1 December 2008 Mr W Chatwin Headteacher Elmete ... - Ofsted

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SPECIAL MEASURES: MONITORING OF ELMETE WOOD BESD SILC Report from the fifth monitoring inspection on 27 and 28 November 2008 Evidence Inspectors observed the school’s work at both sites. They scrutinised documents and met with the principal and other senior leaders, a group of pupils, groups of staff, five members of the governing body, the school improvement partner and four representatives of the local authority (LA). Context The national leader of education who was engaged in a consultative capacity has concluded his work with the school. Approximately 30 pupils have joined the school since the last monitoring inspection and the school roll stands at 105. At the time of this monitoring inspection most Year 11 pupils were on work experience placements. The school improvement partner has begun to work with the school. The school was awarded the National Heathy Schools Award in June 2008. The LA has very recently confirmed that additional funding of approximately £76,000 has been secured from the schools’ forum to support the school’s alternative curriculum programme and further, that three very challenging pupils have been allocated one-to-one support with the LA paying for this resource. It has determined that up to £150,000 will be made available to help sustain the school on its journey out of special measures and beyond. The school and LA are predicting that the school will have a substantial deficit budget of over £250,000 at the end of 2008-09 financial year. The LA plans to begin consulting in January 2009 on the proposed reorganisation of its ‘behaviour continuum’. Achievement and standards Standards are improving and achievement is on the rise. Compared with other pupils of a similar age nationally the majority of pupils when they arrive at the school are below average standards. Their behaviour, emotional and social difficulties have prevented them from fully benefiting from their education in previous schools. However, the rate of progress they make is increasing as a result of improvements to the quality of teaching and the curriculum. The progress of pupils in lessons is rarely less than satisfactory and in a few lessons, such as history, physical education (PE) and music their progress is outstanding. In all but three lessons observed on this monitoring inspection the progress of pupils matched the quality of teaching. In these three lessons pupils’ progress fell behind the quality of teaching because pupils failed to apply themselves as well as they could have done and a few were intent on causing problems. Improved examination results also demonstrate that the legacy of underachievement is being eroded. For example, in 2008 more pupils achieved GCSE C to G grades in mathematics and science than in 2007. The position in English is much less strong largely because of the staffing difficulties the school has faced. Page 2
Personal development and well-being Pupils’ behaviour has improved greatly since the school was last inspected in February 2007. However, a recent influx of challenging Key Stage 3 pupils in particular has been quite testing for the school. Partly as a consequence of this, the number of fixed-term exclusions is very high although the sanction of permanent exclusion has not been used. Staff have devised various strategies to manage this behaviour and there are signs that the behaviour of some pupils has improved. A range of data on the behaviour of this group of pupils as a whole is still to be evaluated. A model of provision to reduce the need for fixed-term exclusion has been shaped by staff and is soon to be implemented. The behaviour of pupils at the Stonegate Road site overall is improving slowly as evidenced by more group work and some of them having lessons at the Elmete Lane site. Nevertheless, some pupils are volatile and their behaviour is not managed as well as it could be by some staff. Some of these pupils respond to different staff in distinctly different ways. The overall rate of attendance remains low at about 63%. It has improved a little at the Stonegate Road site and is best at the Elmete Lane site where it is currently 77%. It is encouraging that unauthorised absence has dropped from 24.5% in 2007–08 to 16.5% for the current school year. The overall figures are skewed by a handful of pupils who are non-attenders and approximately another 10 pupils whose attendance is very poor and sporadic despite the rigorous and varied efforts of the school to engage them. The school has little or no influence over the most disengaged and intransigent pupils and the parents of some of them are being prosecuted in an attempt to force their hand. The school’s strategies have had success with other pupils, for example a little over half of the pupils with attendance targets are currently exceeding their target. Quality of provision The quality of teaching and learning has continued to improve since the last monitoring inspection. Teaching is now consistently at least satisfactory across the school, with nearly a third of lessons seen on this monitoring inspection judged as outstanding. Nevertheless, there are still too many lessons that are satisfactory. The school is aware that the quality needs to be raised further in order to engage pupils fully and to maintain the momentum of improvement. Systems are in place to identify good practice and disseminate this among staff with the aim of raising the standards of all teaching. This monitoring inspection confirms the findings from monitoring by senior leaders. The Elmete Lane site continues to have the better teaching, although there has been some improvement at the Stonegate Road site where pupils are now taught in groups. Although this has caused some problems related to the group dynamics, the school is working hard to provide opportunities for pupils to develop their social skills to diminish the disruption caused by this. In the best lessons seen, teachers ensure Page 3
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1 December 2008 Mr W Chatwin Headteacher Elmete ... - Ofsted

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