2 November 2007 Mr W Chatwin Headteacher Elmete ... - Ofsted

CfBT Inspection Services
Suite 22
West Lancs Investment Centre
Maple View
Skelmersdale
WN8 9TG
2 November 2007
Mr W Chatwin
Headteacher
Elmete Wood BESD SILC
Elmete Lane
Leeds
West Yorkshire
LS8 2LJ
Dear Mr Chatwin
SPECIAL MEASURES: MONITORING INSPECTION OF ELMETE WOOD BESD
SILC
Following my visit with Ross Parker, Additional Inspector, to your school on 31
October and 1 November 2007, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector to
confirm the inspection findings.
The visit was the second monitoring inspection since the school became subject to
special measures in February 2007. The monitoring inspection report is attached and
the main judgements are set out below.
Progress since being subject to special measures – satisfactory
Progress since previous monitoring inspection – satisfactory
Newly qualified teachers may not be appointed.
This letter and monitoring inspection report will be posted on the Ofsted website.
Please inform the Regional Inspection Service Provider of any factual inaccuracies
within 24 hours of the receipt of this letter.
I am copying this letter and the monitoring inspection report to the Secretary of
State, the chair of governors, Education Leeds and the Director of Children’s Services
for Leeds.
Yours sincerely
Eric Craven
H M Inspector
Version 1 – September 2007
T 08456 40 40 40
enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk
www.ofsted.gov.uk
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Direct T 01695 566 947
Direct F 01695 729 320
sdaly@cfbt.com

SPECIAL MEASURES: MONITORING OF ELMETE WOOD BESD SILC
Report from the second monitoring inspection: 31 October – 1 November
2007
Evidence
Inspectors observed the centre’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the
principal and other senior leaders, a group of pupils, five members of the governing
body, four representatives from the local authority and a national leader of
education, who is working with the school in a consultancy capacity.
Context
In conjunction with Education Leeds, the school has been largely successful in a
campaign to recruit staff. All but one teaching post has been filled and there have
been appointments of a learning mentor and a parent and family support adviser.
Promoted posts have been given to two higher-level teaching assistants and a lead
behaviour support worker. Interviews are being held later this week for eight
behaviour support workers. A post as data manager and two administrative staff
positions are still to be filled. The governing body has been bolstered with the
appointment of seven governors, including three new parent representatives. The
number of Year 7 pupils joining the school in September 2007 was limited, as the
local authority made temporary provision elsewhere for Year 7 pupils who might
have come to the school whilst it is reviewing its provision for pupils with
behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.
Achievement and standards
Staff have benefited from training in judging the National Curriculum levels at which
the pupils are working. All the pupils have been re-assessed to give a baseline
measure and a calendar of regular assessments has been established. Positive
strides have been taken in ensuring the accuracy of assessments but, as the results
of the first round of regular assessments are yet to be collated, staff are not in a
position to be definitive about the amount of progress being made.
The progress of pupils was good in just under a half of the lessons observed and
satisfactory in about half. It was inadequate in a small number of lessons
The number of pupils achieving five or more external accreditations is on the rise.
Five pupils achieved GCSE grade D: two in mathematics, two in art and one in
English, and this too represents an increase on the previous year. Courses leading to
external accreditation are commencing earlier with some pupils gaining entry-level
qualifications in Year 9 and GCSE qualifications in Year 10. An increasing range of
GCSE courses is being offered this year, with information and communication
technology (ICT), music and religious education being added to current GCSE
courses in English, mathematics, science and art. There are early indications that an
increasing number of pupils are going into further education, training or employment
when they leave school.
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Personal development and well-being
The attendance of the pupils, overall, is stubbornly low at 70%. It is much lower at
the Stonegate Road site. The school is making strong efforts to tackle this, but feels
it has been hampered by staffing issues in the local authority’s attendance service.
Each pupil now has an attendance target and the school’s attendance policy has
been reviewed. The number of fixed-term exclusions and the number of pupils
receiving exclusions is high, but reflects the firm stance being taken by the school in
setting out its stall with regard to what is and what is not acceptable behaviour.
Generally, the attitudes and behaviour of the pupils in lessons are satisfactory. The
sporadic challenges posed by individual pupils are managed effectively. Nevertheless,
there are a few other pupils who display low-level disruption in the lessons which are
not managed successfully by some staff. In these cases, expectations as to what is
acceptable and what is not are not conveyed clearly enough to the pupils at the
outset of the lesson. Equally, there is insufficient reference made to behavioural
targets and the recently revised ‘bonus’ system during the lesson in order to curb
this behaviour. However, the bonus system is applied consistently at the end of
lessons and the pupils are responding well to the points and raffle tickets they can
earn. The school has begun to gather data on the issuing of points and incidents of
misbehaviour but has not enough yet for it to be analysed thoroughly.
Quality of provision
Clear systems are in place to develop a consistent quality of teaching and learning
across all subjects. These are beginning to have an impact on assessment, the
matching of work to pupils’ needs and the academic targets for pupils. There are
areas of well-developed practice, but variability remains. There is a routine for
explaining what pupils are expected to learn within lessons and then discussing how
far they have progressed at the end of the lesson. In some lessons, such as science
and music, teachers’ plans identify the skills and concepts individual pupils should
master. Teachers are referring to boundaries between different levels of response
when they talk to pupils and encouraging them to aspire to the next level. As yet,
pupils see the next steps more in terms of behaviour or concentration rather than on
mastering skills or concepts. The very strong relationships and good role models
provided by staff are more influential in ensuring good behaviour than the
attractiveness of the work. However, in more lessons teachers are exploiting a range
of learning styles and using technology – film clips for example – to make the tasks
more appealing. There is still some lack of confidence in ICT on the Elmete Lane site
and technical difficulties are inhibiting the use of ICT at the Stonegate Road site. This
is hampering attempts to make the work more engaging. Teachers make good use of
praise to encourage and motivate pupils and work well with behaviour support
workers to maintain momentum within lessons. When faced with significant
resistance on the Stonegate Road site, the adults are calmly persistent and find
every opportunity to draw pupils into cooperating.
In some lessons teachers are not providing enough challenge. Sometimes this is
because they devise tasks which keep pupils busy in order to reduce opportunities
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for them to distract each other. Some pupils find these tasks too simple. On other
occasions the lack of challenge stems from teachers not wishing to intimidate pupils.
Staff can become over-protective, offering answers to questions rather than leaving
space for pupils to take more responsibility for their response. However, there were
good examples of more effective practice when teachers asked questions and left
time for the pupil to reflect before answering. Teachers were conscious of the need
to maintain a good pace, used questioning skilfully to draw pupils into the activities
and offered opportunities for them to evaluate their own work.
A similar systematic approach is supporting the development of the curriculum. Very
thorough monitoring of medium and long-term planning has identified areas of the
curriculum where planning needs to be improved to give pupils a consistent
experience. The programme for personal social and health education (PSHE) has
been fully planned and agreed with good support from Education Leeds’ consultants.
The priority area of sexual and relationships education is well under way. After
internal monitoring identified fundamental flaws in the provision for physical
education (PE), the scheme of work has been radically changed to emphasise skills
rather than activities in both the lesson plans and assessment approaches. Support
staff are undertaking specialist PE training and the school is offering pupils
opportunities to train as junior sports leaders. Senior managers are exploring ways of
providing further PE opportunities in partnership with a nearby secondary school.
Recent appointments of subject leaders for PE and PSHE have added stability to
these improvements. An after-school club in creative arts, open to all pupils, has
been established this term in conjunction with the youth service.
The newly appointed parent and family support worker has been successful in
liaising with some individual families and this has resulted in improved attendance in
these cases. The impact of the recently established multi-disciplinary team within the
school is yet to be evaluated, although early evidence suggests this is a positive
development. A pilot project pulling together the pupils’ behaviour, academic,
attendance and healthy and safe living targets into an individual learning plan is
being prepared for implementation for Key Stage 3 pupils at the Stonegate Road site.
This involves the pupils, parents and carers and has much promise.
There are examples of good written feedback being given to pupils about their work.
The best clearly identifies what they have mastered, the level of their work and also
describes what they need to do to improve further. However, this practice is
inconsistent across subjects and in some cases within a subject.
Progress on the areas for improvement identified by the inspection in February 2007:
� Ensure pupils achieve well by improving the quality of teaching and the
curriculum – satisfactory.
Leadership and management
The senior staff are working well as a team and, as a consequence, are delivering
consistent messages to staff. Staff are responding well to the challenges set and
they are fully involved in school development through their membership of various
‘change’ groups, such as those looking at teaching and learning and the
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management of behaviour. Senior staff are ensuring that good practice in school is
shared, as well as identifying where development is needed. A good example is the
form used to record lesson observations. This is detailed and clear and concludes
with strengths, areas for development and practice to be shared.
The school’s records show that the quality of teaching is not less than satisfactory,
with about half being good. Inspectors also found about half of the teaching to be
good but also found a small amount of teaching to be inadequate. Substantial
changes in staffing make comparisons of the quality of teaching over time difficult.
Nevertheless, there is evidence that the teaching is improving.
Monitoring by seniors leaders, along with guidance from Education Leeds, has
improved the consistency of planning. Subject leaders are furthering their influence
by observing lessons delivered by other teachers and in managing assessment data.
Although there remain inconsistencies between subjects, often associated with
permanency of staffing, subject leaders are leading their subjects with more
confidence.
A policy and process for performance management has been agreed, with suitable
links between staff’s performance objectives and whole-school priorities. The school
improvement plan is currently based on the key areas for development from the last
inspection. These plans are regularly and effectively monitored by the governing
body, the task group, which comprises senior staff and local authority officers, and
also the joint review group, chaired by a senior officer from Education Leeds.
The school has responded well to the points for further improvement identified at the
last monitoring inspection. The monitoring of pupils’ placements with alternative
providers has improved. Effective work has been done to make the assessments of
the pupils’ work more accurate. There have been improvements in the use of
academic targets in lesson plans, although this practice is variable.
The governing body is at full complement. It has been strengthened by the
appointment of new governors, some with relevant expertise. The training governors
have received has been helpful in developing their skills and understanding.
Members are now in a better position to hold the school to account in their work as
‘critical friends’.
Progress on the areas for improvement identified by the inspection in February 2007:
� Establish robust systems to monitor the effectiveness of the SILC and its impact
on learning and achievement – satisfactory.
� Make the workload of the leadership team more equitable and effective – good.
External support
There has been bespoke support for subject leaders, from Education Leeds’ national
strategies’ consultants. Their action plans to support the school are helpful and map
out their commitment for the rest of the school year. The benefit of this support is
already evident in improved assessments, planning and monitoring. As members of
the task group and joint review group, officers from Education Leeds are helping
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keep the school on its improvement track. The national leader for education has
been particularly effective in his work with the governing body.
Priorities for further improvement
� Set clear expectations and use the bonus points system and behaviour targets to
better effect in order to reduce the low-level disruptions seen in some lessons.
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