Derby City Council School Improvement and Governor Support: Every School Good or Better


Introduction:

This review took place as a result of a request made the headteacher and formed part of the tailored support package purchased by the school. It was conducted by the link SeniorSchool Improvement Officer, who is also an additional lead inspector for Ofsted, and formed part of the local authority’s monitoring programme of outstanding schools. The purpose of the review was to identify strengths and areas for development in the quality of teaching and to provide recommendations for further improvement.

In preparation for the review,the school’s last Ofsted report, the Data Dashboard and the school's analysis of the 2014 examination results were considered. In addition to this,meetings took place between the SSIO and theheadteacherand deputy headteacher.

During the review ten parts of lessons and two assemblies were observed in the school. The SSIO also visited the post-16 Horizon's provision, which is situated offsite. All lessons were observed with members of the leadership team and staff from the school gave feedback to those who had been observed. In addition to this, students' work was also scrutinised and discussions were held with students and senior staff.

The SSIO fed back to senior leaders and staff at the end of the review.

Quality of teaching:

Strengths

  • In almost every lesson observed students behaved well, they were keen to learn and responded positively to the input of all the staff in the room. Praise and rewards were used effectively and relationships were extremely positive.
  • There was a clear team ethos in the school. All staff worked well together in order to help the students do well.
  • The vast majority of lessons were well planned and resourced, they had clearly established routines and teachers and TAs gave good quality verbal feedback and used probing questions to promote the learning of individuals.
  • Where teaching was most effective the students were all undertaking tasks matched to their ability. Some support was given, where required, but students were allowed to develop their independence and make decisions about their learning. In these lessons teachers had a clear understanding of what individuals needed to learn in order to make good progress.
  • There were examples of high quality marking throughout the school and this was helped by the practice of using block and bubble comments. Effective peer assessment and the use of photographs to illustrate learning were also seen.
  • Students enjoy reading, they are given opportunities to read in class and less confident readers have clear strategies to work out words through the sounds letters make.
  • In some lessons the SHAPE aspects, skills and attitudes were used effectively to develop learning.
  • Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is a real strength of the school. The impact of activities in lessons is enhanced by assemblies and a wide range of extra-curricular experiences.
  • Senior leaders have an accurate understanding of strengths and areas for development of teaching in the school.
  • Horizons 2 is an outstanding provision.

Areas for development and recommendations

  • In some lessons teachers need to move onto challenging activities more rapidly. Students need to be given more opportunities to work things out for themselves, develop their independence and take more responsibility for their learning.
  • All staff should use achievement data, prior learning and assessment in lessons to meet the needs of all the students in their class. The more able, in particular, need to be challenged in order to make rapid progress.
  • Teachers should routinely check the progress of students who are working with TAs and build in opportunities to reflect on the learning at the end of sessions.
  • All teachers must consider what they want the students to learn rather than what they want them to do. Staff need to think carefully about the purpose of all activities and consider how the students can use their learning away from school.
  • SHAPE aspects should be explicit in every lesson. The way that the skills and attitudes are developed in lessons needs to be reviewed and refreshed.
  • Block and bubble marking is notused consistently across the school. Pupils do not always respond to the written comments made by staff and targets are sometimes repeated on subsequent pieces of work.
  • Senior and middle leaders must ensure that all staff act upon the feedback given to them in order to improve their practice.

Derby City Council