Woodley School and College Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Sharpen the targets for school development plans so that leaders, including governors, can more precisely implement and evaluate improvements.
• Continue to develop the quality of teaching so that more pupils make rapid progress, particularly in writing, by:
  • ensuring that all staff use questioning effectively to move pupils on when they are ready for more challenging work
  • providing more opportunities for pupils to write in subjects other than English.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

• Leaders and governors work hard to bring about improvements in all aspects of the school. The curriculum, which provides a broad range of experiences for pupils, is now a strength of the school. There is a strong vision for the school, which is clearly communicated and shared by staff. As a result, pupils thrive and achieve well.
• Performance management arrangements are robust, clearly linking performance to outcomes and targets, in order to advance priorities. Staff development and support have been extensive and staff value this. As a result, teaching is strong across the school.
• Spending of additional funding is effective. There is no discernible difference between the progress made by disadvantaged pupils and others. Physical education and sport funding is used effectively to secure a wide range of physical education activities, which contribute to pupils’ health and well-being. The use of literacy and numeracy catch-up funding is effective. From their starting points, most pupils make good or better progress in these areas.
• Leadership and management of behaviour and personal development are strong. Leaders ensure that spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is woven into all areas of the curriculum, and therefore pupils gain an understanding of their community and the wider world.
• Support from Kirklees local authority has helped the school to develop the middle leaders. Middle leaders make an increasingly positive contribution to the improvement of teaching, learning and assessment by supporting the implementation of systems and strategies to support pupils who have autistic spectrum disorder.
• Staff work closely together and support each other so that all pupils can benefit from the good practice and strengths of different staff. Peer reviews and teacher coaching form an important part of the improvements in teaching, learning and assessment.
• Leaders understand the strengths and weaknesses of the school. They take steps to improve the school based on increasingly rigorous monitoring and evaluation. However, development plans sometimes lack the quantifiable success criteria that enable governors to keep a check on the impact of leaders’ work.

Governance of the school

• Governance has improved and is effective. Governors are aware of the key priorities and vision for the school. They regularly visit to check on the work of the school, for example in relation to parents’ evenings and holiday clubs.
• Governors respond proactively to parents’ concerns. For example, they have arranged for adaptations to the driveway and school gates to ensure pedestrian safety.
• While governors check routinely on the impact of additional funding and on the progress made by pupils, they have not ensured that this information is published on the school’s website. This was rectified during the inspection to ensure that the website complies with the latest government guidance.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Pupils say that they feel safe and know whom to go to if they have a problem.
• The safeguarding policy is up to date and complies with the statutory guidance from the Department for Education. Staff are clear about the procedures for reporting any concerns. Staff have regular training and updates to ensure that they are meeting the safeguarding needs of pupils. Leaders use quizzes effectively to check that staff fully understand their responsibilities.
• The designated safeguarding lead (DSL) works proactively with children’s services and external agencies to protect pupils. The DSL keeps detailed records, which they keep and store securely.
• The school has appropriate risk assessments in place for on-site and off-site activities, for example at work-experience settings. Teachers teach pupils how to keep themselves safe and pupils can talk about examples such as learning to cross the road safely.
• Leaders carry out appropriate checks on staff and volunteers.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

• Teachers have high expectations of pupils’ conduct. They establish clear routines, which support pupils well to settle to their learning quickly. Most pupils respond positively. For those few pupils who need more time, there is a flexible but consistent approach, which encourages small steps towards re-engagement with the whole class.
• Teachers use their good subject knowledge and their understanding of pupils’ needs to plan interesting and engaging lessons. As a result, pupils participate well and say that they enjoy learning. Pupils’ workbooks show that pupils experience a rich variety of learning contexts and topics.
• Additional, well-focused programmes of support are carefully tailored to pupils’ needs. These make an important contribution to pupils’ overall progress and development.
• Teachers deploy classroom assistants effectively. They contribute to pupils’ learning and enable pupils to learn how to manage themselves. All staff are adept at using a wide range of communication strategies, such as Makaton. The speech and language therapist monitors the effectiveness of augmentative and alternative communication. This ensures that pupils are using the most appropriate form of communication to enable them to be fully included in learning.
• Staff make effective use of the specialist resources such as the sensory gym to motivate pupils and improve their coordination and communication skills. Sensory music sessions create a stimulating environment where pupils can interact and develop emerging social skills.
• The teaching of art is a strength of the school and enables pupils to express themselves through a range of mediums, utilising their particular interests such as transport, flowers and chocolate.
• The teaching of reading is a strong aspect of the school’s work. Alongside the teaching of phonics, this enables pupils to begin their journey of preparation for adult living effectively by practising the skills across the curriculum.
• While pupils make appropriate progress in writing, their work shows that they do not have regular opportunities to use their emerging or developing writing skills to capture their learning in other subjects. This limits the progress pupils make.
• Teachers and assistants use assessment effectively during lessons to check on pupils’ understanding and help pupils if they find the work difficult. However, some staff do not use questioning consistently well to recognise when pupils are ready to move on to extend or deepen understanding. Occasionally, this prevents pupils from making more rapid progress.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.
• Pupils, through their learning and the care the school provides, grow in confidence and become increasingly self-assured in their interaction with others. As a result, pupils mainly show respect for each other, accept other’s differences and respond positively to adults and visitors to the school.
• Pupils learn about public services, and as they get older, they receive practical advice on how to access adult services. The school develops pupils’ understanding of their responsibilities towards other people, the local community and the wider world. Pupils make a strong contribution to the school via the student council and are involved with plans to improve the environment by updating the play area.
• Pupils learn about a range of religions, belief systems and cultures. They have regular opportunities to gain a variety of experiences, for example through assemblies, theme days, sports events and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme.
• Pupils receive a broad range of experiences, which appropriately develop their understanding of spiritual, moral, social and cultural education. Development of social skills is a key part of the whole curriculum and demonstrated by how welcoming the pupils are to school visitors.
• Pupils learn about healthy lifestyles and how to keep themselves safe. Teachers plan this learning to meet pupils’ particular needs. For example, pupils learn how to ask for help in new environments. The school works hard to help pupils understand their emotions and to develop strategies that help them to manage their emotions. Pupils understand the harm that bullying causes and are protective of their peers.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils is good.
• Pupils show respect for each other, staff, visitors and their environment.
• Pupils make effective use of the wide range of strategies that staff teach to help pupils manage themselves. Consequently, there is a calm and positive climate throughout the school.
• Pupils know whom they can go to for help if they need assistance, and staff use their detailed knowledge of pupils’ needs to supervise and support them effectively.
• Pupils improve their behaviour as they settle into the school and learn how to communicate their feelings and manage their behaviour. There remain instances where pupils rely on staff to intervene and support them. Staff do this skilfully and calmly with strategies appropriate to the individual pupil.
• Pupils attend well. Attendance is above the national average for special schools, but below the national average for all schools. Some pupils receive support to improve their attendance. However, a small number of pupils do not yet attend well enough.

Outcomes for pupils Good

• Effective teaching enables pupils to achieve well across a wide range of subjects.
• At the time of the inspection, there were no children accessing early years provision within the school. Historical information indicates that children make strong progress and achieve well across early years.
• Across both key stages 1 and 2, almost all pupils make good progress and are well prepared for the next stage of their education.
• Most pupils make good or better progress in a range of subjects across key stages 3 and 4. There is no difference in the progress made by different groups of pupils, including those who are disadvantaged.
• At key stage 4, pupils achieve a range of externally accredited qualifications in various relevant subjects, from pre-entry level to GCSE. Last year, nearly all pupils in Year 11 achieved entry-level qualifications in English and mathematics. Qualifications were also gained in art, religious education, information technology and food studies. A number of pupils achieved well to secure GCSE qualifications in art.
• The wide range of experiences offered to pupils enables them to become ambitious in their aspirations and begin to make decisions about the next stages of their lives. Pupils are very well prepared for the next stage of their lives by learning additional skills such as travel training.
• Strong teaching enables pupils to achieve particularly well in phonics and in reading. Progress in writing is not yet as strong.

16 to 19 study programmes

Good

• The curriculum for students aged 16 to 19 is highly personalised and enables students to make strong progress, especially in personal development, English and mathematics. Students gain a range of qualifications.
• Teaching is strong and tasks are tailored to students’ interests or career aims. This means that students are interested and the activities improve their functional skills.
• Students are well informed about making choices for their next steps. They develop their career aspirations based on positive work-experience placements. Work experience forms an important part of the curriculum and students recognise the skills they learn, such as teamwork. Careers education and advice help to refine students’ long-term ambitions. For some students, the focus is, appropriately, on gaining independence in order to ensure that they are less reliant on adults.
• Students learn about the responsibilities of adult life and evidence their preparation by taking on responsibilities within the school. For example, some are in charge of the eco-school project and help organise charity events for younger pupils.
• Students are encouraged to develop more refined strategies for managing their emotions and behaviours. Staff support students to reflect thoughtfully on events in their lives and to learn from those experiences.
• Students visit the local community to develop independence skills, for example in using transport and social communication skills.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 107797 Kirklees 10036570 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Special school School category Age range of pupils Gender of pupils Gender of pupils in 16 to 19 study programmes Community special 5 to 19 Mixed Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 110 Of which, number on roll in 16 to 19 study programmes 8 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Headteacher Telephone number Website Email address Chris Storey Anne Lawton 01484 223937 www.woodleyschool.org.uk office@woodleyschool.org.uk Date of previous inspection 29–30 September 2015

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• This school has been designated for pupils who have autistic spectrum disorder. All pupils have an education, health and care plan.
• Since the last inspection, the school has extended the age range of pupils and now includes provision for 16–19 programmes of study, which opened in September 2016.
• The school was previously known as Longley School.
• The school does not use any alternative provision.
• The school works closely with Kirklees Learning Partner.
• There are nearly four times as many boys as girls in the school.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors visited a range of lessons covering Years 1 to 13 and a range of subjects. Inspectors observed learning alongside the headteacher, deputy headteacher and assistant headteacher in a number of lessons. During lesson visits, inspectors listened to pupils read and reviewed the work in their books.
• Inspectors observed the school’s work and examined information about pupils’ progress and samples of their work.
• Inspectors considered a range of documentary evidence, including reports and checks on how well the school is doing, its development plans, safeguarding arrangements and minutes of meetings held by the governing body.
• Meetings were held with the headteacher and other leaders, pupils and members of the governing body. Inspectors spoke to a representative from the local authority.
• Inspectors held meetings with pupils, and considered the views of the 46 staff who responded to the online staff survey, alongside the 17 responses to Parent View.

Inspection team

Pauline Rowland, lead inspector Chris Campbell

Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector