School Year September 2016 – July 2017
Autumn Term Visit 1
School: Brooke School / Date: 55h October 2016 / Visit Length: 3.5 hours / Present:SLT/SIP
Main focus:
Updates
Pupil Outcomes / Focus of next visit:
HT Appraisal – 7th December 2016
February visit – date and focus to be confirmed.
Updates
The headteacher (HT) updated the School Improvement Partner (SIP) about developments at the school including revised areas of responsibility for senior leaders in the school; funding changes for schools; revised arrangements for catering in the light of staffing changes and the progress towards creating a multi-academy trust (MAT). Admission arrangements in Warwickshire are now arranged through a central panel that includes headteacher representation. Numbers of pupils at Brooke currently remain at a similar level to those in previous year albeit with a changing and more complex profile of need. School staff work closely with parents, health services and LA officers to continue to develop their expertise in support of children and families. The school is starting the school year with a full complement of appropriately qualified teachers.
Actions agreed at the last SIP visit have been completed or are scheduled to take place later this year. For example the governors do now receive information about attainment and progress in a way that shows progress of year groups as well as classes. External reviews for Early Years and Post 16 provision have been commissioned.
Tour of the school
The SIP and HT made a tour of the school, in particular visiting the additions to the outdoor areas end the redesigned and re-purposed teaching and learning areas. The learning environment continues to be enhanced with newly decorated areas and corridors. In many of the classes and learning areas pupils were seen to be engaged and focused. Outdoor learning and opportunities continue to expand. The drop in session for parents to meet the range of on site support staff and therapists held in the on-site café was very busy; parents are clearly valuing the opportunity to meet with specialists to discuss their child’s support programme and the progress being made.
Outcomes
Following a carefully planned programme of transition the school has now moved to use its new assessment system STEPS (Sequential Teaching: Examples of Progress Summary). Senior leaders provide good support to staff and there are regular discussions between leaders and teaching teams. In line with the commitment to a personalised curriculum so the methods of assessment are similarly bespoke. The school website contains accessible information for parents about the system. School staff use SOLAR to keep records and work closely with the developers of the system in order to ensure that it meets their requirements. For instance, following an adjustment, post 16 progress is more accurately reflected. Target setting is based on pupils’ starting points rather than age and staff are aspirational in their ambition for all pupils. There are clear links with national measures of attainment. The school ensures that teacher judgements are accurate through rigorous internal systems as well as local and regional moderation. The school has commissioned a local university psychology department to support the development of some tools to measure increased self-esteem that may well add to the ability to evidence the benefits of aspects of curriculum experience at and through Brooke School.
Members of the Senior Leadership Team know their pupils well and are able to accurately describe the progress and attainment of pupils as well as strengths and areas for further development in each phase. In line with previous years action plans have been drawn up to tackle the areas for development.
The school judges that outcomes overall are good with elements of outstanding progress for some pupils. Outcomes in the Early Years are judged to be good and in the 16-19 study programmes, outstanding. The SIP agrees with these judgements. Currently the HT has identified there is not enough evidence of the progress made through the outdoor learning that pupils benefit from and plans to take steps to address this. It is anticipated that this work will provide evidence of a range of social and independence skills as well as those linked more directly to the more taught curriculum in classrooms. Following this work the SIP predicts it is likely that there will be increased evidence of outstanding progress across the school.
Analysis of the performance and progress of various groups of pupils indicates that there is no discrepancy between, for example, Looked After Children, those children in receipt of Pupil Premium or those with English as an Additional Language.
In Primary there is evidence of the success of the work of the Challenge Intervention Teacher and as a consequence pupils can be seen to have made accelerated progress in reading in particular. There is a continued focus on the progress of children with Down’s Syndrome. There are plans to improve practice where necessary for example in upper KS2.
In Secondary progress continues to improve in many areas. Where it is less than this, for example in the early part of Key Stage 3 there are plans in place to address any shortfall. One pupil gained a GCSE qualification in Drama this year – a significant achievement for him. Current year 11 students who didn’t meet their targets last year will receive additional support as necessary. There has been significant improvement in terms of the acquisition of functional skills and students all gain suitable accreditation as they move through the secondary phase. The focus on building literacy skills remains in place. New materials and books have been purchased and where necessary focussed interventions are planned.
Destinations for young people as they leave Brooke are generally positive and appropriate, however the school has identified that this year there are 2 students who have not yet secured placements due to specific issues connected with the difficulty of finding suitable placements that families can feel confident about.
In Partnerships progress is deemed to be good and for some outstanding. Outcomes across a range of subjects are positive and an increasing number of pupils are able to take advantage of these options. The carefully planned transition planning ensures that pupils thrive in the mainstream environment.
Governors have an increasing understanding of pupil outcomes and records from meetings indicate that they fulfil their support and challenge roles well.
School Priorities (including any Ofsted key issues)
The School Learning Plan (SLP) identifies the following targets for the academic year 2106/7
The SIP judges the school to be on track to complete these actions within the timescales described in the SLP
TLA 1: Enhance the ability of the school to facilitate quality learning, recording and assessment of learning in contexts other than the classroom.
O 1: Ensure outstanding provision and progress for those children at the earlier stages of learning, but ensuring that learning is clearly planned, well delivered and consistent recorded
LM 1: Enhance current means to provide quality feedback to families so they can accurately identify the points of development for their child and contribute to their learning out of school
LM 2: Enhance current arrangements for lunchtimes to ensure that students have access to quality experiences that enhance their ability to learn in the afternoons
LM 3: Review current arrangements for the curriculum framework within each phase in the school so that all of the community can identify learning experiences at each stage of development.
LM 4: Continue to develop, disseminate, and embed STEPS as a means to develop quality assessment for learning in school, at home, and in all contexts.
LM 5: Review actions from governor action plan to further enhance the role of the governing body in securing accountability for high quality learning and progress. (see action plan from 2015/2016)
LM 6: Continue to review, identify and enhance systems for non-teaching members of staff so that they can identify and impact on the quality of learning for children and students
LM 7: Review and enhance procedures for making judgments about the quality of learning
TLA 1: Enhance the ability of the school to facilitate quality learning, recording and assessment of learning in contexts other than the classroom.
TLA 2: Ensure that all learning interactions have a clear and obvious focus that is well shared and discussed with children and students.
PDBW 1: Ensure that all Individual Learning Plans provide a clear provision for meeting the needs of child, as identified in their statement or plan and that has been contributed to by all relevant services.
PDBW 2: Ensure that all members of staff in the community are accountable to the needs as identified in the ILP in their interactions with children and students.
O 1: Ensure outstanding provision and progress for those children at the earlier stages of learning, but ensuring that learning is clearly planned, well delivered and consistently recorded
O 2: Ensure outstanding provision and progress for those children in key priority year groups, as identified from 2015/2016 data analysis (2016/2017: Yrs 5, 8, 9, 11)
O 3: Review procedures for sharing the outcomes of data analysis so that all teachers are able to track more effectively the progress of their class against targets set.
EY 1: Review and commission external scrutiny of Early Year Provision to identify developmental areas and strengths.
EY 2: Ensure outstanding provision and progress for those children at the earlier stages of learning, but ensuring that learning is clearly planned, well delivered and consistent recorded
EY 3: Review baseline and target setting procedure for the nursery at Brooke so that accurate identification of progress can be made and celebrated.
P 1: Review and commission external scrutiny of 16-19 Programmes to identify developmental areas and strengths.
(from Ofsted report October 2013)
Increase the proportion of outstanding teaching by making sure that all teaching staff make clear what new skills and knowledge pupils are to learn in lessons.
Raise achievement by making sure that all teachers challenge the more able pupils in every lesson
The SIP considers that the school continues to make good progress against all these priorities. Progress to improve teaching is excellent
Agreed Actions: / Who: / When:
Forward information about any updates to the SEF and any reports from external reviews to SIP as appropriate / HT / As appropriate
School Improvement Partner Report
Autumn 2016/Summer 2017
EFFECTIVENESS OF LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT / The school judges this to be good with elements of outstanding practice (October 2016). / The SIP confirms this judgement. Leadership and management at all levels is good and improving (JA May 2016)
QUALITY OF TEACHING, LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT / The school’s judgement is that teaching is good across the school. (October 2016). / The SIP judges that teaching is good and improving (JA July 2015) Developments in assessment without levels are sound and well thought through. Teaching staff are familiar with revised assessment systems (JA October 2016)
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT, BEHAVIOUR AND WELFARE / The school judges this to be outstanding (October 2016). / The SIP agrees with this judgement. (JA - October 2016)
OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN AND OTHER LEARNERS / The school judges that overall outcomes are good (October 2016) / The SIP agrees with this judgement. The school has evidence that outcomes are at least good. The planned activity around collecting further evidence when pupils are learning outside the classroom may provide evidence of outstanding progress for some aspects of learning. (JA October 2016)
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EARLY YEARS PROVISION: the quality and standards / The school judges this to be good (October 2016) / The SIP agrees with this judgement. The school has commissioned a specialist review of this area. It is anticipated that this will take place before December 2016. (JA October 2016)
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE 16-19 STUDY PROGRAMMES / The school judges this to be Outstanding (October 2016). / The SIP agrees with this judgement. The school has commissioned a specialist review of this area. It is anticipated that this will take place before December 2016. (JA October 2016)
OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS: the quality and standards of education
To include an evaluation of SMSC and whether provision meets the needs of disabled pupils and those with SEN / The school judges that overall effectiveness is good with outstanding practice in SMSC (October 2016) / The SIP agrees with this judgement based on knowledge of the school over time (JA – October 2016)
School Comments