SELF EVALUATION SUMMARY
Ashby School is a large 14-19 Upper School in NW Leicestershire. It has two main feeder High Schools (Ivanhoe College and Ibstock College), but also attracts significant numbers of students from outside the normal catchment area. The sixth form has approximately 600 students with the majority continuing from key stage 4 at Ashby and around 15% coming from other schools.
The school has made excellent progress in recent years with significant rises in outcomes at both key stages and progress measures being consistently above national averages. In 2014the ALPS grade at A2 was a grade 3 (our highest ever) and at AS was a grade 4. This is a further development from 2013 where we recorded our previous best scores with a grade 4 at both A2 and AS. At key stage 4 our highest ever levels of achievement have been recorded in the last three years. In 2014 we recorded our best ever A*-C percentages in mathematics, science and literature and progress in Maths and Science was very strong and well above national averages. Science results placed us in FFT 10. However, English Language results dipped in line with the high levels of turbulence and volatility anticipated by the examination boards, although the overall A*-C figure remains well above the national average (source JCQ data).
We enjoy excellent working relationships with our feeder high schools and work in partnership to improve the progress from key stage 2 to 4. Collectively, the progress of our most vulnerable students remains a priority.A number of students are already significantly behind their peers in terms of attainment by the end of key stage 2 and this is often compounded by poor attendance levels with students having lower reading and spelling ages. By the time students reach key stage 4 several have a history of exclusion or isolation and a small number have begun to disengage with the education process.
A significant investment in our “alternative” provision and more targetted use of Pupil Premium funding has resulted in improved attendance rates, very low exclusion rates and some significant improvements in reading and spelling and very significantly, a re-engagement in the educational process. However, through continued strong partnership working we must now add to this a continual improvement in academic progress across all subjects, particularly English and Maths. The relatively low numbers of Pupil Premium students means that percentages are greatly affected by low numbers i.e. 5 students make a 10% difference. In 2014 a small increase in performance was evident, but the amount of improvement was affected by the drop in English Language.
The recently commissioned Pupil Premium review highlighted our practice as the best that he had seen and described our practice as “second to none”, inviting us to attend a regional seminar on Pupil Premium students that would showcase best practice.
The school has developed highly rigorous monitoring and tracking systems that sit alongside regular meetings with Heads of Faculty, a robust Performance Management process and an increased level of awareness regarding individual staff outcomes and accountability. Teaching and Learning is central to our work and the two Leading Practitioners and eight Lead Teachers, led by our Assistant Headteacher (Teaching & Learning) play a key role in developing practice and providing targetted intervention and support where necessary. The "Good to Outstanding" programme has contributed to a significant improvement in the percentage of good or better lessons. However, we use both lesson observation data and outcomes to help identify effective practice over time.
Behaviour is consistently good with the overwhelming majority of students behaving well around the site and in lessons. The outstanding support provided by the Year room helps to ensure that any issues or problems are dealt with quickly and efficiently. There are very few bullying issues and students frequently comment on the positive and supportive atmosphere within the school.
In the last three years we have developed and embedded an ethos of excellence and a relentless focus on continuous improvement at all levels to be the very best.
The information below outlines some specific key contextual information about the school:
Most students come from two feeder KS3 schools, Ivanhoe College and Ibstock College.
60% of students travel by bus into school every day.
Students come from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. The catchment has pockets of high deprivation, particularly in the Measham and Moira wards.
72 KS5 students have received one or more discretionary Bursary payments.
There are currently 39 students in year 11 eligible for FSM and 94 overall that have received FSM during the last 6 years (as of November 2014).
There are currently 6looked after Children, one of whom is eligible for FSM.
Most students are of white British origin. 159 students are from minority ethnic backgrounds and 85 students have English as a second language (many of these are boarders).
The school has a multi-national boys' boarding house known as "School House" which was extended in September 2011 to cater for a maximum of 73 boarders. There are currently 71 boys between the ages of 11 - 19 on roll.
Ashby is a split site school with the two sites approximately 400 metres apart and separated by a main road.
The school leases part of the land from a trust and as a result the trust is able to appoint one person to the governing body.
Ashby School became an academy on 1st October 2012.
The school seeks to remove barriers to students’ involvement in the extended schools programme by providing late after-school buses on two nights a week
The school was inspected in 2012 and judged "good" with boarding provision judged as "outstanding". The leadership team believe that since the last inspection the school has made further improvements and is moving close to the aim of becoming an outstanding school.
Since the last inspection we have appointed new Heads of Maths and English and there have been two changes in the leadership team.
The school is part of the Ashby and Coalville Education partnership (ACE) that works collaboratively in the interests of all schools and students in NW Leicestershire.
The school is alsopart of the Ashby Learning Community (ALC) that includes Ivanhoe College (feeder school) and all the schools that feed Ivanhoe.
Independent learning opportunities in the sixth form
The personalised learning communities (PLCs) had independent learning within the sixth form as a key theme for the academic year 2012-13. Observation data suggested that this was much more evident in lessons and staff actively looked for opportunities to provide students with such opportunities. The highest ever ALPS grades in 2014 would indicate that teaching within the sixth form is largely effective and the training has had an impact. However, we have emphasised that when observing lessons it is important that staff do not judge the teaching style, but the effectiveness of the teaching.
Assessment to inform planning
We have reviewed our assessment practices and strengthened the way in which assessment is used to inform teaching and planning. In the current academic year we have two of our PLCs focussing on assessment and the way in which we use assessment, marking and feedback to support learning. The use of Sue Vasey, Lead Ofsted inspector, to deliver whole staff training on the use of marking coupled with a reviewed emphasis on marking through a whole school review has seen improvements in the way in which staff mark work.
Opportunities for spiritual reflection and awareness of cultures within the UK
Two staff have been appointed to lead on this issue. One has a focus on how we promote, exhibit and celebrate our work and the other has a responsibility for ensuring opportunities within the curriculum are clear and explicit in schemes of work. We have also run whole school training sessions on these aspects. Our Citizenship/RE course has been remodelled and we are confident that these elements are much more transparent. Observation, lesson visits, displays and extra-curricular activities provide students with opportunities to experience the full range of SMSC activity. The emphasis on British culture has been embedded into our revised citizenship programme.
Progress at Key Stage 4
The leadership team judges the overall quality of pupil progress to be good at KS4 taking into account both the 2014 results and very significant improvements over the last three years. Some elements of progress are outstanding. Maths and Science remain strong and whilst there was a slight drop in English, this was almost entirely attributed to the changes in the English Language qualification and the amendments to the assessment criteria made mid-course.
Progress of Pupil Premium students is a key focus for our current work and we have a separate action plan for this element. Results in 2012 improved dramatically, but then dropped in 2013 before improving slightly in 2014. In 2013-14 this was a key strand of the work of the PLCs. Working with an outstanding school for Pupil Premium student outcomes proved unhelpful as they left with more ideas and strategies than they brought. We chose to have a Pupil Premium review carried out by Ashmount School in Leicestershire, a lead school for this work. The results of this review were extremely positive about our provision.
Overall, FFT live analysis indicates progress is significantly above national equivalents in a wide range of subject areas.
Progress at Key Stage 5
The leadership team judges the quality of pupil progress to be good and bordering on outstanding at KS5 based on the 2013 Level 3 VA Report, the 2014 draft Level 3 VA report and ALPs data for 2014.The 2013 VA report judged progress to be significantly above average and the 2014 ALPS grade 3 at A2 and grade 4 at AS are our highest recorded level.The three year trend is extremely positive and shows outcomes significantly above average for the last two years.
Attainment at Key Stage 4
The leadership team judges student attainment to be good at KS4 with some aspects bordering on outstanding. The overall attainment of the school is significantly above national average with performance in science being exceptionally strong.The percentage of student achieving 5A*-C (E&M) dropped slightly to 64%, but a number of other measures e.g. the percentage achieving the EBacc remains exceptionally strong. However, our attainment measure against the national attainment profile has improved as we are now 11% above the national figure compared with 8% last year (based on JCQ data from September 2014).
Attainment at Key Stage 5
The leadership team judges attainment to be good at key stage 5. Both our APS per entry and our APS per subject are significantly above national averages.
The information below shows the destinations of our year 13 students.
Destination / 2014 / 2013 / VarianceUniversity / 75.20% / 73.00% / +2.2
Art Foundation / 3.20% / 3.00% / +0.2
Further Education / 3.20% / 3.75% / -0.55
Apprenticeship / 5.00% / 5.00%
Employment / 7.40% / 6.00% / +1.4
Gap Year / 3.20% / 3.75% / -0.55
Other / 1.20% / 0.50% / +0.8
Unknown / 1.60% / 5.00% / -3.4
The leadership team judges the quality of teaching to be good and considering all observations are completely unannounced, bordering on outstanding. The observation data to July 2014 indicates 86% of lessons judged good or better and 20% of observations judged outstanding. There is no regular inadequate teaching and no teachers are in formal procedures. Consistently weak teaching has been eradicated through a combination of staff leaving and professional support and development.
The appointment of an Assistant Headteacher with responsibility for teaching and learning, two Leading Practitioners and eight Lead Teachers has enabled a culture around improving teaching to develop within the school. The “good to outstanding” programme and the targeted support for weaker staff have seen significant improvements in the overall quality of teaching.
Our strong CPD programme has teaching and learning at the heart of its’ work and the creation of PLCs has been a strong feature of our approach.
The leadership team judges the overall quality of leadership to be outstanding. There has been a relentless focus on improving standards at all levels and consequently our progress and attainment measures have significantly improved.
Self-evaluation is rigorous, systematic and detailed at all levels. The school SEF is shared with governors and is available to all staff and each Faculty produces an on-going SEF with updates each term. In short, the SEF is a school/Faculty “snapshot” at a particular point in time. In addition we have SEFs for Pupil Premium and the sixth form.
Each faculty is reviewed on an 18-month cycle and the review considers the views of staff, students, a work scrutiny, lesson observations and a learning walk. The report highlights strengths and areas for development and copies of the report are given to faculty members and are shared with the governors’ curriculum committee.
Attendance rates are above national averages on Raiseonline, but more importantly, and fairly, when using the DfE published data to compare the school with equivalent groups nationally, we are well above national rates. NB Raiseonline compares us with 11-16 schools which is clearly inappropriate and unfair.
Exclusion rates are significantly reduced and there have been no permanent exclusions for three years.
The quality of teaching has risen dramatically – data supplied earlier
Leadership at all levels has a far greater awareness, understanding and level of accountability in all aspects of their work. The Faculty and House manager conferences, the faculty leadership days and the middle leader training programme have all contributed to the significant and rapid improvements in leadership.
We have a strong and robust performance management system with a number of staff not making the progression through to the next pay point. Many of these more challenging decisions are now taken by middle leaders with line management responsibility.
Governors are challenging and supportive. They know the school well and challenge the leadership about many aspects of performance. Governors regularly visit the school to see our work in action with a programme of faculty visits throughout the year. Governors also meet with individual SLT members to discuss the progress of the school improvement plan. The committees receive regular presentations and reports from a variety of staff members. The Headteacher meets the chair every fortnight.
The school works with an external consultant who provides support and challenge for the school with regard to data analysis, SEF and SIP reviews, Headteacher Performance management and additional support in relation to areas of strategic development.
Student behaviour is very good in and around the school. Lesson observations rarely see poor behaviour and student feedback tells us that students feels safe and confident around the school.
Attendance is significantly improved – see earlier comment although more work remains to be done with some vulnerable individuals.
Exclusions are rare and monitored carefully by the year team and the leadership team
The school is fully compliant with safeguarding procedures and child protection policies. All staff complete a 3 year on line safeguarding course and all staff have had child protection training at the start of the academic year. The school has a significant number of staff that have completed the safer recruitment training and there are four fully trained staff with regard to the designated senior person.