Kingsdale Foundation School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Ensure that low-prior-attaining pupils make the same strong progress as their peers consistently across the curriculum.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• Leaders promote a culture of high ambition and expectation that forms the backbone for the successes enjoyed in this school. Leaders are tireless in their pursuit of improvements that remove potential barriers to learning. Leaders place pupils’ welfare and all-round development before anything else. Consequently, pupils come to school ready for learning and teachers are expert in meeting pupils’ demands.
• Leaders have a highly accurate and precise view of the school’s performance. They understand how to make further refinements to sustain the outstanding outcomes that pupils gain. Leaders weave their strategies into the school’s development planning so that there is continuity of what works alongside new approaches.
• Middle leaders receive high-quality guidance and training. This supports them and their teams to quickly identify and respond to emerging strengths and any areas where groups of pupils may need additional help. Middle leaders are instrumental in the school’s improvement and reflect in their work senior leaders’ ambition for pupils’ futures.
• Staff receive focused and effective training that aligns to leaders’ priorities for the school’s development and their career aspirations. Newly qualified teachers receive tailored support within their subjects. Teachers are held to account for their work through effective performance management that is linked to the school’s development. This ensures that all teachers understand their part in making the school as effective as possible.
• Pupils’ time in school is enriched by the wide variety of opportunities they are offered in which they can develop and explore skills that match their aspirations. The curriculum supports outstanding progress because leaders have built in opportunities for pupils to be successful within and beyond the classroom. Pupils grasp these opportunities and make the most of them. For example, pupils have contributed to the publication of two books that compile their work and regularly participate in sporting, arts and performance extra-curricular clubs and teams.
• The school’s values underpin a culture of respect and tolerance throughout the school. Leaders and governors ensure that pupils have opportunities through the curriculum to debate, challenge and test one another’s attitudes in an environment where everyone’s opinion is valued. Alongside the excellent advice and guidance that pupils receive, pupils are very well prepared for life in modern Britain.
• Additional funding, including the pupil premium and funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, is well used. Leaders believe in the school being welcoming and inclusive. They have achieved this aim. Pupils targeted by additional funding are making strong progress because of the effective support that they receive. Ensuring access to the curriculum and wider enrichment for these pupils is a primary focus of leaders’ work.
• Year 7 catch-up literacy and numeracy funding is effective in quickly improving the progress of most pupils who receive this support. Literacy and numeracy work features across the curriculum. This supports lower prior attaining pupils apply the skills that they develop in a range of contexts. Some lower prior attaining pupils make slower progress over time where some teaching is less effective in meeting the needs of those pupils. Leaders have identified this in their evaluation of the school’s performance and have plans in place to address it.

Governance of the school

• Governors are highly effective in holding leaders to account and are very ambitious for pupils’ achievements. They uphold the values of the school through their scrutiny of leaders’ work. Their checking enables leaders to address quickly any identified small weaknesses. Leaders expect governors to challenge their work so that refinements to systems and strategies result in the best possible experiences for pupils at school.
• Governors know the school well. They receive regular and useful information from leaders so that their view of the school is accurate. Visits to the school allow governors to fulfil their responsibilities in supporting pupils’ welfare and seek opportunities to develop their skills. Governors, like leaders, do not shy away from challenges that may arise but seek to learn any lessons that contribute to the school’s effectiveness.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders are always thinking about what emerging risks may be putting pupils in harm’s way and then seeking strategies that bolster the school’s approach to tackling them. Leaders, governors and staff share the belief that the child’s welfare comes first and are robust in pursuing appropriate protocols to support pupils’ well-being. Leaders work effectively with external agencies and maintain accurate and rigorous records of the school’s work. Leaders’ work goes beyond the statutory requirements and effectively involves parents when supporting pupils’ needs.
• The curriculum includes chances for pupils to learn about the risks that they may face. Terrorism, e-safety and youth crime are themes included in subjects such as citizenship and throughout the wider curriculum. Consequently, pupils’ understanding of how to keep themselves safe is outstanding. Leaders have ensured that pupils have access to a range of effective mental health support and pupils reported to inspectors that they value this highly. Systems to manage attendance, behaviour and additional support for vulnerable pupils work seamlessly to ensure that barriers to learning are minimised.
• Staff and governors’ training is effective in refining their perceptions of risk. Robust systems are in place that mean staff know what to do should a concern arise. Safeguarding checks on staff start at their recruitment, where useful questions are asked at interview alongside pre-employment checks. The single central record is an accurate log of these checks.
• Governors reflect in their work the school’s culture of putting pupils’ welfare first. They could precisely report to inspectors the effect that safeguarding training had on their work with the school. Governors’ understanding of risks, including radicalisation, female genital mutilation and children missing from education is strong. Consequently, arrangements for safeguarding pupils, starting with governance of the school, are highly effective.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Teachers hold high expectations for pupils’ development in their subjects and create classroom environments that encourage productive learning. Teachers seek appropriate opportunities to develop pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills in the activities that they plan. Teachers plan lively and engaging tasks that capture pupils’ imagination, particularly in the creative and performing arts subjects.
• Teachers draw upon their strong subject knowledge so that pupils develop a love of learning in their subjects. Teachers use probing questions to challenge pupils to reconsider misconceived ideas in an environment where pupils respect each other’s views. In history, for example, teachers were observed probing pupils’ views of the Holocaust and Henry VIII’s split from Rome, with skill and compassion. In citizenship, work on British criminal law led to lively debate about the appropriateness of sentences for youth crime.
• Teachers’ planning takes pupils’ needs into account well. Teachers ensure that pupils of all abilities can access the content of the subject and make progress. The most able pupils make particularly strong progress because teachers plan to challenge them effectively. Disadvantaged pupils are clearly identified by teachers so that individuals receive the support that helps them make swift progress.
• Skilled teachers, who understand how to get the best from pupils, build on additional support for those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Well-deployed resources help those pupils access the curriculum and do at least as well as their peers.
• Teachers use assessment well and in line with the school’s policies for feedback. Pupils could identify to inspectors how teachers support their learning and overcome challenges. Pupils expect to walk into every classroom and hit the ground running with their learning based upon their secure understanding of their own progress.
• Pupils reported to inspectors that teachers support them very well and are willing to ‘go the extra mile’ to ensure that they get the most out of their time in school. For example, pupils reported to inspectors about the additional support that they receive after school and at weekends to ensure that no one falls behind in their learning.
• In some lessons, for example some English classes, low-prior-attaining pupils are not making the same outstanding progress as their peers. This is because they are not as effectively challenged from their individual starting points.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding. Pupils benefit from a well-planned and highly effective curriculum that extends their learning beyond classroom based subjects. Pupils and parents value these opportunities. They reported to inspectors that extra-curricular activities are significant in their decision-making when choosing to come to this school.
• Pupils take pride in their learning and enjoy coming to school. Pupils are confident, assured learners, and have the resilience to pick themselves up should they receive a knock back. The school’s support for pupils’ mental health, including mentors and a school counsellor, further supports pupils who may require those services.
• The school is committed to pupils’ well-being, including in promoting healthy lifestyles. Pupils can select from a range of options in the canteen, including a salad bar that the student council was instrumental in introducing.
• Pupils and staff develop strong relationships quickly, which support outstanding learning. Pupils who join the school make the transition into Kingsdale smoothly. Pupils reported to inspectors that they quickly feel part of the community.
• Pupils are highly self-motivated learners. They move promptly to lessons and attend school regularly. No groups’ attendance is poor and persistent absenteeism is low.
• Pupils’ understanding of risks that they may face is strong. As a result, pupils are very aware of how to keep themselves safe and healthy, and support one another when the need arises. Bullying is rare and pupils are confident that teachers will deal with it effectively.

Behaviour

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Pupils make sustained and rapid progress from their starting points. Most pupils join the school in Year 7 with higher than average prior attainment and teachers are skilled at stretching the most able to make strong progress.
• In 2015 and 2016, pupils made significantly better progress than their peers did nationally.
• In English, science, some humanities and the arts, progress was particularly outstanding last year. Progress in mathematics and languages was slower but leaders’ work this year has reduced the differences so that the vast majority of current pupils do very well across the curriculum.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make as much progress as their peers from the same starting points. This is because teachers know these pupils’ needs well and weave that knowledge into the planning of effective lessons.
• Disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged, make stronger progress than their peers do nationally. There is little difference between the performance of these groups and their peers. This is because of the combination of additional support and outstanding teaching that they receive.
• Pupils’ literacy skills are developed well across the curriculum. Likewise, teachers look for appropriate opportunities to enhance pupils’ numeracy, including through daily challenges. Catch-up funding is well used to help those in receipt quickly get up to speed.
• Current pupils in all year groups make rapid progress in humanities, the performing and creative arts, and science. In physical education, pupils also make swift progress in the development of knowledge and skills that help them become very effective sports people.
• Pupils who return from the school’s off-site behaviour unit make strong progress because they continue to access the curriculum while off-site. Similarly, highly tailored support for pupils who speak English as an additional language and through the school’s ethnic minority achievement department helps pupils achieve their aspirational targets.
• Pupils’ destinations are appropriately suited to their high aspirations because they gain outstanding outcomes that support moves onto the right study programmes, training and employment. The advice and guidance that pupils receive, alongside enrichment opportunities that develop work related skills, place pupils in an excellent position at the end of Year 11.
• Low-prior-attaining pupils did not make as much progress in mathematics last year. In 2015, this was not the case. Leaders recognise that improving the outcomes for this small cohort is a priority.

16 to 19 study programmes Outstanding

• This is a highly effective 16 to 19 provision where students make outstanding progress at A level and in the small number of vocational courses offered. This is in large part because students follow highly bespoke study programmes that suit their prior attainment and high aspirations.
• Last year, students made significantly better progress than average, particularly in English literature, fine art, creative writing, music technology, and government and politics. Similarly, very strong progress was made in the vocational music studies BTEC course. This reflects the school’s exceptional outcomes in curriculum and extra-curricular music.
• Students in the sixth form benefit from the same outstanding teaching, learning and assessment as pupils in the rest of the school. Students’ work reflects very high standards of knowledge, understanding and presentation. Students’ work provides them with excellent learning resources for when it comes to revising for examinations.
• Sixth-form students are role models in the school. They set the tone of what is expected of a Kingsdale student through their interactions, conduct and attendance at school. A student told an inspector that they like the school because ‘[they are] yet to go anywhere where [they] have felt more included.’ This reflects other students’ views of the inclusive community ethos that extends across the school.
• Students receive useful, bespoke and impartial careers advice and guidance that helps them choose their study programmes and then decide on their subsequent education, training and employment. Leaders support students to make decisions about their next steps through external speakers, visits to universities and trips to companies.
• Leadership of the sixth form is outstanding. Leaders know students very well and share in students’ successes. Leaders and staff are highly aspirational for students’ destinations and consequently, all students go on to suitable courses and apprenticeships.
• The few students who resit GCSE examinations pass quickly because of the strong support that they receive. Students use these qualifications to access suitable higher-level courses at Kingsdale and elsewhere.
• Students are dedicated to their learning and are keen to support one another. Students’ independent learning skills are exceptional. Students consistently meet leaders’ expectations by using effective strategies to develop these skills.
• The arrangements for safeguarding in the sixth form are effective. Students told inspectors that mental health resources support students well through times of stress or anxiety. Students know who to go to with any concerns and feel confident to do so. Students reported that they are supported through their successes and through times of concern with compassion and care.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 136309 Southwark 10023672 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 comprehensive School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Gender of pupils in 16 to 19 study programmes Academy converter 11 to 19 Mixed Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 1,719 Of which, number on roll in 16 to 19 study programmes 218 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Hon. Alderman of Southwark Mrs Norma Gibbes Steve Morrison 020 86707575 www.kingsdalefoundationschool.org.uk info@kingsdale.southwark.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 5–6 December 2012

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.
• Kingsdale Foundation School is a larger than average, mixed comprehensive school.
• The school uses a nearby off-site behaviour unit called The Annexe, located in Kingswood House, SE21 8QN. The school does not currently use any alternative provision offered by other providers.
• A much larger than average proportion of pupils come from minority ethnic groups.
• A broadly average proportion of pupils come from disadvantaged backgrounds while a similar proportion have special educational needs and/or disabilities, or have an education, health and care plan.
• A larger than average proportion of pupils speak English as an additional language.
• The school meets the government’s floor standards for the progress made by pupils at GCSE.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited 59 lessons to observe learning and scrutinise pupils’ work. Many of these observations were conducted with a member of staff. Years 11, 12 and 13 were on examination leave. A small number of observations were conducted of Year 13 revision sessions. Pupils’ work from all year groups was also scrutinised outside of lessons.
• Inspectors met with staff, governors, the school’s improvement partner, pupils and seven parents. Inspectors held informal discussions with pupils throughout the inspection.
• Inspectors observed pupils at social times.
• Inspectors listened to pupils read.
• Inspectors considered the views of the 315 parents who responded to Ofsted survey, Parent View. Ofsted’s staff and pupil surveys received no responses.
• Inspectors visited the school’s off-site behaviour unit, The Annexe.
• Inspectors examined the school’s documentation including: safeguarding procedures, records and evidence of the culture of safeguarding; the single central record and staff’s recruitment documentation; the complaints log; behaviour and attendance information; assessment information; policies and procedures documentation; leaders’ evaluation of the school’s performance and plans for development; minutes of governors’ meetings; risk assessments; teachers’ appraisal and performance management documentation.

Inspection team

Matt Tiplin, lead inspector Brian Simber Ruth Dollner Sam Hainey Stephen Hall Nick Heard Janice Howkins Anne Murray-Hudson Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Brian Oppenheim Her Majesty’s Inspector