The Boulevard Academy Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the quality of teaching to enable all pupils, in particular disadvantaged pupils, to make at least good progress, by:
  • developing the role of the additional adult in the classroom, so that they support pupils more effectively
  • increasing the challenge provided in lessons, especially for the most able
  • raising the expectations of teachers with respect to how much progress pupils can make
  • providing professional development that has a positive effect on improving the quality of teaching
  • ensuring that teachers provide pupils with tasks that meet their needs and interests and allow them to make better progress.
• Improve the quality of teaching in mathematics, so that pupils across the school, regardless of their academic ability or year group, make at least good progress.
• Develop the effectiveness of leadership and management at all levels, by:
  • increasing the rigour of the monitoring of actions taken improving the skills of leaders and managers to monitor, evaluate and review their actions, so that actions taken have the greatest effect on improving pupils’ progress
  • ensuring that intervention actions are appropriate and swiftly put in place when required to ensure pupils’ progress.
• Increase the attendance of disadvantaged pupils.
• Improve the behaviour of some pupils in lessons, so that they:
  • complete the work set
  • have pride in their work
  • do not engage in low-level disruption. 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

• The leadership and management have not, in the past, been rigorous enough in their monitoring of actions taken. As a result, leaders and managers have not intervened quickly enough when it was clear that actions taken were not having a positive effect on improving pupils’ progress. Some leaders and managers have limited skills to monitor, evaluate and review actions taken. The school has recognised this and training is in place to develop these skills.
• Catch-up funding is spent on helping pupils who start the school in Year 7 with lower levels of literacy and numeracy to catch up with their peers. Strategies include additional support in lessons and additional literacy and numeracy lessons. Assessments show that pupils are catching up, but that pupils’ progress is stronger in literacy than in numeracy.
• Prior to September 2018, much pupil premium funding was spent on providing an additional adult in many lessons. The school acknowledges that this was not, in the light of the results in 2018, the most effective way to spend the money. There is now new leadership of this area; however, this is very recent. Plans are in place to change the way the money is spent, but it is too early to judge their effect.
• Staff appreciate the professional development they receive, but it is not always focused on how it will improve pupils’ progress. As a result, teaching requires improvement and pupils do not make good progress.
• The Year 11 mock examinations in December 2017 highlighted serious concerns with pupils’ progress. Leaders and managers took swift action to ensure that the results in 2018 were better than those indicated by these mocks. As a result, indications are that the results in 2018, although poor, were considerably better than they would have been without the actions taken.
• Senior leaders and managers have a realistic view of where the school is in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. They are particularly aware of the strengths and weaknesses in teaching.
• The principal and vice-principal understand what is needed to deal with the school’s weaknesses. The trustees support and have confidence in the principal and vice-principal to put in place the strategies needed to ensure that pupils’ progress improves. The trustees rigorously evaluate the effect of the strategies.
• The new principal, ably supported by the vice-principal, is developing a culture of higher expectations and achievement. Some teachers are starting to have higher expectations of the progress pupils make. However, this is not consistent across the school, subjects or year groups. From September 2018, a new system of quality assurance has increased the expectations of teachers.
• The curriculum is broad and balanced and supports pupils’ ambitions for their future lives. It is enhanced by a range of extra-curricular activities for the pupils to participate in.
• The school has a strong working relationship with an alternative provider of education. The attendance, progress and attitudes to learning of the pupils attending alternative provision are monitored regularly.

Governance of the school

• The trustees now have a clear and accurate view of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. They understand what new strategies are being implemented in response to the weaknesses. The level of challenge and support provided by the trustees has improved considerably since December 2017. The trustees scrutinise the information they have in more detail and ask much more challenging questions.
• Trustees know how much additional funding there is and how it is spent. Trustees, like the school staff, are determined to see the effect of this additional funding on improving pupils’ progress. The trustees are focused on considering the new deployment of this money and its effect.
• The trustees have the relevant experience and skills to support the school.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
• There is a culture of safeguarding in the school. Policies and procedures are in place and these, combined with regular training for all staff, mean that any concerns are picked up quickly. Records of concerns are comprehensive. They are rigorously checked to ensure that interventions are appropriate and timely. Referrals are made as required and followed through to monitor the support received. Links with external agencies are strong. As a result, pupils are safe, and they told inspectors that they feel safe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Over time, the quality of teaching and learning has been inconsistent. As a result, different groups of pupils, across different subjects, make variable progress.
• In some lessons, teachers do not have high enough expectations of the progress pupils can make. As a result, the tasks set do not always challenge pupils, and do not allow them to make good progress. In some lessons, these low expectations mean that the pupils do not finish the work set. In particular, teachers’ expectations of the most able pupils are too low.
• Many lessons have additional adults in them. In some lessons, these additional adults support the pupils’ learning. However, in other lessons, the additional adults do not engage with the pupils and either stand at the back of the room, or spend their time handing out resources. As a result, opportunities to improve pupils’ progress are missed. Leaders and managers have recognised this and training is in place to support additional adults to change the way they work with the pupils.
• Work scrutiny, undertaken by the inspection team with the vice-principal, shows that much of the work in books is not marked in line with the school’s policy.
• In some lessons, teachers use their strong subject knowledge to plan sequences of learning that enable the pupils to make better progress over time. Effective questioning probes pupils’ knowledge and understanding of a topic. Resources are adapted to meet pupils’ needs, enabling them to make more progress. In these lessons, teachers and the additional adults use challenging terminology and expressions and expect the pupils to do so also.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• A comprehensive careers programme runs from Year 7 to Year 11. This programme is combined with impartial careers advice and guidance, events about the world of work and visits to places of further and higher education. As a result, pupils are prepared well to make decisions about their lives after school. Pupils are appreciative of this and understand the options available to them during their school careers and afterwards.
• The development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is good. A well-structured programme of personal and social education lessons enables the pupils to discuss their views and feelings in a safe environment. Pupils are very aware of the diverse community in which they live and are accepting of other people’s views. The values of respect and tolerance are promoted positively. As a result, bullying is very rare. It is dealt with effectively when it does happen.
• Pupils are aware of what they need to do to keep themselves safe in the ‘real world’ and the ‘virtual world’. This is because of a range of strategies in place to support them in this, including assemblies, links with the police service and personal and social education lessons.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• In some lessons, pupils engage in low-level, off-task behaviour. This behaviour is usually because the pace of the lesson is too slow, and the expectations of the pupils too low.
• Some pupils show little pride in the presentation of their work, or in the standard of their work, often doing the minimum amount they can.
• Pupils’ attendance is in line with the attendance of pupils nationally. Rewards given for attendance encourage pupils to attend regularly. However, the attendance of disadvantaged pupils is much lower than that of their peers and a higher proportion of them do not attend school regularly. This has a negative effect on the progress they can make.
• Around the school, in social areas and at informal times, the pupils manage their behaviour appropriately. They are respectful to each other, the staff and the environment. The behaviour policy is effective, when implemented by staff. However, it is not applied consistently by all staff and thus does not always work.
• The proportion of exclusions has fallen considerably. This is because of a change to the way pupils’ behaviour is managed.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• The first, very small, cohort of pupils through the school took their GCSE examinations in 2018. The unvalidated results from these examinations were poor and pupils made less progress than expected, given their starting points, especially in mathematics.
• The most able pupils are not challenged enough in lessons to enable them to make good progress over time. The school recognises this; however, it is too early to judge the effect of the strategies put in place to improve the progress of the most able.
• Disadvantaged pupils made less progress than other pupils nationally in 2018. Although overall disadvantaged pupils are now making better progress, the low attendance of some disadvantaged pupils is hindering their ability to improve the progress that they make.
• Evidence in pupils’ workbooks confirms the school’s information that the progress of current pupils in the school requires improvement. However, there are considerable variations in the progress made by pupils in different year groups, subjects and even within subjects.
• In English, pupils’ progress in Years 10 and 11 is stronger than in Year 9. This is because in Years 10 and 11, pupils are challenged to structure their answers appropriately and meet the demands set by the examination boards.
• Pupils are now making better progress in mathematics across the school than in 2018. The intervention strategies put in place for 2018 have been reviewed, and the most effective put in place for Year 11. As a result, these pupils are making better progress. However, this progress is not consistent across the school. For example, in Years 9 and 10, pupils’ progress in mathematics is slower, but it is considerably stronger in Year 8.
• In some subjects, such as Spanish, pupils’ progress is stronger across the school. This is because of the teachers’ high expectations of the pupils, which result in pupils rising to those expectations.
• The lower ability pupils and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) made better progress than their peers by the end of Year 11 in 2018. The progress of current pupils with SEND is continuing to improve across the school. The school has recently reviewed the support that these pupils receive in the classroom, and provided training to adults who support these pupils, to further enhance their progress.
• Strong links with other educational providers in the area, combined with good-quality careers advice and guidance, ensured that all pupils at the end of Year 11 in 2018 were able to secure employment, training or further education places.

School details

Unique reference number 139395 Local authority Kingston-upon-Hull Inspection number 10052647 This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act. Type of school Secondary comprehensive School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Academy free school 11 to 16 Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 564 Appropriate authority The board of trustees Chair Principal Telephone number Website Email address Carol White Janice Mitchell 01482 217898 www.theboulevardacademy.com info@theboulevardacademy.com Date of previous inspection 13–14 May 2015

Information about this school

• The Boulevard Academy opened in September 2013. The first cohort of pupils to sit GCSE examinations was in 2018. The school started with pupils in Year 7 and grew, year on year, up to Year 11.
• The school uses the Vulcan Centre to provide alternative education for a very small number of pupils. Therefore, their attendance and progress are not commented on.
• The principal of the school took up post in September 2018.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors made visits to 38 lessons during the inspection. These visits varied in length depending on the focus of the visit. A number of the visits were carried out with members of the senior leadership team. In addition, the inspection team looked at a considerable number of pupils’ workbooks, covering a range of subjects, year groups and different ability groups. Much of this work was carried out with the vice-principal.
• The inspection team took into account parents’ views through the school’s surveys. In addition, an inspector spoke to a parent about their views. Pupils’ views were collected at social times and in formal meetings.
• Meetings were held with the chair of the board of trustees, representatives of the board of trustees, members of staff, middle leaders and senior leaders. A telephone call was made to the alternative education provider used by the school and one to a representative of the local authority. Information provided by the school about the progress of current pupils, safeguarding, pupils’ welfare and teaching was considered.

Inspection team

Tanya Stuart, lead inspector Angela White Michael Cook

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector