Newman Catholic School Ofsted Report

Full report

In accordance with sections 44(1) and 13(3) 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 quality of leadership and management by:
  • ensuring that leaders provide staff with a clear direction so that they know what the school’s priorities are and how they will be achieved
  • ensuring that recommendations made as a result of external support are acted upon decisively
  • developing the skills of middle leaders so that they can improve the quality of teaching in their subjects
  • ensuring that pupil premium funding and catch-up funding are targeted effectively to accelerate the progress of disadvantaged and low-attaining pupils.
• Rapidly improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment so that the rate of pupils’ progress accelerates and outcomes improve by:
  • developing greater consistency in the quality of teaching and learning within and across subjects
  • having high expectations of the quality of pupils’ work, particularly that of boys
  • using performance information to sharply plan activities that challenge all groups of pupils, particularly the most able, boys and disadvantaged pupils
  • providing well-planned activities for all pupils to improve their speaking and writing skills
  • using questions to make pupils think more deeply and strengthen their understanding
  • ensuring that teachers, including those teaching sixth form, continue to receive and follow advice to improve aspects of their practice.
• Improve pupils’ attendance and reduce the persistent absence of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium 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

• Leaders have not taken the decisive action necessary to secure the improvements identified in the last inspection. As a result, pupils’ progress remains low and GCSE outcomes have not improved sufficiently.
• The school has a new leadership team in place, with clear roles and responsibilities to drive improvement. A number of the leaders are still relatively inexperienced in their new roles and improvements are still at a very early stage.
• Weaknesses in teaching are common, including the effectiveness of teachers’ questioning, challenge for the most able pupils and the development of pupils’ speaking and writing skills. Leaders have not done enough since the last inspection to improve teaching. Staff have only very recently received focused support and training to tackle some of these areas of weakness.
• School leaders do not provide sufficient strategic direction for the school. Self-evaluation does not provide a sharp assessment of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. It is too generous.
• The plan to improve the school is not clearly driven by rigorous self-evaluation. It does not make clear how the impact of leaders’ actions will be evaluated and by whom.
• Leaders have not acted decisively in response to external support, including a recent review undertaken by another school. Hence, the impact of this support is often lost.
• Assessment systems are weak. As a result, the progress of pupils is not tracked accurately enough. Until recently, teachers have not been sufficiently accountable for the performance of pupils in their classes. The performance management system has now been revised to ensure greater focus on pupils’ outcomes and increased consistency. Leaders now take more robust action where practice fails to improve.
• Subject leaders are, in the main, strong teachers. They have identified key teaching and learning priorities for their subjects. However, they do not rigorously and consistently hold staff in their departments to account for the quality of teaching and progress. This leads to inconsistency in the quality of teaching within and across subjects.
• Additional funding to accelerate the progress of disadvantaged pupils has not been used effectively. Leaders do not know in sufficient detail the profile and needs of disadvantaged pupils in each year group. They have not ensured that the additional funding received has been spent well. Leaders have focused on Year 11 at the expense of pupils in other year groups and have had little or no impact. The current pupil premium strategy does not make clear how leaders will measure the impact of their actions.
• Leaders do not ensure that pupils who arrive in Year 7 with standards below national expectations in English and mathematics receive the precise support required to help them catch up. Currently, there is little evidence to show that this additional funding is being effectively used. Leaders have not clearly evaluated the impact of strategies to raise the attainment of these pupils.
• Despite the school’s stated commitment to providing equality of opportunity, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities do not achieve well enough.
• A small minority of parents do not believe that the school is well led and well managed. Staff responses to Ofsted’s online survey echo this view. Most parents would recommend the school to others, however.
• Recently, the capacity of the senior leadership team has been strengthened by the appointment of two energetic senior assistant headteachers who are determined to hold staff to account. They are now beginning to drive forward some of the actions required to improve pupils’ outcomes.
• The new senior assistant headteacher has recently introduced a rigorous system for the review of teachers’ work. Leaders are now establishing a more accurate picture of teaching across the school and are recognising where it needs to improve. Leaders now provide professional development to address weaknesses they identify.
• The design of the current curriculum provides pupils with breadth and balance. Pupils’ literacy skills are not improving as rapidly as they could, because they are not given sufficient focus in all subjects. Pupils have the opportunity to participate in an array of extra-curricular activities.
• Pupils have a good understanding of other faiths and cultures, including through an active link with a school in Peru. Pupils undertake considerable charitable and voluntary work.
• The school has done much to develop pupils’ understanding of democracy and the rule of law. A group of pupils participated in a visit to the Crown Court in Kendal and the active school parliament champions the importance of democracy, voting and fundamental British values.
• Parents value the dedication and commitment of school leaders and staff in the difficult time the school faced following extensive flooding.

Governance of the school

• Governors have been too slow to challenge senior leaders to bring about the changes needed from the last inspection. They have not held school leaders sufficiently or rigorously enough to account for their actions.
• Governors are aware that they have aspects to improve and are now more focused on facing the challenges ahead for the school.
• Governors are now beginning to check for themselves the work of the school.
• The commissioning of an external review of governance is a positive step on the way to improvement and shows the governors’ commitment to the school.
• New governors are already adding strength to the governing body. Training is taking place and governors are developing an improvement plan for governance.
• Governors have not ensured that the school’s website contains required information.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders have received safer recruitment training and ensure that the necessary checks are made on staff when they are recruited.
• Staff receive safeguarding training as part of their induction to the school and leaders ensure that they keep staff updated about risks such as radicalisation and extremism.
• Appropriate filtering systems and policies are in place to protect pupils from inappropriate internet use.
• Leaders, including governors, have worked hard since the move to the temporary site to mitigate possible health and safety risks for pupils. The overwhelming majority of parents who responded to the online questionnaire felt that the school was a safe environment for their child.
• School leaders quickly identify any pupil at risk of harm and the school engages appropriately with partners and other agencies as necessary.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

• Inconsistency in teaching and learning within and across subjects has prevented pupils from achieving well in the school.
• Leaders have very recently introduced a new approach to assessing pupils’ work. Middle leaders are not fully confident with the new assessment system. There are inconsistencies in the application of the assessment system across subjects by teachers.
• Teachers do not make enough use of available information about pupils’ attainment to plan learning that ensures that all groups of pupils make the necessary gains in their knowledge, skills and understanding.
• Teaching assistants are not used consistently well to support the learning of individual pupils or groups of pupils.
• Teaching does not challenge most-able pupils. Pupils told inspectors that, although their targets were challenging, they did not feel stretched in lessons.
• The school’s literacy policy is not being consistently adopted by all staff.
• Teachers do not always ensure that pupils are given regular opportunities to explain what they have learned. They are not made to think deeply enough and do not develop fluency in their writing because they are rarely asked to write at length.
• Leaders have recently appointed a literacy coordinator to address the low levels of literacy in the school. New initiatives are being introduced but it is too early to measure their impact on pupils’ work and outcomes.
• There are discrepancies across a number of subjects between pupils’ written work and the progress data presented by the school. Teachers’ expectations of pupils’ work are inconsistent and boys’ work, in particular, is often poorly presented, lacks depth or is unfinished. Some pupils do not understand what they have written.
• Teaching is more effective, particularly in art and geography, where teachers’ subject knowledge is stronger and used effectively to challenge and motivate pupils and develop their natural curiosity.
• Training and coaching for teachers are beginning to have some impact upon the quality of teaching in the school, but it is too early to assess their impact upon pupils’ outcomes.
• The majority of parents feel that homework is used well to support learning.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Most pupils feel safe in the school and know who to talk to if they have any concerns. Pupils mostly think that the school is a good place in which to learn, but a number of pupils feel that they need more information and help with revision for examinations.
• Most pupils wear their school uniform, which they helped to design, with pride. Most arrive punctually to lessons and most are ready to learn.
• Pupils are, in the main, cooperative with one another and their teachers.
• The school has a ‘no tolerance’ approach to bullying and incidents are rare. Pupils told inspectors that, when it does happen, it is dealt with seriously and swiftly by staff.
• Pupils say that they are aware of the rules for safe internet use and are taught to keep themselves safe online through e-safety lessons and assemblies. Leaders have uploaded information to the school’s website to help keep pupils safe beyond school.
• Pupils have a very strong commitment to charitable work. Throughout their time at the school, pupils support an extensive range of charitable activities.
• Pupils’ leadership skills are developed well through initiatives such as the school parliament and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme.
• The school ensures that opportunities are provided to strengthen pupils’ awareness of health-education-related issues. Recently, some pupils participated in a ‘Start a Heart’ day to train them in life-saving.
• In the aftermath of flooding, the school community showed singular determination to move pupils into the temporary accommodation. Pupils have demonstrated resilience and maturity during this very difficult period as they settled into their new environment.
• The school provides effective careers education, advice and guidance to its pupils. The number of pupils leaving the school who are not in education, employment or training is very small.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• Overall, attendance for all pupils is below the national average and is not improving rapidly enough.
• The attendance of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is well below the national average. Leaders do not place sufficiently high expectations upon these pupils to attend school. Poor attendance affects their outcomes.
• Leaders do not analyse the attendance patterns of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities with sufficient rigour to provide support where it is most needed.
• The persistent absence of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities remains high. The school has successfully reduced persistent absence for other groups.
• Most pupils behave well. There has been a significant reduction in the number of incidents of poor behaviour. Leaders’ monitoring ensures consistent behaviour management by staff. Disruption to lessons because of poor behaviour occurs infrequently.
• The overwhelming majority of pupils behave sensibly during social times and are polite and courteous to others. There is some overly boisterous behaviour from a small minority of boys when there is less supervision.
• Most pupils move promptly and calmly to lessons without significant prompting from staff.

Outcomes for pupils Inadequate

• Pupils enter the school with standards in reading, writing and mathematics that are typically below the national average. In recent years, the prior attainment profile of pupils on entry has begun to improve slightly.
• In 2015 and again in 2016, outcomes for pupils in a wide range of subjects were significantly below average and pupils made insufficient progress from their starting points.
• In 2016, the percentage of pupils attaining good passes in English and mathematics rose marginally. However, pupils’ progress in English and mathematics was well below the national average and placed the school in the lowest 10% of schools nationally.
• Subject leaders made predictions for GCSE outcomes in 2016 which were over-optimistic.
• In 2015, disadvantaged pupils made significantly less progress than their peers across a wide range of subjects, including English and mathematics. This picture was repeated again in 2016, including for most-able disadvantaged pupils. No disadvantaged pupil achieved the English Baccalaureate.
• Disadvantaged pupils are currently not making sufficient progress. This is because the school does not have precisely targeted strategies to develop these pupils’ skills and knowledge.
• Outcomes for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are weak. The newly appointed special educational needs coordinator is working hard to improve this situation through the development of clear systems and procedures, focused monitoring of the work of teaching assistants and wider training for staff. It is too early to assess the impact of this appointment upon current pupils’ overall outcomes, but some improvements are evident in the reading skills for this group of pupils in Years 7 and 8.
• Published information shows that boys, particularly most-able boys, made weak progress in 2016. Boys’ underachievement is also apparent for current pupils. Boys’ work is often poorly presented, with limited evidence of sustained writing.
• School information indicates that current attainment and progress measures will rise significantly for the present Year 11. Inspectors’ observations and analysis of pupils’ current work across several subjects do not support this view.
• The school is not preparing pupils well for their next stage in education, training or employment. Standards in English and mathematics in recent years have been consistently low and therefore reduce pupils’ opportunities when they leave school.

16 to 19 study programmes Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching and learning in the sixth form is variable, but not good enough to drive up standards.
• Relationships are strong but teachers’ aspirations for students are not consistently high enough.
• Attendance in the sixth form has improved significantly for students in the current Year 12. Attendance for students in Year 13 remains low, despite leaders challenging students’ absence.
• From their starting points, students make expected progress. Academic results for students at both A level and AS level are similar to national figures. Results obtained by students following vocational courses are broadly average.
• Students’ individual study programmes build upon their prior attainment and meet the national requirements. The senior leader responsible for sixth-form provision ensures that each student is placed on an appropriate course.
• Students benefit from strong careers education and independent advice and guidance. They attend careers interviews in order to build up information about prospective jobs and career progression. All students enjoy a good range of work experience opportunities that complement their academic studies. This helps to ensure that no student leaves the sixth form without a future career path. Students are able to make informed decisions about the next steps in their education and training.
• Students have good opportunities to develop their personal, social and employability skills through their extended project time. They also benefit from a personalised enrichment programme, including consideration of British values, as part of a political literacy programme, and of the police and crime commissioners. Leaders have not monitored this programme sufficiently to assess its impact.
• Students who sit resit GCSE English and mathematics make better progress towards improving their grades than their peers nationally.
• Students behave responsibly, say that they feel safe and provide strong role models to pupils lower down in the school.
• Leadership of the sixth form is improving. The head of sixth form is ambitious for the students. He is aware of the strengths and weaknesses and accepts that there is more work to do to raise standards across the curriculum and raise students’ aspirations. There has been an increased focus recently upon monitoring the quality of teaching, using the whole-school monitoring processes to improve teaching. It is too early yet to gauge the impact of these approaches on securing higher outcomes for pupils.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 112399 Cumbria 10024103 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 Voluntary aided 11 to 18 Mixed Mixed 600 61 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Mr Mike Shovlin Mr John McAuley 01228 404 942 http://newman.cumbria.sch.uk/ office@newman.cumbria.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 27–28 January 2015

Information about this school

• The school does not meet requirements on the publication of information about ‘literacy and numeracy catch-up’ and governor information on its website.
• Newman Catholic School is smaller than the average-sized secondary school.
• Most pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is lower than that found nationally.
• The proportion of pupils known to be disadvantaged and therefore supported through the use of the pupil premium is slightly above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who are disabled and those who have special educational needs is slightly below the national average.
• The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ progress across a number of subjects, including English and mathematics.
• In December 2015, severe flooding caused substantial damage to the entire school. Pupils’ work was lost, along with classrooms and administrative and learning resources. In January 2016, the school relocated to temporary accommodation two miles away on the former site of a primary school building, to which temporary classrooms have been added. This inspection took place at the temporary site: Silverdale Road, Carlisle CA1 3RQ.
• The school receives support from the local authority, the diocese, a number of local schools and Our Lady’s Catholic High School, Preston.
• The school is a member of the Cumbria Alliance of System Leaders and the Catholic Teaching Alliance North.
• The school does not use alternative provision for students.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed learning in a range of lessons. They visited form time and an assembly and observed pupils’ conduct at break and lunchtime.
• Inspectors looked at pupils’ work in lessons and scrutinised a wider sample of work provided by senior leaders.
• Inspectors held discussions with senior leaders, middle leaders, governors and representatives of the local authority and diocese.
• Inspectors met with two groups of pupils formally and spoke with many more pupils informally. There were 26 responses to the online pupil survey.
• The inspection team looked at a wide range of documents. These included development plans, school self-evaluation, peer-to-peer reviews, governor minutes, school policies, safeguarding procedures and wider school records and logs.
• Inspectors also scrutinised the school’s website.
• The team took account of the 38 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, and of the 31 free text responses received from parents.
• They also considered the 52 responses to the staff online questionnaire.

Inspection team

Alyson Middlemass, lead inspector Lisa Crausby Bernard Robinson Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector