Sexey's School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Tighten up the arrangements for safeguarding by rapidly implementing the relevant points in the action plan following the inspection of boarding provision in October 2016 and ensuring that they are effective.
• Improve the procedures for identifying and recording incidents of bullying.
• Improve teaching, learning and assessment in mathematics, science and a small number of other subjects by ensuring that:
  • teaching builds on what pupils already know, understand and can do
  • the most able pupils are challenged to deepen and extend their learning
  • pupils know how well they are doing and how to improve their work
  • teachers make accurate assessments of the quality of pupils’ work and the progress they are making.
• Ensure that disadvantaged pupils make the progress they are capable of. 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 Requires improvement

• Pupils do extremely well in GCSE examinations at the end of Year 11. School leaders believe that pupils make outstanding progress across the school. While they do in many subjects, they do not in all year groups from Year 7 to Year 11. Additionally, some small groups of pupils, such as those who are disadvantaged, do not achieve as well as they could.
• School leaders’ monitoring does not provide an accurate evaluation of pupils’ progress in all year groups and subjects. This leads to an overgenerous view of progress in some subjects, including mathematics and science.
• Senior leaders do not routinely monitor the progress and attendance of specific groups of pupils, such as disadvantaged pupils. As a result, they cannot provide convincing evidence that their outcomes or attendance have improved sufficiently.
• Although pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities do well, their progress as a group is also not monitored closely.
• Incidents of bullying are not always identified clearly in behaviour records. Therefore, senior leaders cannot analyse these incidents to be fully aware of how much bullying occurs or to learn effectively from these incidents.
• There are systems in place to manage the performance of teachers. However, these have not detected the variations in the quality of teaching in some subjects.
• The curriculum is suited well to the small size of the school and its pupils. While it is a narrow curriculum, there is sufficient breadth and flexibility to meet pupils’ needs. The curriculum in the sixth form is well suited to students’ needs.
• Pupils and sixth-form students take part in a wide range of sporting, creative, cultural and other activities that aid their all-round development.
• Despite some concerns about pupils’ welfare, there is a very positive culture and ethos in the school. Pupils and sixth-form students indicate that they enjoy school.
• The school aims to turn out well-rounded young people who can play a full part in society. It is largely very successful in achieving this. Pupils and sixth-form students are prepared well for life in modern Britain. They are confident and self-assured, with good personal and social skills. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a strength of the school.
• The strong leadership of 16 to 19 study programmes is instrumental in building and maintaining the good quality of this provision and outcomes for students. Students on 16 to 19 study programmes in the sixth form make outstanding progress in their academic achievement.

Governance of the school

• Governors are extremely supportive of senior and other school leaders and are very much involved in the life of the school. There is a good breadth and depth of expertise on the governing body. However, they do not challenge senior leaders robustly enough about pupils’ achievement and attendance.
• Governors accept the leaders’ view that the school is outstanding but have not yet fully challenged the evidence to support this.
• Governors know how the pupil premium funding is used. However, they do not evaluate the effectiveness of the use of this funding through its impact on, for example, raising these pupils’ achievement.
• Governors have procedures in place to ensure that safeguarding arrangements are effective. The lead governor for safeguarding, who has recently taken on this role, has frequent meetings with the school’s designated safeguarding lead. There are regular reports to governors.
• A small working group of governors has been set up, including the governor with overall responsibility for safeguarding, to support the school leaders in implementing the action plan following the October 2016 inspection of the boarding provision. This group has recently started its work and cannot evaluate the impact of the actions at this time.
• Governors check the school website to make sure it contains the information required and that it provides good access to essential and useful information for parents.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Policies, staff recruitment and training, links with external agencies and the arrangements to ensure that governors have oversight of safeguarding meet requirements and are fit for purpose. Pupils feel safe and this view is fully supported by their parents and teachers.
• The key issues for the school following the October 2016 inspection that found boarding provision for pupils of all ages, including those in the sixth form, to be inadequate for safeguarding have been identified. An action plan covering all aspects of the school was produced. These actions are being implemented, but some aspects not rapidly enough, and it is too early to evaluate their impact. The implications for further staff and governor training have not yet been precisely identified.
• Some aspects of the arrangements need tightening up. It is currently difficult for senior leaders to analyse records of behavioural incidents to have an accurate picture of the extent of bullying in the school. Some risk assessments are not rigorous enough.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• The quality of teaching varies across the school and subjects. Much is highly effective, such as in English, French, history and religious studies, but less so in other subjects, such as mathematics, science and information and communication technology.
• In stronger subjects, pupils know how well they are doing and how to improve their work. They respond well to incisive feedback and challenge. However, this is not the case in mathematics and science. As a result, pupils do not make the progress they should across all year groups.
• Where teaching is weaker, it does not establish and build well on what pupils already know, understand and can do. This leads to work that is too easy or unnecessarily repetitive, limiting the progress that pupils make. Pupils, particularly the most able, are not encouraged to develop deeper thinking and reasoning skills. Pupils’ work in information and communication technology lacks coherence and it is difficult to see what learning is expected.
• Teachers’ assessment of pupils’ current work and progress, as entered into the school’s assessment system, is not always consistent with the quality of their current work, as seen in mathematics. This gives some pupils a false picture of how well they are doing.
• Many teachers identify individual pupils who might need extra support, including disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, but this does not follow through into teaching. The most able pupils are sometimes not identified and, as a result, they are not challenged sufficiently.
• Teaching in the sixth form is consistently of a high quality, enabling students to make strong progress in almost all subjects. Their progress is checked carefully and any students at risk of falling behind are quickly identified and well-focused and effective support provided to help them get back on track.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.
• The very large majority of pupils are self-confident and self-assured, apply themselves to learning well and enjoy their time in the school. This contributes to the high achievement of many.
• A comprehensive programme of personal, social and health education means that pupils are aware of how to keep themselves safe and free from physical and emotional harm. Their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development permeates the life of the school, is done well and is highly effective.
• The attention given to each pupil’s welfare, including students in the sixth form, is not yet sharp enough. Risk assessments for the individual pupils known to be vulnerable and for some activities are not yet rigorous. Not enough is yet done to learn from and reduce incidents of bullying.
• Information about pupils’ destinations at the end of Year 11 and after the sixth form and retention and achievement in the sixth form show that pre-16 careers guidance is effective. Pupils are well informed about the range of options open to them and increasing numbers are moving on to apprenticeships.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• In previous years, pupils’ attendance overall was below the national average and particularly low for the small numbers of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. School leaders claim that attendance has improved. However, this is not the case when comparing, for example, this time last year with current levels of attendance.
• School leaders are unable to provide convincing evidence that the attendance of disadvantaged pupils and those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities has improved and persistent absence reduced.
• Pupils’ behaviour in lessons and around the school site is often exemplary. However, pupils and parents report that bullying occurs in the school. They mostly feel that these incidents are dealt with effectively, although some of these incidents are recorded as poor behaviour rather than bullying. This makes it difficult for senior leaders to analyse this information and evaluate how effective any actions to reduce bullying have been.
• When pupils know how to improve their work, they respond very well. They often show good initiative in redrafting pieces of work or extending aspects of it.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• While pupils achieve some excellent GCSE results at the end of Year 11, they do not make consistently strong progress in all year groups from Year 7 to 11 and in a wide range of subjects. Students in the sixth form make excellent progress and achieve well in almost all subjects.
• Pupils do not make the progress they are capable of in mathematics, science and information and communication technology. The quality of their work is not at the level expected, given their target grades and teachers’ and school leaders’ assessments of their current progress.
• The most able pupils are mostly challenged to achieve well, but not consistently in mathematics and science. In these subjects they do not always develop deep reasoning skills or apply their understanding to deepen it further.
• Disadvantaged pupils do not consistently make good progress in all year groups and subjects. There is a very small number of these pupils in each year group. While these pupils are identified by teachers, their progress is often not checked well enough to ensure that they fulfil their potential. Their progress is not evaluated as a group to enable strategies to raise their achievement to be evaluated.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make strong progress. However, there is little evaluation of the strategies used to support these pupils to identify what works best.
• Pupils make much stronger progress and achieve well in a range of other subjects, such as English, French, history and religious studies. High-quality work was also seen in design and technology and in the creative subjects.
• Pupils read widely and well, including the most able pupils. Many read with enthusiasm across a wide range of genres. They read well for enjoyment, as well as for research.
• Pupils are mostly prepared well for their next steps. All pupils move to known destinations at the end of Year 11, many into the sixth form or other post-16 providers. Retention in the sixth form is high and most students progress to higher education.

16 to 19 study programmes Good

• Outcomes for students on the 16 to 19 study programmes are good. They achieve highly and develop the skills that prepare them well for their next steps. The leadership of the 16 to 19 study programmes is strong. However, the attention given to students’ welfare needs to be sharpened.
• Students make very strong progress in almost all subjects. Where achievement falls below the high standards expected, careful analysis is undertaken by the 16 to 19 leader and improvements are made or the curriculum adjusted.
• The very small number who need to retake English and/or mathematics GCSE make good progress and achieve well.
• Retention is high and the overwhelming majority of students successfully complete their studies. Most of the small number who do not, and transfer to another course in a different provider at the end of Year 12, joined the sixth form from another school.
• Teaching in the sixth form is consistently of a high quality. Teachers match their teaching well to the prior attainment and current progress of students, although very occasionally this could be done better. Students respond well to the high-quality feedback they receive that enables them to improve their work.
• Students show extremely positive attitudes to their studies and to their time in the sixth form. They attend well and make very good use of independent study time to prepare for lessons or to complete set work. They make a significant contribution to the wider life of the school and provide good role models and support for younger pupils.
• An individual employability skills audit, undertaken early in Year 12, enables each student to identify the activities that would best give them the personal, social and employability skills that would prepare them well for their next steps. All take part in, for example, community, charitable or work-related activities and all undertake a period of work experience late in Year 12.
• All students move on to a well-chosen career path when they leave the sixth form, with the very large majority of students successfully progressing to higher education.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 137313 Somerset 10025704 This was an inspection of the education provision at this school. The inspection was aligned with a monitoring inspection of the boarding provision that was judged to be inadequate when inspected in October 2016. 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 Academy converter 11 to 19 Mixed Mixed 550 159 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address

Michael Bowman

Irfan Latif 01749 813 393 www.sexeys.somerset.sch.uk/ enquiries@sexeys.somerset.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 23 January 2013

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.
• Sexey’s School has boarding provision. A monitoring inspection of this provision was undertaken alongside the inspection of the education provision.
• The school is smaller than the average-sized secondary school.
• The proportion of pupils in the school eligible for free school meals is well below average.
• The proportion of pupils identified as having special educational needs and/or disabilities is below average and no pupils currently have a statement of special educational needs or an education, health and care plan.
• A small proportion of pupils are from other than White British backgrounds and the proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is below average.
• The school meets the current government floor standards.

Information about this inspection

• This was an inspection of the education provision at this school. The inspection was aligned with a monitoring inspection of the boarding provision that was judged to be inadequate when inspected in October 2016. Inspectors shared evidence with the two social care inspectors undertaking this monitoring inspection. A separate letter outlining the outcomes of the monitoring inspection will be published.
• Two inspectors were on-site for both days of the inspection and an additional two inspectors were on-site on the second day.
• Inspectors held meetings with the school’s senior leaders, other leaders and staff, the chair of the governing body and six other governors. The lead inspector held a telephone conversation with the governor leading on safeguarding.
• A formal meeting was held with a group of pupils. In addition, informal conversations were held with pupils around the school at break and lunchtime and during lesson changeovers.
• In lessons, inspectors looked at pupils’ work and discussed it with them and took opportunities to listen to them read. These activities covered pupils in all year groups, across the full ability range, disadvantaged pupils and some who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Inspectors also looked at a wider sample of pupils’ and sixth-form students’ work. Inspectors were accompanied by senior leaders for most of the visits to lessons.
• Inspectors met the school’s designated safeguarding lead and looked at a wide range of documents and records about safeguarding, as well as checking that arrangements such as the maintenance of the single central record met all statutory requirements.
• Inspectors took account of the school leaders’ and governors’ self-evaluation and used this with senior leaders to establish inspection lines of enquiry on the first day of the inspection. They also looked at a wide range of other documents and information supplied by the school about the analysis of current pupils’ progress and achievement.
• Inspectors also took account of the 119 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online survey, including 113 with additional comments. They also took account of the 25 responses to the online pupil survey and eight responses to the online staff survey.

Inspection team

James Sage, lead inspector Linda Peck Kay Taylor Julia Chapman Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector