitor attendance robustly. This has ensured that the vast majority of pupils attend school regularly.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Children generally start school with skills lower than those typically seen for their age. In 2018, outcomes at the end of Reception were outstanding. All children make exceptionally strong progress from their starting points and are well prepared for Year 1.
• In 2018, the proportion of pupils who reached the expected standard in the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1 was significantly above the national average. Pupils in the current Year 1 cohort demonstrate a very high level of phonics knowledge, both in their reading and writing.
• Work in pupils’ books demonstrates that pupils are making excellent progress. The majority of pupils are working at least at the expected standard for their age in reading, writing and mathematics.
• The effective use of the pupil premium funding enables disadvantaged pupils to make outstanding progress. Leaders use assessment information to provide disadvantaged pupils access to highly effective interventions. As a result, disadvantaged pupils’ needs are well met.
• Pupils with SEND receive additional help in class and targeted interventions. This additional support is closely matched to their needs. As a result, these pupils make outstanding progress from their starting points.
• Most-able pupils make excellent progress due to very strong teaching. Current assessment information and pupils’ books show that they are making very strong progress in English, mathematics and reading. However, they do not make such strong progress across the wider curriculum because levels of challenge are not high enough.

Early years provision Outstanding

• Children make an excellent start to their education in Reception. This is a result of teaching staff having a very clear understanding of how young children learn. Leadership of the early years is excellent, which leads to outstanding outcomes for children.
• The quality of teaching in the early years is outstanding. The work in children’s ‘learning journeys’ demonstrates a picture of the strong progress made by children. When children arrive at the school, some have language and communication skills which are not well developed, or they have low English acquisition. Consequently, leaders provide a language-rich learning environment with a range of opportunities for children to develop their speaking and listening skills.
• The early years curriculum is well planned to ensure that high-quality learning is available across all areas of learning. Children are able to sustain their concentration and attention because stimulating activities engage them. For example, children were engrossed in making a ‘Jurassic car’ out of large wooden blocks.
• The school’s approach to teaching phonics enables children to make outstanding progress in breaking down and blending sounds to read unfamiliar words. Reading books are extremely well matched to children’s phonics knowledge. As a result, children make impressive progress in reading. Children are provided with opportunities to develop their comprehension skills well. As a consequence, they are able to answer simple questions about the books they are reading.
• Children regularly produce pieces of written work. They apply their knowledge of phonics to write simple phrases or sentences with developing accuracy. As a result, they have strong skills in writing and make excellent progress.
• The early years environment both indoors and outdoors is excellent. Staff provide high-quality learning resources, and they think carefully about the spaces available to them and how best to use them. Children develop independence and collaborative learning skills very well.
• Staff use highly effective questioning to explore children’s understanding, deepen their knowledge and develop their language skills. Children are enthusiastic about their learning because activities are interesting. During the inspection, children were captivated by the water tray and the soap bubbles. They tested out what happened when they clapped their hands or blew the bubbles and were keen to share their observations.
• Leaders ensure that the transition from nursery or home into school is smooth. Staff take time to gather information from other settings and parents to ensure that they meet the needs of the children from the start.
• Initial assessments when children enter the school are thorough and are used effectively to plan activities which will meet the children’s needs. Teachers monitor children’s progress and address any gaps in their learning. For example, they spotted that children’s handwriting was not as well developed as they would like. As a consequence, activities to develop children’s fine motor skills were provided to improve this.
• Partnerships with parents are highly effective. The secure online-based assessment system enables parents to see how well their children are progressing in the early years. They have the opportunity to contribute to assessments through recording developments that they see at home. For example, one parent uploaded photographs and wrote a commentary on her child making a chocolate lava cake.
• All welfare requirements are fully met, and safeguarding practices are secure.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 142874 Enfield 10058924 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school All-through School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Academy free school 2 to 19 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 69 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Principal Telephone number Website Email address Riaz Shah Aidan Sadgrove 020 3150 1144 www.onedegreeacademy.org admin@onedegreeacademy.org Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• One Degree Academy is part of the Adnan Jaffery Educational Trust. The school is a single standalone academy free school. It was opened in 2016 as a one-form entry school for pupils aged four to 19. It was planned to open in another part of the London Borough of Enfield but was relocated to its present temporary site. It started with one class of children in the Reception Year. At the time of the inspection, there was one Reception class, one Year 1 class and one Year 2 class. The school continues to grow each year.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized primary school.
• Pupils come from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, with the largest group being Black or Black British Caribbean.
• The school is in the top 20% of all schools nationally for the proportion of disadvantaged pupils.
• The school is in the top 20% of all schools nationally for the proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language.
• The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan is in the lowest 20% of schools nationally.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching and learning throughout the school, jointly with leaders. They observed a range of sessions, including phonics and Spanish.
• Inspectors and leaders reviewed children’s learning journeys in the Reception Year and a wide range of pupils’ books in English, mathematics, science, visual arts, geography and history. Inspectors looked at pupils’ work during lessons and spoke to pupils about their learning.
• Parents’ views were considered through the 38 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, and in conversations with parents at the beginning and end of the school day.
• Meetings were held with leaders, trustees and members of the governing body. The lead inspector held a telephone conversation with the school improvement partner.
• Inspectors reviewed a range of documentation, including those relating to safeguarding, school evaluation, school improvement and pupil premium and sports funding.
• Inspectors observed pupils in lessons, around the school, in assembly, at playtime, at lunchtime and in the dining hall.
• Inspectors considered the views of the 15 staff members who completed the staff survey and held a meeting with a range of staff, including trainee teachers.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read from all three classes and talked to them about reading.
• Inspectors met with a group of pupils to find out their views of the school and spoke to pupils at playtime and lunchtime.
• Inspectors met with the psychotherapist to discuss family learning and observed a family learning session with parents.

Inspection team

Andrew Hook, lead inspector Kanwaljit Singh

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector