Burnage Academy for Boys Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Leaders and other members of staff should build on the school’s established approaches to ensure that pupils take even more responsibility for their own behaviour and learning, including in those situations where there is less direct guidance from staff.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• Leaders provide high-quality education and care for pupils. The headteacher, working with governors, has ensured that leadership arrangements have been refined to best meet the needs of pupils. For example, new leaders have been attached to the senior leadership team. In turn, this has meant that senior leaders now have separate responsibilities for safeguarding pupils and for pupils’ behaviour. In addition, such arrangements form part of the school’s successful commitment to providing opportunities for staff to develop in their careers. Such approaches have strongly contributed to the school’s improvement to become outstanding and indicate that it is well placed to improve still more.
• Leaders and other staff ensure that the school has a strong sense of its identity and community. A small ‘Manchester Bee’ model, previously shown in Manchester Cathedral as part of this summer’s ‘Bee in the City’ festival, is now displayed in the school foyer. A key aspect of the school’s ethos is summed up in a pupils’ phrase displayed on the bee, ‘Together by chance, united by choice’. The school is highly inclusive and welcomes pupils whatever their previous school or life experience. Some pupils have experienced trauma or distress, including some who have been affected by war or are refugees. Values such as tolerance and respect for others are embedded in the life of the school.
• Leaders have strong links with the wider community and seek to develop these further, for example by providing venues for some meetings with parents and carers based in the community rather than at the school. While leaders build positive relationships with parents, they are also prepared to challenge them, for example when pupils’ welfare or safety is at risk.
• Leaders know the school well. The school’s self-evaluation document captures the strengths of the school and makes accurate judgements. Senior and middle leaders work together to ensure that staff are accountable for the quality of their work. Leaders’ well-organised approach has ensured that the school has improved. When weaknesses are identified, these are systematically addressed. One example is in the transformation of leadership in science. Middle leadership in this team is now shared among a small team. This approach has led to improved teaching and stronger outcomes for pupils.
• There is a common sense of purpose among staff. This centres around the school’s commitment to provide the best possible personal development and academic achievement of pupils. The members of staff who shared their opinions with inspectors indicated that their morale is high. They recognise the consistency of the school’s approaches.
• Training for staff is built into the work of the school. This directly supports staff new to teaching but also allows teachers at any stage to develop their practice. Leaders ensure that teachers new to the school quickly become confident to provide high-quality teaching. If the school has concerns about teachers’ effectiveness, leaders provide additional support to bring about improvement.
• The curriculum is well planned to meet pupils’ needs. At key stage 3, pupils study the full range of national curriculum subjects to give them a breadth in their learning. Music is provided in conjunction with drama. At key stage 4, pupils select one of four different patterns of subjects, organised to match the needs of different groups, including the most able. Where pupils need more emphasis on learning English, this is provided. In addition to the subjects taught, pupils have opportunities to take part in wide range of extra-curricular activities. The school has its own accreditation programme to encourage pupils to extend their experience through positive enrichment activities. These range from participating in sporting activities to residential experience and the development of personal skills and self-worth.
• The school’s provision to develop pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) awareness is strong. Leaders state that this is particularly important to redress the gaps arising from some pupils’ experience out of school. Leaders have embarked on a programme, over this school year, to strengthen pupils’ SMSC development further by increasing the teaching time for this area.
• Leaders ensure that pupils have a strong voice in the running of their school. For example, all pupils are expected to contribute to the work of the school council. Small groups undertake activities in response to priorities recommended and voted on by pupils. Once aspect of this is in pupils’ different projects raising significant sums of money for charities. Similarly, some of the clubs offered by the school are run by pupils as a service to others.

Governance of the school

• Governance in the school is well organised. Governors meet regularly, often in committees concentrating on particular aspects of the school. Senior leaders are involved in governors’ work, which gives governors the information they need for their sharp scrutiny. Minutes of governing body meetings demonstrate the clarity of their questioning about how the school operates. For example, they carefully considered advantages and disadvantages of the recent change of the school day to include fewer, longer lessons. This type of approach adds to the effective challenge to leaders provided by the governing body and so has allowed governors to add to the school’s improvement.
• While recognising the financial pressure on the school, governors ensure that the available funds are properly spent. They check whether additional funding, including to support disadvantaged pupils, and to help pupils who join the school lagging behind others and those who have special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities, is being used effectively. They are well informed about the outcomes of different groups of pupils.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders and other staff are well trained to identify if there are potential safeguarding concerns about pupils. When these are identified, leaders carefully record the details and take swift action in response. Specialist members of staff with, for example, social work or school-nurse experience form part of the school’s own safeguarding team. However, when needed, leaders work closely with other agencies.
• The school’s safeguarding and child protection policy is available on the school website. The policy has been updated to reflect the most recent government guidance. In addition, a summary of the policy is available to pupils so that they know about the school’s approach and who they can talk to about any worries they may have.
• The school site is secure. Arrangements to ensure that pupils are safe are adjusted when needed, such as by increasing the number of staff supervising pupils outside school at the end of the school day.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• Pupils learn well and make substantial progress as a result of the excellent teaching they receive. Pupils benefit from consistent approaches across different subjects. For example, teachers share high expectations about the quality of pupils’ writing. As a result, pupils learn how to improve their writing further and are proud of what they achieve.
• Teachers share with pupils their enthusiasm for the subjects they teach. Teachers’ knowledge of their subjects is strong. They are confident in the skills they need to plan interesting learning. This helps teachers to keep pupils focused and engaged in classroom activities. Learning time is not wasted. Such features are common across the school in different subjects and for pupils of different ages. Infrequently, teaching is less effective, which can lead to a minority of pupils becoming unsettled and their learning slowing. Leaders’ careful monitoring means that any such situations are quickly followed up.
• The school has a systematic approach to collecting assessment information. Teachers and leaders make very good use of this to check how well individuals and groups are learning. Teachers are also effective in less formally assessing pupils’ learning in class. Teachers use their knowledge of pupils to target precise questioning to challenge pupils. Pupils’ work books show that high levels of challenge are a routine part of learning. Teachers’ expectations of pupils are very high.
• Since the previous inspection, the school has introduced new approaches to making it clear to pupils how to improve. These are proving very effective. They help teachers to manage their workload while giving pupils clear information to support their learning. Pupils respond well by refining their work.
• Much of the homework set by teachers involves revision and deepening learning. The views of parents shared with inspectors by the school indicate that some feel that the school’s approach to homework is helpful, while others do not. Teachers are aware that some pupils have after-school commitments to extended additional faith education. Pupils’ homework records show that homework for some classes has been set sporadically so far this year.
• Staff ensure that teaching meets the needs of different groups of pupils. Teachers’ good knowledge of individuals means that all are appropriately included in class questioning and discussion. Pupils very new to the country who speak little English receive additional support and are helped by using electronic translation. Pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities work closely with teaching assistants. This provision is effective in helping such pupils concentrate and understand the topics being covered. They guide the pupils’ use of materials and aid their participation in activities.
• The teaching provided in the school’s support centre for pupils who have behavioural difficulties which puts them at risk of exclusion is effective in helping pupils control their behaviour and gain useful qualifications.
• Teachers develops pupils’ wider skills. For example, they have successfully implemented a school-designed programme to support Year 7 pupils’ literacy skills. An inspector saw pupils enjoying practising their reading as part of this regular activity. Staff regularly assess pupils reading skills. This indicates that pupils’ reading develops quickly, with those whose have limited experience in English quickly catching up with their peers.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Leaders and other staff know pupils and their circumstances very well. They use this knowledge to help them ensure that pupils’ wider needs are successfully met. The systems for recording and analysing what action has been taken to support pupils are detailed. These provide a clear picture of the care and attention given to ensuring that pupils are looked after in school so that they can thrive and learn. For some pupils, the school is a haven of stability in their otherwise very complex lives.
• Pupils say that they feel safe in school. They know who to contact if they have any concerns and have confidence that these will be followed up. They are taught about how they can respond to the challenges that they might face in their lives. The programme of personal, social and health education includes challenging study of difficult topics. For example, an inspector saw Year 8 pupils responding with absolute concentration to a hard-hitting drama presentation about the way people can become radicalised.
• Leaders are acutely aware of the risks pupils may face outside school such as violence, including knife crime, gangs and extremism. When pupils are directly affected, the school’s response is direct, compassionate and effective.
• The school is a harmonious community. Pupils accept and value each other. Pupils say that bullying is very rare and, if it does occur, is dealt with quickly. Pupils are taught about the importance of respecting others. The school’s records indicate that poor behaviour, involving homophobia, racism or other kinds of intolerance, is very infrequent.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils behave well in lessons, which helps all to learn. They respond quickly when teachers ask them to change activities or participate in discussion.
• During the previous school year, leaders introduced firmer sanctions to discourage poor behaviour. Pupils say that they value the higher expectations set by staff and that behaviour has improved. This improvement has also been noted by staff. The new approach has led to a clear reduction in incidents of poor behaviour for older pupils. The consistent application of the new approaches by staff in embedding the school’s higher expectations led to an increase in recorded incidents for pupils in Years 7 and 8.
• Pupils are friendly towards each other at breaktimes and when moving around the school. However, they are active and lively. While good-natured, sometimes this liveliness turns into boisterous behaviour, particularly when pupils are not closely supervised by members of staff.
• The school has very thorough systems for encouraging high attendance. For many pupils and classes, these are very successful. For example, weekly attendance rates of at least 98% from pupils in two Year 11 and one Year 7 classes were celebrated in a house assembly during the inspection. Overall attendance was a little below the national average over the previous school year. It dipped slightly when compared to the year before that. This was as a result of factors not directly under the school’s control, such as family holidays during term time and changes in the local authority’s approach to legal action in response to very poor attendance.
• Pupils are punctual to class. This is helped by clear signals when pupils should start to move back to lessons at the end of breaks. Pupils respond well to these and are very quickly ready to learn as lessons start.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Pupils make very substantial progress throughout their time in the school. The latest published results from 2017 show that pupils’ progress was above that seen nationally for all pupils. This comparison is even more positive when made to the progress of boys in other schools. Taking into account their starting points, on average, pupils gained about half a GCSE grade more in each of their subjects than typical elsewhere. Early information about GCSE results in 2018 indicates that Year 11 pupils continued to be as successful overall. In addition, some relatively less strong aspects, such as somewhat weaker progress of most-able pupils in 2017, were not seen in 2018. Disadvantaged pupils make similar progress to other pupils nationally.
• Pupils’ starting points on joining the school are, on average, lower than elsewhere. By the end of their time at the school, pupils’ attainment at GCSE is broadly in line with national averages. The success indicated by these GCSE results is even greater because the results include those from pupils who join the school without any information about their previous educational success. Often, these are pupils who have only recently come into the country. Such pupils can make up to about one third of the total number of pupils in Year 11 and include some who join the school speaking little English.
• Inspection evidence, including school records, work in pupils’ books and observation of how well pupils learn, confirms that pupils across the school make similar consistently strong progress across the school. It is very often hard to tell which pupils may be disadvantaged or speak a language other than English at home because these groups make similar progress to others. There is similar consistency in the substantial progress made by groups of pupils with different starting points, including the most able.
• Pupils progress very well in mathematics and English. However, this success is not restricted to these subjects; pupils have similar high achievement throughout their learning, including, for example, in modern foreign languages and technology. Over recent years, progress in science has increased. Evidence about pupils’ current learning in science shows that this is now similarly strong to that in other subjects.
• The close support provided to pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities helps them to reach their potential. For some of these pupils, this enables them to make progress in line with their peers. For others, more important outcomes are the ability to take part in the school community or to develop their reading and writing skills. The provision within the school’s support centre helps the small number of pupils who attend make faster academic progress than they showed while working in the main school. This, in part, reflects the improvement in their behaviour.
• The school completes continuing assessment of the reading skills of key stage 3 pupils. This shows that pupils make considerable gains in their reading. In particular, those pupils who arrive at the school with no information about their previous attainment rapidly catch up with others.
• Pupils are very well prepared for their next steps after they leave the school. The proportion of pupils who move from the school to further education or vocational training, including apprenticeships, has increased. The most recent data from the local authority indicates that all pupils who left the school at the end of Year 11 in 2018 successfully made that transfer.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 140703 Manchester 10046966 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 Number of pupils on the school roll Academy converter 11 to 16 Boys 913 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Alan Scott Ian Fenn Telephone number 0161 4321527 Website Email address www.burnage.manchester.sch.uk office@burnage.manchester.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 28–29 June 2016

Information about this school

• This is an average-sized school. It became an academy in April 2014, although it maintains close links with the local authority.
• The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is much higher than average. The largest proportion is of Pakistani heritage. However, pupils from many different backgrounds attend the school. Many pupils do not speak English as their first language. Around 35 different languages are spoken by pupils at home.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils is much higher than the national average. Deprivation within the school’s community is high.
• The proportions of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities and of pupils with an education, health and care plan are well above average.
• The school population is much less stable than seen in many schools. The school accepts a large proportion of new in-year entrants, including pupils who have recently arrived in the country.
• The school runs an off-site educational unit close to the school site to provide temporary provision for a small number of pupils with behavioural problems. The school also provides this facility for two other local schools. Burnage pupils working in this unit also spend some of their time in alternative provision at Manchester Vocational Training College.
• The school is part of The Manchester Alliance of schools, a group of schools which work collaboratively to share effective practice.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors met with the headteacher, senior leaders, middle leaders and other members of staff.
• Inspectors met with groups of pupils and spoke to others in lessons and during breaktimes.
• Inspectors observed teaching and learning. Some of this was completed jointly with senior leaders.
• An inspector scrutinised pupils’ books as a joint activity with a senior leader. In addition, other work books were examined during lessons.
• An inspector met with a local authority representative and spoke by telephone to an independent educational expert who works closely with the school.
• An inspector met with the chair and vice-chair of the governing body and two other governors.
• Inspectors scrutinised school documents about outcomes, teaching and learning, behaviour and leadership. These included the school’s record of self-evaluation. In addition, records and information about safeguarding and minutes of the governing body were considered.
• Inspectors reviewed 20 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, including 11 additional written comments. Inspectors also considered samples of written responses to a survey of parents recently completed by the school.
• Inspectors considered 37 responses from members of staff to the online questionnaire for staff and 86 responses from pupils to their inspection survey.

Inspection team

David Selby, lead inspector David Woodhouse Linda Griffiths Annette Patterson

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector