Carlton Bolling College Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Further improve pupils‟ outcomes in history and Spanish by ensuring that teachers plan learning effectively to meet the needs of all learners.
• Improve the quality of education in the sixth form by ensuring that leaders have a strategic overview of all areas of the sixth form so that appropriate actions for improvement can be identified and implemented swiftly.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Outstanding

• The headteacher and his senior leaders have absolute passion, commitment and vision for Carlton Bolling College. The headteacher has successfully created a culture and ethos in which pupils and staff are enthused and excited to excel. Pupils and staff work together within a harmonious community, where they are fully supported.
• All leaders have expertise within their areas of responsibility. Through this, leaders take highly effective action swiftly to ensure that the school continues to improve and that pupils‟ progress, well-being and development are at the forefront of every action they take.
• Staff are proud to work at the school and morale is high. Staff appreciate the opportunities for their professional development, the impact of which is visible in their high-quality teaching.
• Leaders ensure that all pupils understand the initiative of „getting on together‟, which encourages and supports positive behaviour, and working together and succeeding together. Pupils are in full support of this and they appreciate the work of school leaders and staff to ensure that they make the most of their time in school.
• The impressive and committed heads of faculty and lead teachers work together to ensure that pupils make excellent progress and their subject areas continue to develop. Heads of faculty take ownership of the curriculum and the monitoring and evaluation of pupils‟ performance over time. Lead teachers support their colleagues in developing their teaching to ensure that they tackle any areas of development to improve the progress that pupils make. Through this, departments are highly effective. Senior leaders support middle leaders well.
• Leaders ensure that the curriculum is broad and balanced, and responsive to meeting the needs of all pupils. Recent changes ensure that all pupils study at least two science subjects to GCSE and more pupils are choosing to study languages. Pupils have the opportunity to study a wide variety of vocational and academic subjects to meet their future career aspirations and interests. Leaders ensure that a variety of extra-curricular opportunities complement the taught curriculum, not least the outstanding opportunity for girls‟ cricket and opportunities for all pupils to get involved with the recently opened boxing academy.
• Leaders ensure that pupils prepare exceptionally well for life in modern Britain. Through tutor-time activities, personal, social, health and economic education and assemblies, pupils develop a strong knowledge of how to keep themselves safe, work with and support others, and play an active role in society. The work that the school does to keep pupils safe from radicalisation is recognised locally and nationally, with the local authority recognising the school as a centre of excellence in Bradford.
• Staff all take part in performance management, and targets align closely to improving and sustaining excellent outcomes for all pupils. Staff work hard to achieve their targets. In 2017, outcomes across the curriculum for the most able pupils improved significantly following a whole-school approach to teaching this group.
• Parents are supportive of the work of school leaders and increasing numbers attend school events such as parents‟ evenings and community days. One parent said, „Carlton Bolling College has come a long way from where it was and I believe the credit goes to the senior leadership team and all the teaching staff.‟
• Leaders ensure that additional funding for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, pupils who are disadvantaged and pupils who need to catch up is used to overcome barriers to learning so that these pupils make rapid progress.

Governance of the school

• Following the implementation of an interim executive board after the previous inspection in October 2015, leaders and governors have worked together to ensure a smooth transition to the current governing body. Governors are knowledgeable, capable and highly skilled in ensuring appropriate challenge to, and support for, school leaders.
• Governors have a sharp, incisive view of the quality of education in the school. This allows them to ask probing and challenging questions to support the school to develop further. Governors ensure that they are visible to staff and pupils, link with different departments and work alongside staff and leaders to bring about improvements.
• Minutes of governing body meetings indicate that safeguarding is a high priority for the school and governors discuss and receive updates about safeguarding at every governing body meeting. Governors‟ approach to working together, without having separate committees, ensures that all governors are knowledgeable about all areas of the school.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• Leaders ensure that all staff are well aware of their responsibilities to safeguard all pupils. Appropriate training in child protection, including preventing radicalisation, takes place regularly, with updates throughout the academic year as needed. Staff are highly vigilant in their approach and are knowledgeable about the signs to look out for should a pupil become vulnerable.
• Leaders are meticulous in their record keeping of child protection information. Leaders work well with external agencies to ensure that pupils are safe. Leaders take swift action to work with the local authority when pupils do not attend school and are at risk of becoming missing from education, and follow this up with further checks to ensure pupils‟ safety.
• Pupils talk openly about the excellent work that the school does to keep them safe. They are confident in explaining how they stay safe online and attribute this to the strong education they receive on the dangers associated with being online. They know the warning signs to look out for if their friends are experiencing difficulty, and are confident that reporting issues will result in help and support.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Outstanding

• The superb quality of teaching and learning is a significant strength of the school. Teachers have excellent subject knowledge and high expectations, which they use well to deepen pupils‟ learning and encourage pupils to aim high. Teacher and pupil relationships are exceptionally strong.
• Teachers use information contained in „scorecards‟ about pupils‟ progress and achievement to expertly plan learning activities that meet the needs of all groups of learners. Consequently, all groups, including disadvantaged pupils, pupils who speak English as an additional language, pupils who are the most able and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities, make strong and sustained progress across the curriculum.
• The consistent, whole-school approach to using the „progress tracker‟ in lessons ensures that teachers take into account pupils‟ prior learning before they begin teaching a topic. This system enables teachers to make careful checks on the progress that pupils make and therefore provide swift support or extra challenge to those who need it. Pupils make progress at a fast pace.
• Teachers‟ precise explanations and clear instructions enable pupils to begin learning tasks immediately, so that no learning time is lost. Lessons are exciting because teachers are highly enthusiastic and pupils enjoy the variety of tasks that are on offer to develop their subject knowledge and skills. Teachers inspire pupils to take charge of their own learning.
• Pupils respond well to teachers‟ questions and are keen to answer and express their opinions. Teachers ask questions that probe pupils‟ understanding and make them think hard, which helps them to understand and deepen their knowledge.
• Teachers pay careful attention to, and take every opportunity to support and develop, pupils‟ literacy skills. In lessons, there are regular opportunities for pupils to read aloud and receive support with pronunciation if needed. Teachers also regularly check pupils‟ understanding of subject-specific words and words that are new. Teachers effectively support pupils‟ literacy development by ensuring that there are opportunities for extended writing, which ensures that pupils practise and improve their spelling, punctuation and grammar.
• Pupils are keen to learn from their mistakes and they respond very well to the „feed forward‟ policy, which teachers apply consistently across the curriculum. Acting on advice, feedback and support from teachers, pupils make very good progress.
• Parents receive regular information about how well their child is progressing at parents‟ evenings and in regular reports. Leaders are keen to set up a community group to extend their work with parents.
• Very occasionally, in history and Spanish lessons, teaching does not meet the needs of all pupils. Leaders are aware of this and appropriate actions are leading to improvements in teaching, which are beginning to help pupils to catch up.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Outstanding

Personal development and welfare

• The school‟s work to promote pupils‟ personal development and welfare is outstanding.
• Pupils are confident and self-assured. They take their learning seriously and want to do well. They work brilliantly with each other. One pupil said, „In English I was a bit stuck and my partner said to me, “I‟m not going to give you the answer but I am going to help you with it.”‟
• Teachers use the school rewards system frequently in lessons to promote high standards and to reward pupils who try hard with their work. This promotes a love of learning and a culture in which pupils want to succeed.
• Pupils say that bullying rarely happens but when it does, school records show that it is tackled robustly, not tolerated and followed up to ensure that it has stopped. Pupils have absolute confidence that staff will support them if they need help.
• The comprehensive provision for personal, social, health and economic education is ensuring that pupils acquire appropriate knowledge to stay safe, live a healthy lifestyle, learn about other cultures and respect differences. Teachers skilfully lead tutorial sessions, which support the open culture and provide a wealth of opportunities for pupils to discuss, debate and learn about topical issues such as radicalisation, grooming and the dangers of drug and alcohol misuse.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is outstanding.
• Pupils‟ conduct and self-discipline are impressive. They have exemplary attitudes to learning, are very proud of the school, are smartly dressed and wear their uniforms with pride.
• Disruption to learning is very rare. Over time, the number of times pupils who are removed from lessons for disruption has significantly decreased. There are now very few removals from lessons and if there are any removals, they are dealt with efficiently with minimum disruption to the learning of others.
• Over time, the number of fixed-term exclusions has decreased and is now below the national average. Pupils‟ attitudes and behaviour have dramatically improved following the successful implementation of the school policy of „getting on together‟.
• Pupils love coming to school, as shown by their exemplary attendance. Leaders have worked hard to ensure that all pupils value their education. Initiatives in place to reduce persistent absence are effective and the rates of persistent absence are below the national average for all groups of pupils.

Outcomes for pupils Outstanding

• Leaders‟ exceptional drive and commitment and the outstanding quality of teaching, and pupils‟ excellent behaviour, attitudes to learning and high attendance have all enabled outcomes to improve considerably since the previous inspection. From especially low starting points, overall, pupils now make substantial and rapid progress. Standards across the school are rising very quickly in many subjects.
• Improvements in pupils‟ attainment and progress are reflected in the GCSE results in Year 11 in 2016. Pupils made better progress than other pupils nationally from the same starting points. Even so, leaders identified some weaker areas in pupils‟ outcomes, such as the achievement of the most able, boys, and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. Actions were implemented to address these areas swiftly. Provisional results from GCSE examinations in 2017 demonstrate that leaders‟ actions have been highly effective. Pupils‟ attainment has improved even further and is now much closer to national averages.
• Currently, in key stages 3 and 4, pupils‟ progress is exceptionally strong. Information about pupils‟ attainment and progress provided by school leaders matches the evidence in pupils‟ workbooks. All pupils, including key groups such as disadvantaged pupils, pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and the many pupils who speak English as an additional language, are making excellent progress. Highly effective tracking ensures that teachers quickly support those who fall behind to catch up.
• Mathematics is a strength of the school. In 2016, the progress of pupils in mathematics was in the top 10% of schools nationally. Scrutiny of pupils‟ books and scores in formal tests in Year 11 currently show that these pupils are in an even stronger position than the 2016 cohort were at the same stage in the academic year.
• In English, outcomes have greatly improved. Pupils are achieving very well. Pupils read widely and often and are encouraged to read by their teachers, especially in form time. There are many opportunities for extended writing across the curriculum. Pupils are very keen to talk to visitors about what they are reading and writing, showing and talking about their current reading material and work. The school librarian actively supports and encourages pupils to read.
• Disadvantaged pupils are now making excellent progress. Leaders‟ careful spending of additional funds ensures smaller classes throughout the school. Teachers work very closely with pupils, providing highly effective support and challenge. There is no noticeable difference in any year group between the progress of disadvantaged pupils and that of their peers currently in the school.
• Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and pupils who need to catch up achieve extremely well. Effective training of staff has enabled them to focus on pupils‟ individual needs. Leaders ensure that they spend additional funding extremely effectively.
• The achievement of the most able pupils has improved considerably. These pupils are now making strong progress because teachers provide high-quality, challenging learning activities that extend and deepen their knowledge.
• The comprehensive programme of careers advice and guidance begins in Year 7 with an aspirational assembly from the headteacher. This then builds over the years and includes effective guidance for pupils to make GCSE choices and post-16 choices that align with their career aspirations. Leaders encourage local, successful people to come to the school to speak formally to pupils to keep their aspirations high. Along with improved outcomes, this provision ensures that pupils are very well prepared for their future.
• Outcomes in history and Spanish have been weaker over time. Work in pupils‟ books, along with school performance information and inspectors‟ observations, indicate that pupils‟ progress in these subjects is now speeding up quickly. Nevertheless, achievement still lags behind that in other subjects. Leaders acknowledge this.

16 to 19 study programmes Good

• The effectiveness of 16 to 19 study programmes is not outstanding because leaders do not evaluate provision or identify priorities for improvement as thoroughly as in other areas of the school. As a result, attainment on academic programmes, although improving, is broadly in line with national averages.
• Teachers use information about students‟ prior attainment to plan learning that challenges all students appropriately, particularly in vocational subjects. Teachers‟ high-quality questioning supports students to explore difficult concepts and to think deeply about what they are learning.
• Outcomes over time in vocational subjects are particularly impressive and have been consistently above national averages. Leaders are taking action to improve outcomes in academic subjects.
• Students in the sixth form are exemplary role models to younger pupils. Their very positive attitudes to learning, attendance and behaviour demonstrate how to be successful to younger pupils.
• Students who did not gain a GCSE in English and mathematics at grades A* to C in Year 11 receive additional support and teaching to help them to make progress towards securing a pass. With this appropriate support, students make strong and sustained progress towards a pass, with re-sit success rates in both English and mathematics being above the national averages.
• Students in the sixth form say that they are safe. A strong programme of personal, social, health and economic education, along with a huge investment in educating students about British values, ensure that students leave with a strong knowledge base of how to keep themselves safe, contribute to society and be successful in life.
• All sixth-form students access work experience, which links to their career aspirations. Students say that this helps them to develop skills for the world of work and to decide whether the career is the right one for them.
• Careers advice and guidance are comprehensive and students select courses that are appropriate to their career aspirations and ability. However, in September 2017, some students found out at short notice that a course could not run, and despite appropriate guidance, chose an alternative course to stay at the school. This means that some of the subjects they study do not align with their career choices.
• Most students progress to employment, higher education or training. However, around 5% of students do not, which is a higher figure than for pupils leaving Year 11.
• School leaders agree that while there are many opportunities for students outside the taught curriculum, there is a lack of strategic analysis by sixth-form leaders of the uptake or the impact of some of these opportunities on students‟ development and progress.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 107413 Bradford 10036563 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 Maintained 11 to 18 Mixed Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 1,501 Of which, number on roll in 16 to 19 study programmes 265 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Diane Fairfax Adrian Kneeshaw 01274 633111 www.carltonbolling.co.uk admin@carltonbolling.co.uk Date of previous inspection 14–15 October 2015

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• Carlton Bolling College is much larger than the average-sized secondary school.
• More than half of the pupils are known to be eligible for free school meals, which is nearly twice the national average.
• The majority of pupils are of minority ethnic heritage, with the largest proportion of pupils being of Pakistani heritage and the second largest proportion being of Bangladeshi heritage. A small but increasing number of pupils are of Eastern European heritage, most of whom are new to the English language.
• The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language 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 meets the government‟s current floor standards, which set out the minimum expectation for pupils‟ progress.
• The school does not use any alternative provision.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed teaching and learning in a range of lessons and made some shorter visits to classrooms. Senior leaders observed some lessons jointly with the inspectors.
• Inspectors held meetings with senior leaders, middle leaders, staff, pupils and members of the governing body.
• Inspectors reviewed the work in a number of pupils‟ workbooks alongside school leaders.
• Pupils‟ behaviour in lessons, in assembly and during break- and lunchtime was observed. Inspectors also met formally with groups of pupils.
• Inspectors evaluated a range of documentation, including leaders‟ evaluations of the school and development plans, policies, minutes from governing body meetings, monitoring information, and child protection and safeguarding information. Inspectors also looked closely at progress information provided by school leaders.
• Inspectors took into account the views of parents during the inspection, as well as three free-text responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View. Inspectors also considered 78 responses to the staff questionnaire and 60 responses to the pupil questionnaire.

Inspection team

Debbie Redshaw, lead inspector Her Majesty‟s Inspector David Pridding Ofsted Inspector Mike Tull Kate Lounds Carl Sugden

Her Majesty‟s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector