The Academy, Selsey Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching so that all pupils, including the most able and those who enter the school with average attainment, make at least good progress, by: 
  • securing the necessary improvements in mathematics and science 
  • using accurate information to plan teaching to meet pupils’ needs 
  • ensuring that teachers use probing questions which require pupils to think deeply and provide thoughtful responses
  • leaders and governors check the impact of their actions to improve the achievement of the most able pupils and those who enter the school with average attainment.
• Continue with efforts to ensure that the small number of pupils who are frequently absent attend school regularly.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders have risen magnificently to the many challenges caused by the fire which destroyed large parts of the school in August 2016. As a result of their decisive and timely actions, the school functions as a calm, cohesive and orderly community in temporary accommodation.
• The recently appointed headteacher is a highly visible and reassuring presence in the school. He has rightly earned the respect of pupils, parents and staff because of the clarity of his vision and his passion for the school. He is well supported by the executive headteacher. Together they have successfully raised the aspirations of staff and pupils and instilled a culture of achievement at the school, underpinned by the school’s motto, ‘Pride in Excellence’.
• Leaders have made good progress in addressing the areas for improvement from the last inspection. Behaviour is now a strength of the school. The quality of teaching, learning and assessment, while still inconsistent, has improved.
• Leaders have had success in addressing some of the weaknesses in teaching noted at the previous inspection. They make regular checks on the quality of teaching, drawing on a wide variety of evidence, including pupils’ work and their performance in tests, as well as observations of lessons. They use this information to hold teachers to account effectively and to provide them with appropriate training.
• Leaders have rightly invested in training and development for teachers, drawing on good practice within the school and from the wider academy trust. This was interrupted in the autumn term, when teaching took place on several different sites. Now that all the pupils are on one site, the training programme for teachers has recommenced and is starting to drive rapid improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.
• Leaders make effective use of additional funding received from the government to accelerate the progress of disadvantaged pupils and those in Year 7 who need to catch up. As a result, disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make strong progress.
• The curriculum is appropriately broad and balanced and is leading to improved outcomes for pupils. For example, in 2016, pupils’ progress overall was at the national average and all pupils went on to the local college or into apprenticeships. However, because pupils’ progress in mathematics and science is not good enough, the school does not ensure that pupils are well prepared for their next steps.
• Leaders ensure that pupils are well prepared for life in modern Britain. Pupils learn about democracy, respect and tolerance, and so have a good understanding of British values in a range of lessons and in assemblies. Pupils speak with enthusiasm about the topics they have discussed, and the visiting speakers that they have heard from.
• Leaders have developed new systems for checking how well pupils are doing. These systems are in the early stages of development, following the disruption caused by the fire. Although leaders have an increasingly accurate understanding of pupils’ progress, their evaluation of how well pupils currently in the school are doing is overgenerous.
• Parents who replied to the online survey are very positive about the provision the school makes for their children. They receive high-quality information from the school, and are particularly appreciative of the efforts that leaders and other staff have made to minimise disruption to learning following the fire. One wrote: ‘The way that the staff and management have reacted to the devastating fire during the summer has been incredible.’
• Leaders with responsibility for specific areas of the school’s work share a determination to do their best for pupils in the school. However, at times they do not focus sharply enough on the impact of their actions. As a result, they do not know whether these actions have been successful.
• The Kemnal Academy Trust (TKAT) provides effective support. Following the fire, the trust used its resources to place pupils in appropriate temporary accommodation. Representatives of the trust carry out regular checks on standards in the school and produce reports that help governors hold leaders to account. Teachers benefit from a wide range of training opportunities provided by the trust, which enable them to share ideas with colleagues in other schools.

Governance of the school

• Governance is effective. Governors have an accurate picture of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. They have identified the correct priorities and hold leaders to account for these. Governors visit the school often, so that they can verify what leaders tell them. They also make good use of reports provided by the sponsoring trust to make secure judgements about the quality of provision.
• The recently appointed chair of governors has lost no time in recruiting new governors, and ensuring that they have access to the right training. He has also put in place new reporting systems to ensure that governors get the information they need from school leaders.
• Governors make regular checks on the impact of additional finding to support disadvantaged pupils and those in Year 7 who need to catch up.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• There is a strong culture of safeguarding in the school. During the first half term, when pupils were dispersed over four sites, leaders were meticulous in ensuring that pupils were safe. All necessary checks on staff and others who work with pupils are carried out in an exemplary manner. Staff and governors have received appropriate training on safeguarding, including the ‘Prevent’ duty and child sexual exploitation. Staff are fully aware of their responsibility to keep pupils safe and know how to report any concerns they have. The governor with responsibility for safeguarding is diligent in her role, making regular visits to the school and checking records.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment across the school has improved since the last inspection, but remains variable. Over time, pupils have not been challenged to work as hard as they could or to achieve in line with their potential. As a result, pupils have not made enough progress in their learning.
• Teachers’ planning does not take sufficient account of what pupils already know, understand and can do. Consequently, work is not always pitched at the correct level, particularly for the most able pupils and those who entered the school with average attainment. These pupils do not make enough progress because their learning is limited by the tasks they are given to complete.
• Too often, questioning by teachers focuses on simple recall and does not require pupils to reflect on their learning, solve problems or demonstrate their understanding of concepts.
• Written tasks often require pupils to give short answers only. As a result, pupils, in particular the most able and those with average attainment at key stage 2, do not get enough practice in writing at length and are not required to think more deeply about their learning.
• In mathematics, pupils do not have enough opportunities to use and apply their mathematical skills. As a result, they are not prepared well enough for their GCSE mathematics course.
• In science, the amount of work covered over time is insufficient to enable pupils to make the progress they need to. When ‘challenge tasks’ are set, too few pupils choose to complete them.
• Teachers have shown considerable resilience following the fire in the summer. For example, there is no internet access in the temporary classrooms, and so teachers have had to be creative to ensure that pupils can access the resources they need.
• Where teaching is effective, pupils, particularly the most able, have regular opportunities to consolidate and deepen their knowledge. For example, in gymnastics, pupils designed routines and evaluated their own and each other’s work. In religious education (RE), strong questioning helped pupils to understand how people of different religious faiths see topical ethical issues.
• Teachers give helpful feedback to pupils and follow the school’s policy consistently. Pupils say that the feedback they get from their teachers helps them to understand their next steps. This was particularly evident in English, mathematics and science.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils are proud of their school and appreciate all their teachers do for them. They recognise that the fire was a tragedy, but at the same time they believe it has helped to create a sense of community. One said: ‘The fire was a terrible thing to happen, but it has brought us together and made us stronger.’
• Pupils are confident and self-assured. They wear their uniform with pride and are unfailingly courteous to visitors. They talk with warmth about their school, their teachers and the subjects they study.
• Pupils receive timely and impartial careers advice, which they value.
• Pupils enjoy personal, social and health education (PSHE) lessons and assemblies. As a result, they know how to keep themselves safe, including online, and they know who they can talk to if they have a problem. In a recent assembly a local celebrity spoke to pupils about online bullying, under the headline ‘don’t be mean on the screen’.
• Pupils benefit from a wide range of clubs and activities which complement the curriculum. Many are looking forward to taking part in the forthcoming production of the musical ‘Annie’. Pupils also value the educational visits that their teachers organise, for example a day trip to the Houses of Parliament and a residential visit to France.
• The Bridge, a local charity based on the school site, provides valuable and highly regarded mentoring and counselling support for vulnerable pupils.

Behaviour

• Pupils’ behaviour is good.
• Although attendance is below the national average overall, the disruption to normal operation immediately following the fire has impacted on this. Now that all the pupils are accommodated on a single site, leaders’ efforts to ensure all pupils attend regularly are beginning to bear fruit. Most notably, there has been some success in reducing the number of pupils who are frequently absent.
• In the last inspection, behaviour was highlighted as an area for improvement. Leaders’ actions to address this have been effective and pupils’ good behaviour is now a strength of the school.
• Around the school, between lessons, at break and at lunchtime, pupils conduct themselves well.
• In lessons, pupils behave well when the work they are set is well tailored to their needs and challenges them to think and work hard. However, when they are given work that is too easy or that fails to capture their interest, pupils occasionally lose concentration. Pupils report that behaviour in lessons is good and that disruption is very rare.
• Pupils say that bullying is infrequent and that when it does occur, teachers deal with it promptly and well. There are no areas in the school in which pupils report they feel unsafe.
• Pupils understand and support the school’s rewards and sanctions policy and say that teachers implement it consistently.
• Fixed-term exclusions have fallen sharply over the last three years and are now in line with national averages overall.

Outcomes for pupils Require improvement

• Pupils do not make enough progress in mathematics or science. Provisional outcomes for 2016 show that while progress overall was at the national average, progress in mathematics and science was below average. In mathematics, boys, disadvantaged pupils and pupils who entered the school in Year 7 with average attainment did not make enough progress. In science, pupils who entered the school with average attainment also made progress below that of their peers nationally.
• Too few pupils make enough progress over time to ensure that they will achieve their targets at the end of key stage 4 in some subjects. In mathematics, pupils do not have enough opportunities to use and apply their mathematical knowledge, while in history, pupils do not get enough practice in analysing and evaluating historical information. In science, the work set lacks challenge, and so pupils do not make enough progress over time.
• In key stage 3, while the most able pupils are making steady progress, the tasks they are given do not allow them to work at the depth required to achieve their potential. For example, in English, the most able pupils get regular opportunities to write at length, but the development of their skills over time is not rapid enough. As a result, by the end of the key stage, their ability to use a variety of sentence styles and a wide range of vocabulary is less sophisticated than would be expected.
• Overall, pupils performed in line with national averages in the new Progress 8 measure in 2016. Progress of current pupils in some subject areas is strong, for example in PSHE, RE, gymnastics and information and communication technology (ICT).
• Disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make strong progress over time. This is a major strength of the school. These pupils do particularly well in English and in the subjects that make up the English Baccalaureate.
• Leaders have been successful in establishing a culture of reading in the school. One Year 8 pupil told inspectors, ‘I love reading!’ All pupils in key stage 3 read for an hour a week, as well as having regular ‘drop everything and read’ sessions in form time. The weakest readers in Year 7 follow an effective catch-up programme. The impact of this can be seen in the sharp improvement in published English outcomes between 2015 and 2016.
• All pupils who left the school in 2016 went on to college courses or apprenticeships. However, outcomes in mathematics were below national averages, so the school is not yet fully preparing pupils for their next steps.

School details

Unique reference number 137096 Local authority West Sussex Inspection number 10012318 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Secondary comprehensive School category Academy sponsor-led Age range of pupils 11 to 16 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 393 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Ben Cooper Headteacher Tom Garfield Telephone number 01243 602 558

Website www.theacademyselsey-tkat.org Email address head@theacademyselsey-tkat.org

Date of previous inspection 3 July 2014

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 is a mixed secondary school that educates pupils between the ages of 11 and 16. It is much smaller than the average secondary school.
• It became an academy in September 2011, sponsored by the Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT).
• The population of the school is mainly White British, and the proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language or who come from minority ethnic backgrounds is much smaller than average.
• The proportion of pupils in receipt of free school meals is higher than the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is higher than the national average.
• The school met the government’s floor standards for attainment and progress in 2015.
• A large part of the school was destroyed by a fire in August 2016. Lessons currently take place in temporary accommodation on the school site.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited 34 lessons to observe learning, talk to pupils and look at their work across all key stages. Fifteen of these visits were carried out jointly with school leaders.
• Inspectors also met with senior leaders, middle leaders and a range of other staff. They also spoke to pupils from key stages 3 and 4.
• The lead inspector met with the chair and one other member of the governing body and with representatives of The Kemnal Academy Trust. The lead inspector also spoke to the leader of The Bridge.
• Inspectors worked alongside two senior leaders to look at a sample of pupils’ work.
• Inspectors considered the views of parents by analysing 20 responses to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, including 19 free text responses. Inspectors also took into account 21 responses to the staff survey.
• Inspectors reviewed a range of other documents, including leaders’ self-evaluation and improvement plan, the school’s website, the school’s central record of recruitment checks, child protection records, leaders’ analyses of attendance and behaviour, minutes of the governing body and notes of external visits carried out by the trust.
• Inspectors also reviewed safeguarding procedures at the school.

Inspection team

Gary Holden, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Carol Grant Ofsted Inspector Debbie Godfrey-Phaure Ofsted Inspector