Trinity Solutions Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

Information about the provider

• Trinity Solutions Academy, part of a multi-academy trust, opened in January 2016. It shares a site in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne with Trinity Academy Newcastle and Trinity Post-Solutions Limited. Its aim is to enable vulnerable and disadvantaged learners who have significant barriers to learning to re-engage with education and enter employment. The campus has specialist vocational learning environments, including a farm and motor vehicle and construction workshops.
• The academy provides study programmes in a range of vocational areas, including vehicle maintenance, construction, business administration and land-based subjects. Learners study hairdressing, beauty therapy and barbering on subcontracted provision at ALD Hair, Beauty and Barbering Academy in Gateshead. All learners also study mathematics, English, digital skills, and personal and social development, which are a significant part of their programmes. Around four fifths of learners study at level 1 or below and the remainder at level 2.

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Increase the proportion of learners who achieve their qualifications, by ensuring that leaders, managers and teachers maintain and communicate unambiguous, ambitious expectations that all learners, especially the most disadvantaged, will complete their study programmes.
• Accelerate plans to source additional, high-quality work placements with local and regional employers, so that current learners, especially those whose core aim is a work placement, remain motivated and engaged on their study programmes.
• Improve the quality of education in mathematics, by:
  • providing enough time in lessons for learners to develop their mathematical knowledge, skills and understanding well from their starting points
  • providing further training and resources to help specialist mathematics teachers provide effective feedback and use engaging activities that motivate all learners to improve their work
  • sequencing the mathematics curriculum logically, so that learners gain relevant knowledge that enables them to practise and improve their mathematical skills and achieve their qualifications well.
• Identify the reasons why learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities do not achieve their qualifications as well as learners without, so that leaders and managers can take targeted, effective action to close this gap in achievement.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management

Requires improvement

• Leaders and managers do not ensure that enough learners who would benefit from external work experience have access to high-quality placements. They fulfil the requirements of study programmes by providing all learners with work-related learning and work experience in realistic environments within the academy. However, too few learners gain experience of real work settings. Leaders and managers do not confirm well enough in advance work placements for learners whose core aim is employment. Leaders recognise that this is an area for improvement and have begun to source new work placements with the local authority and a range of employers in construction and vehicle maintenance. The full impact of these very recent plans remains to be seen.
• Leaders and managers do not make full use of local labour market information to inform the development of their curriculum strategy. They ensure that all learners follow courses in information and communication technology (ICT) and that learners use their ICT skills in vocational contexts to prepare them for jobs in the growing local digital economy. However, they do not ascertain whether ICT courses are at the right level to match most career opportunities.
• Leaders and managers do not ensure that learners at the main academy experience mathematics teaching of a high enough quality. Their expectations of what learners can do in mathematics are too low and they have not supported mathematics teachers well enough to improve their craft of teaching. Leaders and managers recognised that mathematics teaching was an area for improvement in the previous academic year, when very few learners achieved their mathematics qualifications. In response, they shortened mathematics lessons in the hope that more learners would attend classes and make better progress. This unambitious strategy has been markedly unsuccessful. Current learners do not have enough time to fulfil their potential in mathematics.
• Leaders and managers do not have high enough expectations that learners should complete their study programmes. They accept too readily that learners will leave their programmes if they find employment. They fail to ensure that learners fully recognise the importance of qualifications for their long-term education and career prospects.
• Leaders and managers have taken highly effective action recently to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in English, personal and social development, and vocational subject areas, which together form the large majority of the provision. For example, they have developed more engaging resources and standardised highly effective methods of giving challenging feedback that learners use well to improve their work.
• Leaders and managers use performance management well to ensure that teaching, learning and assessment are of a good standard in most areas of the curriculum. They instigated a developmental cycle of observations and training, followed up by frequent lesson walks that enable them to monitor progress effectively against improvement targets. Leaders and managers have increased the sharing of good practice within the academy and used helpful advice from other partners within the multi-academy trust. They have successfully instigated a culture of professional pride, ready accountability and continuous improvement. Teachers value the support and training that managers provide, which have had a demonstrable positive impact on teaching, learning and assessment and on current learners’ progress.
• Leaders and managers have successfully promoted an inclusive ethos throughout the academy and subcontracted provision. They have a clear ambition to support vulnerable, hard-to-reach learners into work and further learning. External partners, including the local authority, value the provision highly for accepting learners who cannot access learning elsewhere. Learners travel from throughout the Tyne and Wear region to attend the academy. As a result of the academy’s inclusivity, learners with multiple and complex barriers to learning are able to continue their education.
• Leaders and managers liaise well with external partners and support agencies to provide most current learners with the help they need to address the significant challenges in their lives and improve their life chances. For example, they ensure that learners receive expert advice about housing and healthcare, including in relation to mental health issues. Learners’ well-being and readiness for independent adult life improve as a result.
• Leaders and managers undertake effective quality assurance of subcontracted provision at ALD Hair, Beauty and Barbering Academy. Learners benefit from a high quality of education and training in an industry-standard environment.

The governance of the provider

• Governors use their experience and expertise well to provide strategic direction and support for leaders and managers. They are highly committed to the ethos of social justice and transformative learning that underpins the academy.
• Governors provide effective challenge to leaders and managers to encourage them to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. They familiarise themselves with the quality of teaching, learning and assessment through regular learning walks, work scrutiny and discussions with learners. They use the information that they gather to drive improvements in most areas of the curriculum.
• Governors’ estimation of the quality of outcomes for learners in the academy is too positive. This limits their ability to hold managers to account and challenge them to bring about rapid improvements in the proportion of learners who complete their programmes and achieve their qualifications.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders and managers have successfully developed a strong culture of safeguarding throughout the academy. This contributes effectively to learners’ safety in college, at work placements and on subcontracted provision.
• Leaders and managers use robust safer recruitment procedures well. They undertake comprehensive safeguarding checks on staff, employers, subcontractors and visitors to the academy. They maintain an up-to-date central register that records comprehensively the documents required when staff are recruited, the mandatory training that they carry out, and their Disclosure and Barring Service checks.
• Leaders and managers ensure that staff are well trained and vigilant, so that they can meet the complex safeguarding needs of highly vulnerable learners. Thorough staff training includes information about key risks to learners, such as child sexual exploitation and the dangers associated with using illegal drugs. Teachers use this training well to plan and deliver sessions about relevant safeguarding issues, including the growing risk of county lines activity. Consequently, learners understand well how to stay safe from these risks.
• Staff are well aware of the potential safeguarding risks associated with learners’ unauthorised absences. They quickly investigate any unauthorised absences from college or work placements. They communicate promptly with parents and carers when learners are missing. This reduces absenteeism and helps to ensure that learners are in a safe environment.
• The designated safeguarding lead follows up all safeguarding concerns to resolution promptly and effectively. She uses strong links with external safeguarding agencies to make referrals when appropriate. External agencies, including the police and social services, provide effective support that further enhances learners’ safety. Learners thrive in this atmosphere of benevolent watchfulness.
• The designated safeguarding lead has an appropriate risk assessment and action plan in place in relation to the key local risks associated with radicalisation and extremism. Leaders and managers use this to ensure that staff have appropriate training in relation to these risks. This ensures that staff are aware of the risks their learners may face, for example in relation to the growing threat of right-wing extremism. However, staff have not yet succeeded in communicating the risks of radicalisation and extremism effectively to all learners.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Leaders and managers have taken highly effective action recently that has had a clear and positive impact on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment across most of the curriculum. In most subjects, highly enthusiastic and well-qualified teachers now provide engaging, challenging activities that motivate learners well. In English lessons, for example, highly skilled teachers link learning effectively to topics of interest to their learners, such as animal rights. Learners become engrossed in using persuasive language techniques to strengthen their arguments. As a result of effective teaching, the large majority of current learners, including those at subcontracted provision, enjoy their learning and attend their lessons well. It is too early to see the impact of these recent improvements on the proportion of learners who achieve their qualifications.
• Most teachers now use information about learners’ starting points well to plan and deliver teaching that meets the needs of individual learners. In most subjects, learners who did not achieve well in their first year at the academy are provided with bespoke extra sessions that help them to catch up. As a result, these learners understand their lessons well and improve their progress from their starting points.
• Most teachers use assessment well to identify learners’ strengths and areas for improvement. They adjust their planning and delivery effectively over time to take into account learners’ development of knowledge and skills, which they monitor effectively. Most teachers skilfully sequence activities and subject content to ensure that learners have enough opportunities to apply new knowledge in different situations and consolidate their learning. As a result, most current learners now make at least the expected progress from their starting points and are well prepared for their next steps in education.
• Most teachers provide effective feedback that clearly indicates what learners need to do to improve their work. Their encouraging feedback precisely addresses individual learners’ areas for development and challenges learners to achieve ambitious goals. In English and on land-based programmes, high-quality feedback and examples of learners’ work are recorded comprehensively in learners’ workbooks. This ensures that these learners have a clear, well-organised and accessible record of their progress and areas for development. This useful record helps them to remember what they need to do next to make progress. The large majority of learners respond positively to feedback and improve their work as a result.
• Teachers on vocational courses, including at subcontracted provision, use their industrial experience and technical skills well to help learners develop useful vocational skills and knowledge that reflect good industry practice. For instance, teachers in vehicle maintenance ensure that learners understand how to perform and interpret digital diagnostic scans using the latest technology. This helps learners to develop the vehicle maintenance skills that employers need and prepares them well for their first steps in employment.
• Teachers skilfully include themes connected with equality and diversity in their teaching. For example, learners at ALD Hair, Beauty and Barbering Academy learn how to adapt their professional practice for clients who do not want to remove head coverings in public places. This enhances learners’ understanding of the importance of respect and tolerance at work and in their daily lives.
• Teachers engage in critical reflection and independent research well to improve the quality of their professional practice. They are highly committed to improving outcomes for learners and have a good understanding of their responsibility for those outcomes. Teachers routinely engage in professional discussions about pedagogy and curriculum that help them to develop high levels of expertise.
• Teaching, learning and assessment in mathematics at the main academy site require improvement. Learners do not receive enough teaching in mathematics to ensure that they fulfil their potential. Mathematics teachers do not ensure that learners respond to feedback on their work. They do not provide enough effective resources and activities to support learners in preparation for functional skills tests. Consequently, too many learners make slow progress and do not achieve their mathematics qualifications. Mathematics teaching is more effective for the eight learners in subcontracted provision at the ALD Hair, Beauty and Barbering Academy. These learners benefit from well-structured, accessible theory classes that are supported by effective contextual development of mathematical skills, such as mixing different ratios of products in the salon environment. As a result, these learners make good progress in mathematics.
• Too many learners at the main site do not develop their mathematical skills quickly enough. The curriculum is not planned sufficiently well to ensure that learners have the requisite mathematical knowledge before they are required to use it to underpin practical skills development. For example, learners are asked to work out the area of a workshop before they have understood how to calculate area. However, in a minority of cases, such as in business enterprise classes for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, teachers provide purposeful group activities that integrate theory and application well. These learners use their mathematical knowledge well to design and make high-quality artefacts such as Christmas decorations. Consequently, these learners develop their mathematical skills more effectively.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

• As a result of the lack of suitable work experience and the late integration of many work placements into study programmes, learners have insufficient opportunity to develop their employability skills and behaviours to their fullest extent in real work settings.
• Learners feel safe and are safe at college, in work placements and at subcontracted provision. They know how to report any concerns that they may have and are confident that concerns will be followed up and resolved effectively. They can identify a range of people at the academy, in work and in their daily lives who can help them to stay safe, including from such risks as modern slavery, knife crime and domestic violence. However, their understanding of the risks related to radicalisation and extremism is at a basic level.
• Learners develop their confidence and self-esteem well as a result of the well-informed and caring support they receive. Staff’s interactions with learners are characterised by kindness. Consequently, learners feel valued and welcome at college and on subcontracted provision.
• The large majority of learners attend well and have positive attitudes to their courses. Teachers use highly effective behaviour management techniques that help learners to improve their behaviour. Leaders and managers provide helpful weekly assemblies that promote and reinforce the importance of good behaviour and attitudes in learning and employment. Guest speakers, such as local employers, emphasise the need to develop professional standards of behaviour. Learners appreciate the life-transforming potential of their study programmes and know that good behaviour is a prerequisite for this transformation. As a result, the large majority of students behave well and treat others with respect.
• Most learners develop respect for diversity and a good understanding of the importance of equality as a result of the academy’s inclusive atmosphere. Teachers in personal and social development sessions increase learners’ understanding of the need for tolerance and respect for different views and lifestyles. These teachers design and use a range of activities that effectively encourage learners to develop their understanding of British values, such as democracy and the rule of law. As a result, learners improve their knowledge of current affairs, such as Brexit, and the need to abide by the law at work. This prepares them well for life as citizens in modern Britain.
• Learners make good use of helpful careers information, advice and guidance that enable them to develop up-to-date knowledge of the world of work and the opportunities open to them. Leaders and managers ensure that learners receive effective, independent careers guidance from external organisations. Teachers of vocational subjects, such as motor vehicle maintenance, use their considerable recent industrial experience well to develop learners’ understanding of different career paths. Consequently, a high proportion of learners enter employment or begin apprenticeships on completion of their programmes.
• Learners benefit from a well-designed programme of enrichment that enhances their career prospects. For example, most learners in construction gain employment cards in addition to their main qualifications. These enable them to undertake work placements and enter employment in the construction industry.

Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

• In 2017/18, too many learners did not complete their courses and so did not achieve their qualifications in their main vocational areas. Managers have implemented sensible strategies that have recently improved the retention of current learners, but it is too early to see whether these learners will remain on their courses until they achieve their qualifications.
• Too few learners achieved qualifications in mathematics and English in 2017/18. No learners achieved high-grade passes in GCSE mathematics and English. Just under one fifth of learners passed functional skills tests in mathematics and just over one quarter passed functional skills tests in English. Learners’ lack of qualifications in mathematics and English limits their long-term choices and prospects in employment and education.
• Learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities do not achieve their qualifications as well as those who have no such difficulties or disabilities.
• Too many current learners at the main college site are not making enough progress from their starting points in mathematics. The progress that they make is insufficient to achieve their qualifications. However, the eight learners in subcontracted provision at the ALD Hair, Beauty and Barbering Academy are making good progress in mathematics.
• The large majority of learners who complete their courses, including nearly all of those who have high needs, progress to apprenticeships, employment, voluntary work, increased independence or further study. For example, they gain apprenticeships with small local construction companies.
• Most current learners are making at least expected progress from their starting points in their vocational courses. For example, learners on land-based qualifications are gaining useful new knowledge about animal care that enables them to look after the animals on the academy’s farm effectively.
• Current learners make good progress in developing their English skills and they produce work of a very good standard in English. They increase their vocabulary well and learn how to write grammatically and for different purposes. Learners’ new-found ability to express themselves boosts their self-esteem, confidence and ambition.

Provider details

Unique reference number 142673 Type of provider 16–19 academy Age range of learners 16–18 Approximate number of all learners over the previous full contract year 74 Principal Mr Bill Curley Telephone number 0191 298 6950 Website www.trinity.newcastle.sch.uk

Provider information at the time of the inspection

Main course or learning programme level Level 1 or below Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 or above Total number of learners (excluding apprenticeships) Number of apprentices by apprenticeship level and age Number of traineeships Number of learners aged 14 to 16 Number of learners for which the provider receives high-needs funding At the time of inspection, the provider contracts with the following main subcontractors:

16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 41 0 9 2 0 0 0 0 Intermediate Advanced Higher 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 0 0 0 0 0 0 16–19 0 19+ 0 Total 0 0 9 ALD Hair, Beauty and Barbering Academy

Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the head of school, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans. Inspectors used group and individual interviews, telephone calls and online questionnaires to gather the views of learners and staff; these views are reflected within the report. They observed learning sessions, assessments and progress reviews. The inspection took into account all relevant provision at the provider.

Inspection team

Rebecca Clare, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Steve Hunnisett Jonny Wright

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector