Hillsview Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Leaders and governors should take action to rapidly improve the quality of leadership and management by:
  • developing and strengthening leadership at all levels so that all leaders are effectively evaluating the success of their actions to improve outcomes for pupils
  • monitoring and evaluating the use of additional funds for disadvantaged pupils, those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who need to catch up so that spending is precisely targeted and improves outcomes for these pupils.
• Leaders and governors should improve the quality of teaching and learning across the school by:
  • ensuring that teachers have the highest expectations of what all pupils can achieve
  • ensuring that teachers plan lessons carefully to meet the needs of all pupils, so that all pupils make good progress from their starting points
  • improving and embedding the new behaviour system so that it is applied consistently by all teachers and disruption to learning rapidly reduces
  • implementing an effective whole-school literacy strategy so that pupils improve their spelling, punctuation, reading and extended writing.
• Leaders and governors should urgently improve attendance, behaviour and pupil welfare by:
  • eradicating internal truancy and preventing pupils from smoking on site
  • reducing the number of behaviour incidents and fixed-term exclusions
  • reducing persistent absence and improving attendance for all groups of pupils, particularly for those who are disadvantaged, and for students in the sixth form
  • improving the quality of the provision for personal, social, health and economic education so that all pupils in the school and students in the sixth form receive education to prepare them for their futures.
• Leaders and governors should take urgent action to ensure that safeguarding is effective by:
  • ensuring that records of bullying, attendance issues and referrals are detailed and reference action taken and associated impact
  • ensuring that pupils move safely around the building without running, pushing or shoving. An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of the school’s use of pupil premium funding should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

• Since the school opened following the merger of Eston Park Academy and Gilbrook Academy in September 2014, leaders have not done enough to ensure good outcomes for all pupils. All groups of pupils make inadequate progress.
• Although the principal has accurately identified the areas in which the school needs to improve, a lack of effective analysis and evaluation is slowing down the rate of improvement because leaders are unable to identify next steps swiftly.
• Leaders are not ensuring sufficient accountability for the use of additional funds for disadvantaged pupils, those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who need to catch up. In the absence of evaluation, leaders are unable to say which strategies are effectively supporting learning and progress.
• Leaders have not monitored the progress of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities well enough over time. Consequently, these pupils make inadequate progress. The recently appointed special educational needs coordinator has begun to take action to rectify this.
• Leaders have not created a culture of high aspirations where all pupils want to do well. Pupils’ work is often untidy, incomplete and teachers do not challenge them enough to improve.
• Leaders have not ensured that an effective programme for personal, social, health and economic education is in place and so pupils are not developing life skills well enough.
• A recent review of the curriculum has led to an improved system where pupils are making their choices for GCSE in Year 8. Pupils receive guidance when choosing so they select appropriate courses according to their ability and interests.
• It is strongly recommended that the school should not appoint newly qualified teachers.

Governance of the school

• The trust and management board do not ensure that leaders precisely target additional funding to the most significant priorities or that it results in sustainable improvements. For example, catch-up funding is not leading to improvements for all pupils who need to catch up in numeracy and literacy.
• The trust is providing additional support to the school in this academic year. This includes continuing the work of the executive principal to support the principal, support for senior leaders, additional teaching for pupils in mathematics, English and science and support for middle leadership development. Despite this, pupil progress is inadequate, attendance remains too low and behaviour remains poor.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.
• During the inspection, inspectors found that leaders and the management board have not ensured that records about bullying and racist incidents are kept well enough. School information shared with inspectors indicated that the number of racist incidents has doubled since the last academic year. Some pupils and parents say that bullying is a concern.
• Leaders are not tackling poor behaviour well enough. Pupils say that they sometimes do not feel safe in school due to pupils pushing, shoving and running in corridors.
• Some pupils report that other pupils smoke on the school site and the school has not dealt with this consistently or effectively.
• Leaders and the management board have ensured that appropriate checks are carried out on adults and training for safeguarding is up to date. Staff were able to talk confidently about how they would identify abuse and the action they would take if needed. However, on a day-to-day basis, because of poor behaviour in lessons and some poor behaviour around the school, pupils are not safe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

• Over time, inadequate teaching has led to poor progress for all groups of pupils in a broad range of subjects, including English and mathematics.
• Too many teachers do not routinely use pupil information to plan for learning that are appropriate for pupils’ needs. Consequently, these teachers do not challenge all pupils to achieve well. The result is a culture of low expectation, with too many teachers accepting poor work.
• In lessons, teachers often spend a significant proportion of their time tackling low-level disruption, which impedes pupils’ progress. Where teaching is better, behaviour is better.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make inadequate progress. Strategies for teaching this group of pupils are underdeveloped and do not provide the support or challenge they need for them to achieve well.
• Teachers do not consistently tackle weaknesses in pupils’ literacy. In some books, pupils make spelling errors that are uncorrected and in others, where teachers do identify incorrect spellings, pupils do not improve because they do not learn from their mistakes.
• The school no longer implements its strategy to improve reading following poor behaviour from the pupils involved. Leaders do not monitor how well pupils are using the library and engaging with reading.
• Leaders are improving the quality of assessment across the school. Working with regional directors, standardisation and moderation is taking place in mathematics, English and science, which is helping to improve the accuracy of assessment. This is not consistent across all subjects in the school.
• Teaching assistants are positive about their roles. For example, teaching assistants effectively support pupils to catch up with their work following an absence.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is inadequate.
• Some pupils and parents say that bullying is not dealt with well. During the inspection, leaders were unable to provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that bullying is consistently well tackled and there remains a high number of bullying and racist incidents in school.
• Pupils are not developing self-confidence and positive attitudes to learning. Too few pupils engage effectively with learning. Pupils who want to learn say that they cannot do so due to interruptions from other pupils. Inspectors witnessed pupils sniggering at others who gave an incorrect answer or who could not answer a teacher’s question.
• The school operates ‘The Bridge’, where vulnerable pupils can attend to develop their personal and learning skills and receive support. This often provides a safe haven for pupils who are experiencing difficulties. Pupils continue with their work while in The Bridge, which helps to prevent them from falling behind.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is inadequate.
• Leaders’ actions are not improving behaviour rapidly enough. In a high number of lessons, pupils prevent others from making progress by persistently disrupting learning. Leaders have recently introduced a new behaviour policy, which is beginning to improve behaviour; however, it is not improving rapidly enough and the rate of pupils’ progress is not improving quickly enough.
• Leaders are taking action to improve attendance. While this is leading to improvements, attendance remains below the national average and pupils who are frequently absent are not catching up with their learning and are making inadequate progress.
• Movement around school can be calm but pupils say that this is not always the case. Some pupils do not respond swiftly to staff instructions, putting themselves and others at risk. A significant number of pupils do not show respect for each other or for staff. Foul language is heard frequently and is not always tackled by teachers.
• Fixed-term exclusions remain well above the national average and permanent exclusions are above the national average this academic year.
• Leaders have accurately identified pupils who would benefit from attending alternative provision. Pupils who are attending alternative provision behave well when they are there and are improving their attendance. This provision is helping pupils make better progress than when they are in school.

Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

• Over time, all groups of pupils make poor progress and underachieve considerably from their starting points.
• The school’s own assessment information indicates that while pupils are making better progress than in previous years, current Year 11 pupils continue to underperform significantly in a number of key subjects. Performance in mathematics and science is improving at a faster rate than other subjects, but some pupils are still underachieving considerably in these subjects.
• Pupils who need to catch up and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make inadequate progress. This is because leaders do not ensure that they precisely target additional funds and teachers often fail to meet the needs of these pupils.
• The most able pupils underachieve over time. Leaders are taking steps to tackle this weakness and while current progress information is more positive, pupils still do not make the progress of which they are capable.
• A more recent focus from leaders in charge of teaching and learning is beginning to improve the quality of work that some pupils are producing in mathematics and some other subjects. However, this is not a consistent picture across all subject areas.
• The school offers careers interviews to pupils in Years 10 and 11. Very few pupils leave without securing their next steps into employment, education or training. However, current pupils say that although they value the opportunity to discuss next steps, advice does not always include sufficient information about the range of options available to them.

16 to 19 study programmes Requires improvement

• Students in the sixth form develop their study skills well and are able to take charge of their own work, particularly in vocational courses. There is a range of subjects available to students, including an increasing number of vocational subjects. Study programmes however, require further development to ensure that all students prepare adequately for the world of work.
• Teachers offer personal, social, health and economic education in the sixth form during form periods. Not all students attend these and so miss this vital opportunity to develop life skills. Leaders do not do enough to ensure students’ attendance.
• Attendance requires improvement in the sixth form. Leaders are aware of this but are not effectively monitoring the impact of attendance reports. This means that students with poor attendance are not achieving as well as they could and staff are not improving attendance as swiftly as they could.
• The sixth-form leader knows the students really well and has established excellent relationships with them.
• Students say that they feel safe and will be supported by staff if they need help or support.
• Students in the sixth form make good progress from their starting points, particularly in vocational courses, where they achieve above the national average.
• Students who enter the sixth form without a grade C in GCSE English and mathematics receive additional tuition and make good progress towards achieving a grade C in these subjects.
• Retention rates are high, with the majority of pupils progressing from Year 12 into Year 13. Students who do not enter Year 13 have secured employment or are unable to continue due to medical reasons.
• Students who leave the sixth form at the end of Year 13 progress to employment or further education. Very few students leave without securing their next steps.

School details

Unique reference number 141013 Local authority Redcar and Cleveland Inspection number 10031943 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 Gender of pupils in 16 to 19 study programmes Number of pupils on the school roll Of which, number on roll in 16 to 19 study programmes Appropriate authority Chair Principal Telephone number Website Email address Academy sponsor-led 11 to 18 Mixed Mixed 753 47 Academy trust Beverley Perin Doug Elliott 01642 454577 www.hillsviewacademy.org contactus@hillsviewacademy.org 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.
• The school resulted from a merger of Eston Park Academy and Gilbrook Academy in September 2014 and is part of the Academies Enterprise Trust.
• The current principal joined the school as interim principal in September 2015 and was confirmed in post in March 2016.
• The school uses Educ8, Eotas, Marske Training and the local authority pupil referral unit for alternative education provision.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized secondary school.
• The proportion of pupils eligible for pupil premium funding is much higher than the national average.
• The majority of pupils attending the school are of White British heritage.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is higher than the national average.
• The school has a deprivation indicator that is higher than the national average.
• The school does not meet the current government floor standards.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in a range of lessons and made some shorter visits to classrooms. The principal and senior leaders observed lessons jointly with the inspectors.
• Inspectors held meetings with senior leaders, middle leaders, staff, teaching assistants and members of the academy management board and academy trust. Some of these were conducted by telephone.
• Inspectors reviewed the work in a number of pupils’ workbooks alongside leaders.
• Pupils’ behaviour in lessons, in assembly and during break and lunchtime was observed. Inspectors also met formally with groups of pupils.
• Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation including leaders’ evaluations of the school and development plans, policies, minutes of management board meetings, external reviews and monitoring information. Inspectors also looked closely at progress information provided by school leaders.
• Inspectors took into account the views of parents during the inspection, as well as 29 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. Inspectors also considered 44 responses to the staff questionnaire. No pupils responded to the pupil questionnaire.

Inspection team

Debbie Redshaw, lead inspector Dimitris Spiliotis Christine Durand Joanne Suddes

Her Majesty’s Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector