North View 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?

• Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management, so that pupils are safe and make good progress by ensuring that:
  • trustees and governors acquire an appropriate level of skill and knowledge to quickly develop systems to hold leaders to account for all aspects of the schools’ work, including publishing required up-to-date information
  • governors probe the information leaders provide and challenge them about all aspects of pupils’ safety, welfare and progress to ensure that all are of a good standard
  • leaders adopt a clear method for how staff should respond to, and support, individual pupils who exhibit challenging behaviour leaders provide staff with unequivocally clear procedures to follow about the involuntary seclusion of pupils, including recording incidents and the prompt review of pupil’s individual behaviour plans following incidents of seclusion
  • all use of sanctions and physical restraint are recorded, and records are analysed so that leaders know which strategies are effective for individual pupils
  • leaders report all allegations pupils make about staff, including when pupils are physically restrained and seclusion is used, to the designated officer in Sunderland so that appropriate action can be taken
  • governors check that all staff, including leaders, are following the agreed procedures and policies to keep pupils safe
  • governors and leaders ensure that pupils who are disadvantaged get the maximum benefit from pupil premium funding so that their progress improves.
• Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment so that pupils make consistently good progress across a range of subjects, by ensuring that:
  • leaders raise their expectations of the rate of progress pupils can make and motivate teachers to strive to match these expectations
  • teachers understand why individual pupils struggle to learn and use this information to inform their planning so that pupils are helped to overcome their individual difficulties. An external review of governance is recommended in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium is recommended in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

• Trustees and governors do not have a sufficiently robust oversight of the work of the school. They do not hold the principal to account for the safety and welfare of pupils or for the overall performance of the school. The lack of knowledgeable challenge, combined with an acceptance of the principal’s overly positive view of the school, has contributed to unsafe practices and low expectations that deny pupils’ good outcomes.
• The principal does not ensure that appropriate records are kept of the use of sanctions, physical restraint or the seclusion of pupils. Crucially, neither the principal nor governors know if the strategies used are appropriate, safe or bring about positive change in pupils’ behaviour.
• The principal does not ensure that individual plans are in place to support pupils who may exhibit challenging behaviour. Senior leaders’ insistence that their personal knowledge of pupils ensures consistency and safety is not borne out by the records. Some records describe the use of inappropriate physical interventions. There is no indication of how leaders review the records or support staff to use appropriate and safe techniques.
• Senior leaders do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve in a range of subjects. The current system for setting targets for pupils’ progress does not include sufficient challenge. As a result, teachers do not expect pupils to make the progress needed to catch up with other pupils of the same age and/or starting points in other schools.
• The vast majority of teachers lead different aspects of the school’s work. They support each other, particularly in checking the accuracy of the assessment of pupils’ work. They work with a local primary school to moderate their assessments, which are broadly accurate. However, their analysis of the information about the progress pupils make is limited and too optimistic.
• The impact of the additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is variable. This is because the money is not always used to remove the barriers pupils have to enable them to make consistently good progress.
• The plan to allocate, and review the spending of, the sports premium money is out of date as it does not cover the present academic year. However, the money in previous years has been spent to improve the level of pupils’ participation in sport.
• Teachers new to the profession are confident they are well supported and inducted into the school’s specialist provision. Aspects of teachers’ professional development are managed well, for example training provided by the child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) to support pupils’ personal development and emotional well-being in the classroom. This training enables staff to support pupils with less complex emotional needs. However, the training does not enable staff to support pupils who have complex challenges to their emotional well-being.
• Leaders have ensured that pupils have the opportunity to learn across a wide range of subjects. Pupils particularly enjoy the extended school day on Wednesdays, when they choose from a range of exciting activities including archery and guitar lessons. Pupils keenly anticipate performing in the schools’ annual nativity play, a sign that for most pupils their confidence and self-esteem improves over time.
• The vast majority of parents who responded to the online survey were positive about the impact the school has on their child’s life. Pupils are admitted to the school following periods of great difficulty and often after long periods of absence from other schools. Despite concerns for the safety and welfare of pupils with the most complex behavioural needs, pupils with less complex or challenging behaviours settle quickly because staff promote their personal development and emotional wellbeing skilfully and effectively.

Governance of the school

• The governance arrangements through the North View Academy Trust and the governing body are ineffective.
• Information published on the website at the time of the inspection demonstrates a lack of clarity about who holds whom to account for the work of the school.
• Governors only consider the progress pupils make once a year and do not challenge or question the information they are given.
• Governors do not check if leaders are ensuring that basic health and safety procedures are in place. For example, records show that there was a 12-month gap between fire drills up to April 2016 and there has not been a drill since then, even though new pupils joined the school in September.
• Governors do not have oversight of the use of physical restraint, seclusion or the management of allegations that pupils make about staff.
• Governors do not ensure that additional funding, such as the pupil premium grant, is used to achieve the intended outcome. Published reports do not demonstrate the impact of their spending decisions. The current plan for the 2016–17 grant duplicates the plan for 2015–16, including the dates by which activities will be completed. Attendance information in the current plan does not match the information provided during the inspection. It indicates that the attendance of disadvantaged pupils and other pupils was similar in 2015–16, when in fact there was a notable gap.
• Governors do not challenge leaders’ recommendations about pay awards for teachers or support staff. Performance management is not robust as targets do not reflect the career stage expectations for teachers.
• It is recommended the school should not appoint newly qualified teachers.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective. Trustees, governors and leaders were not aware of, and thus do not follow, advice from the Department for Education (DFE) on the use of reasonable force in schools. Failure to follow the advice risks emotional and physical harm to pupils.
• Pupils who exhibit challenging behaviours due to personal, emotional or mental health needs do not have individual behaviour plans.
• The use of sanctions, including the loss of privilege time, social time (referred to as ‘on the wall’) and trips out of school are not recorded or analysed.
• The use of physical restraint is not recorded appropriately or with sufficient detail and pupils’ views are not discussed or recorded after incidents.
• The use of involuntary seclusion, which restricts the liberty of pupils, is used more than in unforeseen emergencies. Incidents involving involuntary seclusion do not lead to reviews of how pupils are helped to learn how to manage their complex emotional needs.
• Leaders do not follow the allegation management procedures set out in ‘Keeping children safe in education 2016’ when pupils make allegations that staff have hurt them when physical restraint is used.
• Leaders have not made sure their policy for safeguarding pupils is up to date. However, records show that staff have had up-to-date training and know when and how to refer their concerns.
• Pupils’ safeguarding files show that staff are diligent when reporting concerns and the designated lead makes appropriate referrals to social care. The principal does not use the safeguarding board’s conflict resolution policy. Consequently, he is unable to resolve his frustration about the lack of response and/or action to some referrals to social care.
• The appropriate checks are made on staff before they are appointed to work in the school. Initial omissions in the record of these checks were rectified during the inspection.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Leaders do not accept that pupils could achieve more than they do. Teachers are not expected or helped to develop the range of teaching strategies needed to meet pupils’ widely different needs. As a result, the overall effectiveness of teaching is variable.
• Teachers’ broadly accurate assessments of pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills across reading, writing, mathematics and science are linked to the national age-related expectations. However, teachers do not routinely identify the reasons why some pupils do not learn well and make faster progress. This means that lessons planned to reach the next step in a subject, do not always take into account pupils’ particular learning needs. As a result, pupils do not make good progress.
• Some teachers repeat work that pupils have already done and sometimes set work that pupils can only achieve with a high level of support. Pupils have too few chances to write at length. This restricts pupils’ opportunities to develop the stamina needed to reach a good standard in their writing.
• Teaching assistants are effective in supporting pupils’ learning and emotional well-being. Most teaching assistants are skilled at spotting pupils who need guidance and equally skilled at stepping back when pupils are able to work independently.
• The effectiveness of teaching is variable. It is clear from some pupils’ books that, over time, some teaching results in stronger progress in all four core subjects. During visits to some lessons, pupils’ understanding was probed and pushed on by carefully posed questions. For example, some teachers and teaching assistants sensitively challenged pupils to think of better ways of expressing themselves or to think more deeply.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.
• Pupils’ understanding of British values is developed through the opportunity to vote for school council members and by learning about what is right and wrong. Pupils are thoughtful when talking about people from different faiths. However, displays at the time of the inspection had an over-emphasis on the promotion of stereotypical White British cultural activities. The displays did not promote tolerance of other cultures that make up modern Britain.
• Pupils’ spiritual, moral and social development is well supported by a range of activities. Pupils learn about personal responsibility to support other people experiencing difficulties through a range of fundraising activities for different charities. Teachers ensure that pupils learn about major world religions through a well thought out programme for religious education.
• Pupils confidently report that there is little teasing or bullying and that, if it does happen, staff deal with it. Pupils said that they knew whom to talk to when worried or concerned about anything. Pupils also learn about different aspects of keeping themselves safe, including when online.
• A representative of the virtual headteacher responsible for the pupils looked after by the local council confirmed that these pupils’ personal development is well supported by the school. Evidence presented to inspectors confirms that this is the case.
• Leaders ensure that staff are adequately trained to support pupils with a range of different medical needs, so that these pupils can take a full part in the life of the school.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils attend school regularly, because for most pupils their emotional needs are well supported. In 2015/16, attendance was in line with most other primary schools. For some pupils, this represents significant improvement from their poor attendance at previous schools.
• Most pupils have positive attitudes to learning and are keen to make progress. They listen and respond promptly to requests from teachers and teaching assistants.
• Pupils move around school in a calm and orderly way. Most pupils are polite and courteous to each other and to adults.
• Staff effectively model good manners and positive social behaviours throughout the day. This is most apparent at lunchtime, when staff and pupils enjoy healthy, balanced meals together.
• Playtimes are lively occasions, well supervised by staff. Pupils take good advantage of a wide range of activities to let off steam and keep fit.
• Some pupils experience extreme difficulties in managing their emotional state. This results in behaviours which challenge leaders and staff. Leaders do not ensure that the management of challenging behaviour is safe or appropriate.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Overall, from their different starting points, pupils’ progress in reading, writing, mathematics and science is in line with expectations for all pupils. However, pupils do not make good enough progress to make up for the time when they fell behind in their learning because of previous gaps in meeting their emotional needs.
• Pupils’ progress in developing their writing skills, both in terms of their handwriting and the content of their writing, is not strong enough. In some year groups, most-able pupils including the most able disadvantaged pupils, make slower progress in writing than in other subjects.
• Pupils make more progress in mathematics, particularly in basic calculations. However, limited opportunities to use basic number skills to solve problems restrict pupils’ opportunities to develop these important skills.
• Progress in reading is stronger for most pupils, including the most able pupils and disadvantaged pupils. This starts with strong progress in the development of phonics skills, particularly for the pupils who enter the school in key stage 1. The opportunity for pupils to take library books home from the well-resourced library successfully encourages a love of reading. This was demonstrated during the inspection, as in almost every class pupils confidently read their own work aloud.
• The progress of disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities in addition to their primary special educational need of social emotional and mental health needs and/or autism is variable. Outcomes for these groups of pupils require improvement, as for all pupils, due to leaders’ and teachers’ lack of high enough expectations for pupils’ academic progress.
• Many pupils make strong progress in the personal and social development, including learning how to manage the impact of their mental health needs. This means that most pupils’ progress towards meeting their specified outcomes in their statements or educational, health and care plans is good.
• Staff work effectively with pupils, parents and secondary schools to ensure that pupils are prepared for the move to their next school. The individual support that most pupils receive is well matched to their needs and ensures that the majority continue to learn and stay in their chosen secondary school.
• Similarly, pupils moving into the school at any point in the year or into any year group, including Year 6, are well supported. Staff are skilled at forming positive relationships that help pupils to settle quickly. Baseline assessments take longer for some pupils than others. This is often linked to pupils’ readiness to produce work that can be assessed.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 141153 Sunderland 10021530 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 Special School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Academy special converter 4 to 11 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 69 Appropriate authority Chair Principal Telephone number Website Email address Academy trust Avril Godfrey Gary Mellefont 01915 534580 www.northviewacademy.org.uk contact@northviewacademy.org.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• The school does not comply with Department for Education guidance on what academies should publish: a link to Sunderland City Council’s local offer for children and young people with special educational needs and disability; how parents can complain about provision made for their children special educational needs; a current accessibility plan; or information about how parents can request paper copies of information provided on the website.
• Governors do not comply with the details set out in the school’s funding agreement on what the school must publish: a plan prepared by the academy trust under paragraph 3 of schedule 10 to the Equality Act 2010; its approach to the curriculum; the names of any phonics or reading schemes in operation for key stage 1; how parents (including prospective parents) can obtain further information in relation to the school’s curriculum; information about how to access the most recent Ofsted reports; and the impact on educational attainment, arising from expenditure of the previous academy financial year’s pupil premium.
• The school is a small primary special school for pupils who have social, emotional and mental health needs (SEMH) and/or autism spectrum condition (ACS). All pupils have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care (EHC) plan.
• Almost all pupils are White British boys. There is a very small number of girls. A high proportion of pupils are disadvantaged and a higher than average number of pupils are cared for by the local authority.
• At the time of the inspection, there were no early years children on roll. The youngest pupils were in Year 2.
• Pupils join the school at any time during the school year and/or into any year group.
• The predecessor school, Maplewood School, was inspected in January 2012 and judged good. The school moved into a new school building in June 2012 and changed its name to North View School. The school became a stand-alone convertor academy in August 2014.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited all class groups at least once, with the principal or vice-principal. During the visits they heard pupils read and reviewed the work in their books.
• Inspectors ate lunch with the pupils, observed them at playtime and talked informally with them as they played. A meeting was held with the school council. No pupils responded to Ofsted’s online survey for pupils.
• Inspectors met with the principal; senior and middle leaders, including the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo); recently qualified teachers; and the chair and vice-chair of the governing body. A meeting was held with the teacher from CAMHS who regularly works in the school, who is also one of three trustees of North View Academy Trust.
• No staff completed the online staff survey.
• Telephone conversations were held with the designated officer for safeguarding in the local authority and a representative of the virtual headteacher for Sunderland City Council.
• The views of parents were taken into account from the school’s own survey of parents from 2015 and from the 13 written responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey of parents.
• Inspectors reviewed a range of documents and records relating to all aspects of the work of the school, including minutes of the governing body meetings and reports to the governing body.
• A sample of pupils’ records were reviewed in detail, including all information relating to their progress and samples of their work from when they joined the school, records relating to incidents of poor or challenging behaviour, statements or EHC plans and attendance records. This involved the lead inspector and members of the senior leadership team.

Inspection team

Susan Hayter, lead inspector Belita Scott

Her Majesty’s Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector