Dinnington High School Ofsted Report

Full report

What does the school need to do to improve further?

• Improve the effectiveness of leadership, management and governance by:
  • ensuring that in all subjects, particularly mathematics, all pupils make more rapid progress from their starting points
  • ensuring that additional funding for Year 7 catch-up and to support disadvantaged pupils is targeted effectively to ensure that they make more rapid progress
  • accurately identifying pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities so that appropriate provision can be implemented to meet the needs of these pupils.
• Improve the quality of teaching and learning so that it is consistently good, by ensuring that:
  • assessment information is used effectively to plan lessons that meet the varying needs of all pupils
  • systems are in place to share the best practice that exists within the school
  • teachers focus on the development of pupils’ literacy skills across the curriculum and in their subject areas.
• Improve pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare by:
  • ensuring that the schools’ behaviour systems are applied consistently by all staff to eradicate low-level disruption in lessons
  • improving the attendance and reducing the persistent absence of disadvantaged pupils and ensuring that all pupils are punctual to school and to lessons. 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

• Leaders’ actions have not secured rapid enough improvements for disadvantaged pupils. Leaders’ use of additional funding for disadvantaged pupils has not been targeted well enough. The impact of previous actions has been limited as a result, and systems to monitor the effectiveness of leaders’ actions have not been sharp enough.
• Previous systems to monitor the progress of pupils in the school, particularly at key stage 3, have not been sufficiently robust. Leaders have introduced new systems that now provide them with more accurate information regarding the progress of pupils. As a result, leaders can now intervene swiftly when pupils are falling behind. However, it is too early to evaluate the impact of these systems.
• Leaders’ identification of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities has not been robust enough. SEN funding has not been used effectively. As a result, some pupils have not received the additional support they should have in order to allow them to make good progress.
• Leaders have not previously fully evaluated the use of literacy and numeracy Year 7 catch-up funding. They have not routinely monitored and tracked pupils who are eligible for additional support. Systems to assess the effectiveness of their actions to raise pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills are now improving because of leaders’ efforts. Some current pupils are, catching up with their peers in English, but the majority still lag behind in mathematics.
• Historically, the use of performance management has not supported teachers or the improvement of the school. The new principal has overhauled the system so that teachers’ targets reflect the school’s priorities to improve the quality of teaching and pupils’ outcomes. New systems introduced ensure that teachers and subject leaders are appropriately supported and challenged should their performance fall short of what is expected of them.
• The recently appointed principal has a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. She is well supported in her drive to improve standards by both the chief executive officer (CEO) and executive principal from the multi-academy trust, known as the Learner Engagement Achievement Partnership (LEAP).
• Staffing changes over the past year have strengthened the school’s capacity to improve. Newly appointed leaders are clear about the priorities to improve teaching in the school, and they all fully support the principal’s drive for improvement.
• Leaders have ensured that teachers access opportunities for professional development. Teachers speak highly of these opportunities and appreciate them, although the impact of such opportunities is inconsistent.
• Leaders have revised the curriculum so that it is now more closely matched to pupils’ needs. Pupils now have a broader range of options when it comes to choosing their GCSE subjects. Leaders have increased the proportion of time that pupils have to study mathematics, English and science. They recognise the importance of ensuring that pupils make better progress in these key subject areas.
• Teachers give freely of their own time to provide a range of extra-curricular activities. Pupils appreciate these opportunities and feel that they improve their confidence and teamwork and provide them with leadership opportunities.
• Leaders have provided well for spiritual, moral, social and cultural education through assemblies, tutor periods, ‘drop down’ days and ‘life’ lessons. For example, pupils learn about different religions and cultures, the importance of democracy and political issues. Pupils understand the importance of understanding others’ views and being tolerant.

Governance of the school

• Governors recognise that, in the past, they have not been sufficiently rigorous in questioning how well pupils were achieving or challenging leaders about plans for improvement. Governors and new trustees now have a much better understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses. They also recognise that further work is needed to ensure that their ambitions for pupils are translated into more consistent practice in the classroom.
• The records of meetings of the governing body and the new trustees demonstrate that they ensure that they now receive relevant information about the school’s performance. This is enabling them to ask appropriate questions and hold school leaders to account for school improvement much more effectively than they did historically.
• Trustees and governors ensure that they have access to appropriate training, including child protection training and training about how to keep pupils safe from the dangers of extremism and radicalisation.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. A strong culture of safeguarding exists within the school.
• Leaders and governors with responsibility for safeguarding ensure that they keep clear and accurate records relating to safeguarding issues.
• All staff are up to date with the latest information and they understand their responsibilities in relation to keeping children safe. This includes training in child protection and the ‘Prevent’ duty.
• Appropriate pre-employment checks are carried out on all staff and volunteers. Protocols relating to visitors to the school are clear and consistently followed.
• Pupils said that they feel safe in school because they are taught how to recognise risks and keep themselves safe, including when online. Most parents also agree that the school keeps pupils safe.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

within different subject areas. The quality of teaching is not yet enabling all groups of pupils to make good or better progress.

• The quality of teaching and learning is too variable across different year groups and
• School leaders have invested time in developing teachers’ questioning skills. However, teachers’ effective use of questioning is still inconsistent in challenging pupils’ thinking. Where it is used effectively, teachers’ expectations of the quality of pupils’ responses are high, and this enables pupils to deepen their understanding and extend their knowledge.
• Leaders have introduced a new assessment policy for the marking of pupils’ work. This is not used consistently in line with leaders’ expectations. Furthermore, some teachers do not make good enough use of assessment information to ensure that their planning meets the needs of their pupils.
• The school’s work on developing literacy skills is underdeveloped. Not all teachers fully recognise their role in developing literacy skills, such as emphasising the accurate use of key subject terminology. There are limited opportunities for extended writing, and there is not an emphasis on the importance of spelling, punctuation and grammar. The low literacy level of some pupils is a clear barrier to their being able to follow instructions and understanding the work being covered in the lesson. Weak literacy skills are slowing the progress of some pupils.
• In English, the quality of teaching is improving, but there is still variability. Teaching is most effective where topics challenge pupils’ thinking and extend their knowledge. However, in some lessons, planning is not always tailored to meet the needs of pupils. For example, in some instances, work lacks challenge for some pupils and this leads to some weaker progress and some off-task behaviour.
• In mathematics, the quality of teaching is improving. This is because staffing is now more stable and the new head of department has introduced a new, more challenging, scheme of work. Work seen in some lessons and in some books was well matched to pupils’ abilities. However, some pupils have gaps in their knowledge, which prevents them from being able to make good progress. For example, some Year 11 pupils have experienced weaker teaching in key stage 3 so they are still not confident with some basic mathematical concepts.
• In other curriculum areas, including science, humanities and modern foreign languages, teaching, while improving, is still variable. When teaching is well structured and teachers use their subject knowledge and effective questioning to prompt and probe, pupils’ understanding of key concepts really develops. On other occasions, when the work is too easy or pupils are given too much time to complete an activity, pupils lose concentration and, as a result, their progress is weaker.
• Teaching assistants have clearly benefited from the training they have received. Teaching assistants are effective in supporting pupils in the classroom. For example, in a Year 7 mathematics lesson, the teaching assistant was supporting a number of low prior-attaining pupils. Her strong questioning and good subject knowledge was effective in enabling the pupils to solve mathematical problems for themselves.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement

Personal development and welfare

• The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement.
• Pupils’ attitudes towards their learning are not always positive. Although most pupils take pride in their work, leaders are aware that some pupils do not take enough care and attention when presenting their work. This is especially the case with some boys’ work. Teachers are not challenging this consistently.
• Pupils are aware of what constitutes different forms of bullying. They said that instances of bullying have reduced and are now rare. Most pupils and parents are confident that, should bullying occur, it would be dealt with swiftly.
• Pupils now have more opportunities to access careers information, advice and guidance through ‘life’ lessons, ‘drop down’ days’ and external sources. This helps pupils to prepare well for their next steps in education, employment or training.
• The school has a considered approach when it comes to the use of alternative providers. Alternative providers are used appropriately for pupils who need short-term support for personal, social and emotional well-being.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of pupils requires improvement.
• A small number of pupils have negative attitudes to learning and disrupt the learning of others. This is particularly the case when pupils are not being challenged in their learning.
• Pupils’ current attendance is slightly below the national picture and the proportion of pupils who miss school regularly is slightly above the national picture. Despite improving marginally this academic year, the attendance of disadvantaged pupils is too low and too many of them are regularly absent from school. High absence rates of this group of pupils are hindering their academic progress. Pastoral leaders have made attendance a priority. They have clearly identified strategies in place, but it is too early to see the impact of their work.
• Too many pupils arrive to school late and there is, at times, a lack of urgency when they are moving between lessons.
• The number of pupils temporarily excluded from school has increased. This is because of the higher expectations of pupils’ behaviour. Pupils said that behaviour in lessons is improving because of these higher expectations. However, there are still some inconsistencies among teachers in the application of the school’s behaviour sanctions.
• The new principal has increased expectations of the standard of appearance. Most pupils wear their uniform with pride.

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

• Overall, pupils join the school with key stage 2 outcomes below those typically expected nationally. Outcomes for pupils in 2016 were weak across a range of subjects and different groups, particularly for disadvantaged pupils and in English and mathematics. Provisional data for 2017 indicates that there have been improvements, particularly in English. However, progress in mathematics did not improve at the same rate as in some other subject areas.
• The school’s own assessment information indicates that the attainment and progress of pupils currently in key stage 4 will continue to follow an upward trajectory. Work in the books of current pupils indicates that, across a range of subjects in both key stages, pupils’ progress remains too variable. This is because teaching is not consistently good.
• Historically, there have been too few pupils identified who have SEN and/or disabilities to make meaningful comparisons between their progress and the progress of other pupils in the school and nationally. The progress being made by current pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is variable.
• Provisional 2017 outcomes indicate that the progress of disadvantaged pupils improved more rapidly than that of other pupils at the school. However, there is still a lag between the progress made by this group of pupils and that of non-disadvantaged pupils nationally. School leaders have prioritised the progress of this group of pupils, and teachers are now much more aware of the needs of these pupils. Inspection evidence indicates that disadvantaged pupils are now making stronger progress across a range of subject areas.
• Pupils’ progress in mathematics has been weak in the past. However, evidence in books and during lesson observations indicates that pupils currently in the school are now making better progress than their predecessors. This is due to the improved teaching and support they receive in the subject area.
• The proportion of pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, leaving school and sustaining education or employment with training is broadly in line with the national picture. This represents an improving picture for disadvantaged pupils.

16 to 19 study programmes Good

• Leaders took decisive action following a review of sixth-form provision. This has had a much swifter effect on improving the quality of teaching and learning and on students’ outcomes than it has had in the main school.
• Historically, outcomes for students following general applied qualifications have been well above national averages. There was, however, a steep decline in the outcomes of students studying A-level qualifications. Decisive action by school leaders reversed the decline in outcomes for students studying A-level courses in 2017. These students made much stronger progress than their predecessors. Outcomes of students studying applied courses continue to improve and are again significantly above national averages.
• Teaching in the sixth form is much stronger and more consistent than in the main school. This is because teachers use questioning more skilfully to extend and develop students’ understanding. Teachers set work which suitably challenges students. In addition, teachers give students productive feedback that students said benefits them and helps them to improve.
• Leaders are determined to improve parental engagement and raise aspirations. They have begun work on this already. For example, information evenings are organised for students and parents to attend. There is the ‘Breakfast for Brilliance’ club to which students are invited for a formal breakfast as a reward for sound contributions to the sixth form and for improvements in their studies. ‘Caught being amazing’ postcards are also issued to students to raise aspirations and celebrate successes.
• Leaders’ swift actions have led to improvements in attendance. All students are now required to be in school every morning and must remain in school during study periods. Students value this change to policy and feel that it helps them with their organisation and time management when coping with the demands of post-16 qualifications.
• Students receive impartial careers’ advice and guidance and they believe that staff ‘go above and beyond’ to support them. The school also provides opportunities for students to undertake work experience where appropriate. More students are now leaving the sixth form and going to university, and the significant majority of other students enter appropriate employment.
• All students who need to retake their English or mathematics GCSE alongside their other subjects are required to do so. Success rates for these students are broadly in line with national averages.

School details

Unique reference number Local authority Inspection number 141730 Rotherham 10041351 This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Type of school Secondary comprehensive School category Academy converter Age range of pupils 11 to 18 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 Mixed Mixed 1070 141 Appropriate authority Board of trustees Chair Principal Telephone number Website Email address Mr B Rossiter Rebecca Staples 01909 550066 www.dinningtonhigh.co.uk info@dinningtonhigh.co.uk Date of previous inspection Not previously inspected

Information about this school

• The school meets requirements on the publication of specified information on its website.
• The school complies with Department of Education guidance on what academies should publish on its website.
• The school is an average-sized secondary school. It is an academy converter and is part of the LEAP multi-academy trust.
• The proportion of disadvantaged pupils eligible for support through the pupil premium is above the national average.
• The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is well below the national average. The proportion of pupils who have an education, health and care plan is also below the national average.
• The vast majority of pupils are of White British heritage. The proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language is low.
• The school met the government floor standard in 2016.
• A small number of pupils attend part-time provision at the Chislett Centre and the JADE project. These pupils remain on roll at Dinnington School.

Information about this inspection

• Inspectors observed lessons across a range of subjects. Some of these observations were carried out jointly with school leaders.
• Inspectors scrutinised current pupils’ learning in pupils’ workbooks and discussed this work with pupils in lessons. Inspectors also had more formal discussions with groups of pupils from across the school including a group of sixth-form students. They also held a number of conversations with pupils at break and lunchtime.
• Meetings took place with representatives from the trust board and governor ‘academy ambassadors’, the CEO and executive principal from the LEAP multi-academy trust, the principal, a range of other senior and middle leaders, teachers, including those who have recently started in the profession, and a group of teaching assistants.
• A range of school documentation was reviewed including assessment information and the school’s own evaluation of its performance and plans for improvement. Information relating to the quality of teaching and the school performance management processes were also considered. The school’s policies and procedures were scrutinised, including those relating to safeguarding and the single central register of checks on the suitability of adults to work with children. Published performance information was also reviewed along with information published on the school’s website.
• Inspectors considered 114 responses to Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, including 97 free-text comments. They also reviewed 65 responses from staff and 115 from pupils to the online Ofsted surveys.

Inspection team

Stuart Cleary, lead inspector Darren Stewart Matthew West Janet Gabanski Christine Birchall Garry Stout

Ofsted Inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector