Willow Tree Centre

Review 16-17 March 2016.

The review was carried out over the course of two days. It was commissioned at the request of the head of The Willow Tree Centre and the local authority, to provide an external view of the provision and to provide advice on further developments.

As part of the review, discussions were held with headteacherof the Centre and members of the steering committee. Six parts of lessons were jointly observed with the head of the centre. Various documentation, including the SAR, the quality improvement plan, safeguarding and assessment information was scrutinised.

All comments and judgements contained in the report are made in good faith.

The judgements used in the report equate with OFSTED judgements.

Background:

The Willow Tree Centre is a newly established Further Education college for up to 30 fulltime learners aged 16-19. Part time provision for post-19 students is also planned from September 2016. All students have learning difficulties, which are severe or complex and encompass ASD, ADHD, sensory impairments and speech and language difficulties.

Currently, 23 students are on roll. All students previously attended the Bridge School and the centre opened in September 2015. The centre comes under the remit of Telford College of Arts and Technology (TCAT).

The accommodation is purpose built and sited on the campus of TCAT. The centre is led and managed by an acting head and acting deputy. There are five learning facilitators and 12 learning support assistants.

Approximately one third of students are entitled to free school meals. Nearly a fifth are from minority ethnic groups and 57% of students are male.

Summary:

The Willow Tree Centre has got off to an excellent start. Despite only being open for two terms, much has been achieved. Students are settled, parents and staff have very positive views of the provision. Teaching and outcomes for students are at least good. Their personal development, behaviour and welfare are outstanding. The centre provides a mature and distinctive environment for students to thrive and develop their self-confidence very effectively. It offers the best of both worlds as it provides specialist provision, together with wider access to TCAT community and facilities such as hairdressing and catering. It provides safe, inclusive and carefully planned opportunities for students. The centre is developing and improving rapidly.

Leadership and management: Good

The head of the centre provides confident and determined leadership. She has the confidence of staff, parents and other professionals. She has set out a clear path for improvement. She is eager for the centre to develop and under her leadership, the centre has the potential to be outstanding. The evidence for this is the rapid developments that have taken place and that have been embedded over a short period to time.

The accommodation and facilities for students are excellent. It is purpose built and provides a good rage of facilities for vocational and academic areas of learning. In addition, students have access to TCAT facilities such as the sports hall and an onsite café. Whilst there are good displays around the school, there are some areas that still look bare and more display boards are needed. The accommodation provides horticulture, ICT, hair and beauty, hospitality and catering, life skills, art, sensory room and a small gym. There are also three individual support bases for ASD students, where they can work in low stimulus arousal rooms.

The centre will not be inspected in its own right, but as part of the TCAT college wide provision. This means that The Willow Tree Centre will not receive a specific grade for its provision and overall effectiveness. Therefore, external views and validation of its work are extremely helpful. For example, the National Autistic Society provides a rigorous and well-regarded accreditation award for working with students with ASD and this would be worth exploring. Other possible kite marks to pursue are the ICT mark and the Basic Skills Agency award. Regular external reviews to monitor, check the development of the provision and report to the steering committee, would also be valuable.

The steering committee consists of representatives from the health authority, the local authority, TCAT and the head teacher of the Bridge School. This committee provides oversight and accountability for The Willow Tree Centre. It would be helpful for them to have clear key performance indicators for the centre to report under, to help them monitor its work more easily. These might incorporate the quality of teaching; student outcomes; attendance; behaviour; and wider areas such as the number of independent travellers and social inclusion opportunities.

Parents are very positive in their views of the centre. 15 parental questionnaires were looked at. All gave very positive feedback. They noted the strengths as friendly staff; good communication between staff and home; the excellent facilities and mature environment for students. One parent stated her teenager was ‘treated as a young adult.’ Similarly, staff and students have very positive views of the provision.

Students receive appropriate careers education guidance and support and have action plans in place to prepare them well for their next steps in the future. Students participate in work-related learning, which is mainly onsite at Willow Tree or at TCAT, but offsite work experience has not yet been developed, although there are plans to extend this.

The curriculum provided for students is highly suitable. The curriculum focuses on core subjects, sport and leisure, food, media and manufacturing technologies and business and enterprise. There is a strong emphasis on vocational opportunities and courses. These include life skills, horticulture, hair, and beauty. Students also continue with improving their basic skills of numeracy, literacy and communication, often by putting these skills into practice in real life situations, such as purchasing drinks in the college cafe. Students work toward achieving externally accredited awards.

The centre is keen to develop post-19 provision from September 2016 and is well placed to do this. It is envisaged that part-time provision would be made for two days per week. The head of centre has identified a clear opportunity to train Personal Assistants, who work with post-19 students. Discussions with the head of centre and the careers team leader for the local authority focussed on what this might consist of and to look at other provision to see what is being offered. (Wilson Stuart School in Birmingham has 19-25 provision, which is well established for students with a range of learning needs).

Safeguarding is effective. The centre has appropriately adopted TCAT’s safeguarding policy and procedures. The head teacher is the designated safeguarding lead who has been trained at the appropriate level. All staff have undergone PREVENT training. Security of the site is good and students feel confident and safe in the centre.

Teaching, learning and assessment: Good.

Teaching and learning is good and has many strengths. The strengths of teaching and learning are:

  • Effective use of signs and symbols to help students’ communication skills.
  • Learning objectives are individualised for each student in lessons.
  • Good assessment of students’ small steps of progress.
  • Good use of sensory activities to engage students well in lessons.
  • Students are highly engaged in lessons and no time is wasted.
  • Teaching is lively and students’ enjoyment of learning is evident.
  • Excellent supportive and positive relationships between staff and students.
  • Outstanding opportunities for students to put their learning into practice in wider college situations.
  • ICT is used very effectively to support students' learning and communication skills.
  • The head of the centre has accurate judgements of the quality of teaching and learning, who correctly identifies strengths and areas for improvement appropriately.

On occasions, more able students are not challenged as much as they could be.

Personal development behaviour and welfare: Outstanding.

Students’ personal, social development and independence is promoted outstandingly well. For example, students sign visitors in, show them around the facilities, and use symbolised instructions to help them to read. They enjoy preparing lunch for visitors and acting as hosts. In lessons, students are given daily tasks to develop their responsibility and independence. Students’ maturity is encouraged exceptionally well. They respond well to the adult environment and the opportunities they have to mix with wider students on the campus. Students’ self-esteem and confidence is boosted very effectively through the supportive and encouraging environment, without being too over-protective and stifling their independence. Lunchtimes are pleasant and valuable social occasions, which students enjoy.

Some coffee mornings have been organised and there is scope for more regular community event to be held in the centre to provide students with increased opportunities to practice their social and communication skills.

Whilst students are consulted informally on day-to-dayissues, there is not yet a student council through which they can learn how to have a collective view and to make suggestions for further improvement.

Students’ behaviour in the centre is excellent. The environment is calm and purposeful. Students who have more challenging behavioural and learning needs are well catered for through individual rooms, which provide a quiet and distraction free learning environment. This provision has helped one student to access more class lessons than he was able to previously at his old school and has helped his social and emotional development.

Students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted effectively. Students explore beliefs and gain a good understanding of the wider world. They recognise right from wrong and this is demonstrated in their excellent behaviour. They have plenty of opportunities to collaborate and relationships at all levels are excellent. Students develop an appreciation of diversity and participate in cultural, sporting and artistic opportunities. This adds richness and breadth to their experiences. British Vales are actively taught and made meaningful for students’ level of understanding. For example, democracy is interpreted as giving students choice and a voice through alternative methods of communication. The centre’s own values sit comfortably with British Values.

Outcomes: Good.

Evidence of students’ progression over time needs to be clearer. This is a work in progress as the provision has only been open for two terms. Clearer reporting using key performance measures would assist the committee to measure the work and effectiveness of the centre more easily. These progress measures could include external accreditation achieved; collating data from the assessment slips, which measure small steps of progress; achievement of EHCP objectives and positive destinations when students leave Willow Tree. ‘Softer’ measures could include the amount of social inclusion opportunities accessed by students and numbers of pupils travelling independently etc.

The head of centre reports that current students are on track to achieve their targets and achieve externally accredited awards. The measurement of progress is in early days, but evidence from lesson observation, students’ records and their workbooks suggests that their progress is at least good. Students learn to put their numeracy and literacy skills into practice in the College café. They have clear objectives to achieve and use symbols to help them to understand and communicate with members of the public. Students enjoy accessing College facilities and this helps to prepare them very effectively for life after College. Some students access the catering facilities and learn how to prepare meals. They gain confidence in working in a busy kitchen and demonstrate their understanding of health and safety, by using sharp knives appropriately and wearing the required clothing.

Case studies provide good evidence of progress that students have made since being at the centre. Much of students’ progress is lateral, for example, learning to follow verbal instructions to carry out tasks in different settings such as horticulture or to become more proficient in dressing skills.

Areas for improvement:

1)Develop clearer evidence of students’ progress. This could include external accreditation achieved; collating data of small steps of progress; achievement of EHCP objectives and positive destinations when students leave Willow Tree. ‘Softer' data measures could also be developed to reflect students’ progress in inclusion opportunities, independence or cultural experiences etc.

2)Implement regular reviews of the school and secure external accreditation of the work of the school, through the National Autistic society, the Basic Skills Agency and ICT mark.

3)Develop key performance indicators that give an overview of the quality of the work of the school.

4)Increase the amount of display of students’ work in some classes.

5)Establish a student council so that they can express their views more formally as a group.

Frank Price Consulting Ltd.