Winton Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Further reduce the number of fixed-term exclusions and pupils removed from lessons to work away from their peers so that fewer pupils miss classroom education.
• Improve the uptake of, and outcomes in, languages at key stage 4 by ensuring that the quality of teaching in languages matches the high quality of teaching in other subjects.
• Develop more coherent systems of monitoring pupils’ movement so that leaders and the trust can identify any emerging trends in pupils leaving the school.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• Since the last inspection, the principal, executive principal and other senior leaders have continued to improve the school strongly. Leaders at all levels, including those responsible for governance, are determined to improve the school even further. Leaders are restless for improvement. The school is a well-ordered place where pupils feel safe and are well prepared for life after school. Leaders are humble and dedicated and their hard work has resulted in life-changing outcomes for pupils in this area of Bournemouth.
• Staff told inspectors that they value the training they receive. Staff say that the support and mentoring from middle leaders, along with the rapid improvement of pupils’ behaviour, has been instrumental in improving teaching across the school. The vast majority of staff who responded to the Ofsted’s staff online questionnaire agree that the school has improved considerably since the last inspection. They are proud to work at the school.
• Leaders have taken effective action to improve staff well-being. Leaders make sure that staff focus keenly on what makes a difference to pupils’ progress. Leaders are committed to ensuring that staff can focus their efforts on teaching and learning. Staff welcome leaders’ drive to provide pupils with high-quality feedback to improve the quality of their learning.
• Leaders are developing an innovative ‘character curriculum’. Through this work, they give pupils the opportunity to experience a wide range of activities outside of the formal curriculum, including many that develop pupils’ social, moral, spiritual and cultural knowledge. These activities include a choir, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and a range of visits. Leaders track pupils’ participation closely and target groups of pupils to ensure that they attend these activities. Through this careful tracking, leaders can be certain that the activities they offer are accessible to all pupils and that, regardless of a pupil’s background, they take part in the wider life of the school.
• All members of staff expect the very highest standards of pupil conduct. Leaders have clear sanctions for any behaviour that does not meet these expectations. Leaders’ ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to behaviour is complemented by effective support for pupils who misbehave. For example, if a pupil is removed from lessons to work away from their peers more than twice they are assessed carefully, receive close mentoring/ counselling or receive other appropriate support.
• The leadership of SEND is exceptional. Staff have the highest aspirations for pupils with SEND. Leaders share information about pupils’ needs clearly. Teachers are trained effectively. As a result, staff develop their expertise well. A highly skilled team of teaching assistants supports this work. They have specialisms, for example in mentoring, cognitive behavioural therapy and social, emotional and mental health. The school runs optional courses for pupils in self-help, anxiety, anger management, and managing social media. These courses are very well attended. Pupils with SEND speak very positively about the support they receive.
• Leaders use the extra funding they receive for disadvantaged pupils, those with weak literacy or numeracy skills and those with SEND diligently. Governors scrutinise the impact of this extra funding and leaders adapt their strategic plans for its use. As a result, outcomes for these pupils are extremely strong.
• Leaders have made curriculum decisions that enable pupils to experience a broad range of subjects and only specialise in Years 10 and 11. The curriculum at key stage 3 is broad and balanced, with learning in English, mathematics and science, the arts, technical subjects and physical education. At the end of Year 9, pupils have a range of taster days to make sure that they are choosing GCSE subjects that are matched with their skills and interests. The numbers of pupils choosing to study a language is increasing. However, still, relatively few pupils choose to do this.
• A high number of pupils move both onto and off the school roll. Inspectors scrutinised this in detail. There are a variety of reasons for this high level of pupil movement, including the availability of school places at other schools in the vicinity. Inspectors found no evidence of the school deliberately removing pupils from their roll to improve results. However, leaders’ tracking of pupils joining and leaving the school could be sharper so that they can identify any emerging patterns of which pupils leave and join the school.

Governance of the school

• Governance is effective because:
  • governors share leaders’ passion and commitment to consistent improvement
  • staff at the trust know the school well, and support the local governing body so that its members are knowledgeable
  • the trust ensures that the local governing body has the information it needs to hold leaders sharply to account
  • governors visit the school regularly so that they have first-hand knowledge of the school’s work.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders have ensured that all safeguarding systems and record-keeping are fit for purpose.
• Staff are well trained in safeguarding. They have a clear understanding of the need for vigilance, what to look out for, and what they should do if they have any concerns. Staff consistently look at ways in which safeguarding could be improved, for example with regular updates, refresher training and training staff to a level higher than their role would usually need.
• Governors take their responsibility for safeguarding very seriously. They take a keen interest in this aspect of the school’s work and do spot-checks to make sure that, for example, staff vetting procedures are completed properly.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• The quality of teaching is consistently very high. Teachers’ subject knowledge is excellent and teaching is typically challenging, engaging and effective. As a result of a well-planned curriculum, learning flows clearly from one lesson to the next. This leads, over time, to outstanding outcomes.
• Teachers use high-quality detailed assessment systems to plan onward teaching which meets pupils’ needs well. Teaching focuses closely on pupils’ understanding of key concepts and subject-specific vocabulary. As a result, teaching enables pupils to have well-developed subject knowledge, and grasp increasingly complex subject content.
• Teachers’ questioning is well-pitched and effective. Their questioning helps pupils think about what they know and link ideas together and challenges pupils’ thought processes.
• Teachers stretch and challenge pupils’ understanding and learning regularly in lessons, especially those with high prior attainment. Teachers plan activities which require pupils to go a step further and do something harder or more complex. Pupils rise to this challenge and often push themselves to do more. Pupils are keen to ask questions for clarification and their questions are sometimes sophisticated and profound.
• In many lessons, there is a focus on pupils’ verbal and written skills. For example, pupils are required to discuss their ideas with other members of the class, answer increasingly complex questions and write at length across the curriculum. This promotes pupils’ developing literacy, confidence to speak in front of others and ability to write longer pieces of text well.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Leaders have the highest expectations of pupils’ conduct and attitudes to learning. Pupils respond well to these expectations and express pride in their school. In lessons, they take part in activities with enthusiasm and they are interested and committed to improving their work. Their work demonstrates their commitment to high standards of presentation and effort.
• Leaders’ work to improve pupils’ welfare is effective and takes into account the rising needs for support for pupils’ emotional and mental health. The curriculum also supports pupils’ well-being with effective work on social media and e-safety, for example. Pupils feel safe in school and say that leaders deal with bullying quickly and effectively, when it happens.
• The majority of pupils take a keen part in the wider life of the school. Groups such as disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND are participating more than they have in the past as a result of this focus on enabling and expecting all pupils to take part. Leaders’ keen tracking means that they know which groups are under-represented and intervene to engage these pupils. This is proving successful, and the number of pupils taking part continues to increase.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Pupils’ behaviour in lessons is excellent. Teachers rarely have to deal with low-level disruption to learning and, as a result, pupils can learn with very few interruptions. The vast majority of pupils meet the high expectations set by leaders consistently.
• Pupils are polite to staff and one another in the corridors. Even when corridors become busy, they are sensible and act maturely. High levels of staff presence mean that pupils feel safe around the school and any issues with behaviour are resolved quickly.
• Pupils’ attendance is above the national average and the proportion of pupils who are regularly absent is low. There are clear procedures for pupils who are late, and the vast majority of pupils make sure that they are on time regularly.
• The number of fixed-term exclusions for poor behaviour or conduct has fallen rapidly. From being well above the national average, it is now below. Leaders continue to focus on reducing fixed-term exclusions further. While some pupils are internally isolated as a result of their behaviour, this number is also decreasing. The percentage of pupils who have repeat exclusions or are repeatedly removed from lessons to work away from their peers is low.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Over the past three years, pupils’ progress by the end of Year 11 has been exceptionally strong. Overall progress was in the top 15% of schools nationally in 2016, and the top 10% in 2017. In 2018, pupils’ progress was even stronger. Regardless of starting points or particular needs, pupils make similarly strong progress.
• Pupils’ progress in mathematics has improved considerably since the last inspection. In 2018, pupils made, on average, over a grade more progress than other pupils nationally with similar starting points. Similarly, in English, pupils made over a third of a grade more progress than their peers nationally. Pupils made high levels of progress across many different subjects.
• The proportion of pupils who gained a standard pass in both English and mathematics was above the national average and is rising. The percentage that gained a strong pass was also above the national average and is rising. This means that pupils are well prepared for their next steps.
• Leaders track pupils’ progress carefully across the school. The vast majority of pupils across groups and subjects are making progress in line with, or in excess of, what might be expected for their age. Over time, high-quality teaching, careful assessment and high expectations are leading to extremely strong progress.
• Pupils’ life chances have improved. The proportion of pupils who went onto employment, education and training in 2017 was just below the national average. In 2018, all pupils who left Year 11 went into education, employment and training. The majority went on to do A levels at local providers. Other pupils accessed a wide range of courses that met their needs. All pupils with SEND went on to full-time education at other providers.
• While their progress was better than that of similar pupils nationally, pupils’ progress in languages lagged behind that in other subjects in 2018. Leaders have analysed the reasons for this and are making changes to the curriculum. As a result, current pupils are doing better in languages.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 140007 Bournemouth 10084114 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 sponsor-led 11 to 16 Boys 774 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Principal Telephone number Website Email address Richard Greenhalgh Stuart Ingram 01202 529738 www.wintoncollege.org.uk info@waamc.co.uk Date of previous inspection 17 June 2015

Information about this school

• Winton Academy is a boys’ school. It is sponsored with the United Learning Trust. It has a principal and an executive principal.
• The school is co-located with a girls’ school and the leadership team oversees both schools. Boys and girls share social spaces, corridors and other facilities and staff teach across both schools. Pupils are taught in mixed classes for some subjects at key stage 4.
• The proportion of pupils who are disadvantaged is average and the majority of pupils are White British. The proportion of pupils with SEND is well above the national average.

Information about this inspection

• The quality of teaching was evaluated through visits to lessons, scrutiny of pupils’ work and analysis of the school’s monitoring of teaching.
• Inspectors evaluated pupils’ views about the school through formal discussions with them and informal conversations during social time.
• Inspectors met with a representative from the trust, members of the local governing body, senior leaders and a range or teachers.
• The views of parents were considered through the 156 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, and the 134 Parent View free-text responses. Staff views were considered through meetings with staff and the 120 responses to an online questionnaire.
• Inspectors evaluated the number of pupils leaving the school over the past three years, the reasons for them leaving, the characteristics of pupils leaving, and the provision for pupils who do not consistently meet the school’s behaviour expectations. They visited the room where pupils work if they are removed from lessons and spoke with pupils in this room; they evaluated the work they were undertaking and the systems for meeting their wider needs.
• Inspectors scrutinised a wide range of documentation, including information about safeguarding and vetting checks on staff.

Inspection team

Dan Owen, lead inspector Alun Williams Malcolm Willis Marcia Headon Suzanne Richards Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector