Setting

CfBT Inspection Services Suite 22 West Lancs Investment Centre Maple View Skelmersdale WN8 9TG T 0300 123 1231 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01695 566855 Direct F 01695 729320 gail.hill@cfbt.com www.cfbt-inspections.com

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Mr D Needham Acting Headteacher Hanson School Sutton Avenue Swain House Road Bradford West Yorkshire BD2 1JP

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Hanson School

Following my visit with Mrs Ariane Roberts, Mr Stephen Wall and Mr Peter Cox, additional inspectors, to your school on 13 and 14 July 2011, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Hanson School

The inspection was the second monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection which took place on 10 and 11 November 2010. The full list of the areas for improvement which were identified during that inspection is set out in the annex to this letter. The monitoring inspection report is attached and the main judgements are set out below.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Hanson School

Progress since being subject to special measures – satisfactory

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Hanson School

Progress since previous monitoring inspection – satisfactory

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Hanson School

Newly-Qualified Teachers may not be appointed

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Hanson School

This letter and monitoring inspection report will be posted on the Ofsted website.

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Special measures: monitoring inspection of Hanson School

I am copying this letter and the monitoring inspection report to the Secretary of State, the Chair of the Governing Body and the Strategic Director for Services to Children and Young People for Bradford.

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November 2010

 Raise attainment and improve achievement across the school, but especially in mathematics and English by:  improving the quality of teaching to ensure that more lessons are at least good  recognising the different needs of students, particularly boys, and tailoring lessons to meet these needs more effectively  providing all students with sufficient challenge and support in lessons to achieve their best  improving the consistency and accuracy of assessment so that students are clear about what they need to do to improve  improving behaviour, attendance and punctuality to lessons.

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November 2010

 Ensure that leaders and managers at all levels, including the governing body take responsibility and are accountable for:  developing and sharing a vision for the school's improvement and sustaining the momentum to achieve this  monitoring the school's work rigorously and evaluating its strengths and weaknesses accurately to provide a secure basis for coherent improvement planning  developing and delivering a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum at Key Stage 3 that provides a full entitlement for students and meets statutory requirements, including those for religious education  ensuring that learning programmes are planned to progressively develop skills, acquire knowledge and promote understanding  developing the skills of all leaders so that they can accurately identify strengths and weaknesses in teaching and learning and take the necessary action to tackle underperformance and share good practice.

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the school’s work, including 39 lessons. They scrutinised documents and met with a group of students, the acting headteacher, the consultant executive headteacher and key members of staff. Meetings were also held with the chair of the governing body and another governor and a representative from Education Bradford.

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Context

Since the last monitoring inspection, six staff have left the school and others, including several mathematics teachers, are due leave at the end of August. The school has moved into a new building on the same site. Most lessons are taught in the new building but others, including mathematics and science lessons, are still housed in the old school. Hanson School is scheduled to close at the end of August and reopen as Hanson Academy in September 2011.

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Pupils' achievement and the extent to which they enjoy their learning

The school’s data show that the proportion of students estimated to gain five good GCSE passes in 2011 is still likely to rise, although the predicted figure is lower than at the time of the last monitoring inspection. Similarly the number of students likely to gain five or more GCSEs including English and mathematics is also predicted to rise. The rise is expected in part because of the higher attainment levels of this particular cohort. Predictions show the improvement to be much less in mathematics than in English.

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Pupils' achievement and the extent to which they enjoy their learning

The school’s recent evidence from lesson observations undertaken by senior staff, subject leaders and Education Bradford indicates that more students are achieving satisfactorily or better. These data match, in part, that of the inspection team but also show that attainment remains low and there is still historic underachievement that is proving extremely hard to shift. Because the quality of teaching remains inconsistent the rate at which students, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, make progress in their learning varies considerably within departments and across the school. Nonetheless, there is clear evidence of accelerated achievement in some subjects, such as science and to a lesser extent, English.

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Pupils' achievement and the extent to which they enjoy their learning

Progress since the last monitoring inspection on the areas for improvement:  Raise attainment and improve achievement across the school, but especially in mathematics and English – satisfactory

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Other relevant pupil outcomes

Behaviour continues to improve, particularly as students move around the school in between lessons. Students have noticed this and are quick to say that they feel happier and safer. The number of exclusions is beginning to reduce. The quality of students’ behaviour in lessons is nearly always in direct response to the quality of teaching. Too many students sit passively because they are not sufficiently engaged in their learning. On occasions, they become disengaged and low-level disruption occurs. Attendance is showing some improvement but students who are persistently absent continue to thwart any initiatives put in place to improve their attendance.

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The effectiveness of provision

The school’s data show that the proportion of good teaching is improving. However, the overall picture remains very patchy. Furthermore, inspection evidence is less positive about the quality of teaching than is the school’s analysis. However, the school’s data sample contains much more Key Stage 4 lessons in which, as the school states, it puts its strongest teachers.

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The effectiveness of provision

The quality of teaching is so divided it is almost like two separate schools. Students’ quality of education is dependent on which teachers they are taught by. The strengths observed in the best lessons remain the very aspects missing from those judged inadequate. The best teachers have become even better at matching tasks to the needs of different learners, in particular boys and students with special educational needs and/or disabilities. A key focus for improvement has been planning to ensure students are more engaged in their learning through a brisker pace and increased challenge. While there are signs of some improvement, there remain too many lessons where teachers’ low expectations result in a lack of engagement and too much off-task chatter. The lack of consistency is particularly evident in mathematics where some teaching is outstanding and some is very poor. This inconsistency is due, in part, to weaknesses in management. Teaching assistants,

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The effectiveness of provision

particularly those who work with the disabled students, contribute well to much of the learning taking place. Some aspects of assessment have improved as a result of increased rigour, but teachers do not always mark work in a way that informs students of how well they are learning and what they need to do to improve.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Leaders have set a much clearer vision for the future as the school approaches academy status. Roles have been clarified and the school is on track to become an academy within the planned timescale. Middle leaders report that they are more empowered through joint monitoring of lessons and improved guidance from senior staff on how to identify strengths and weaknesses in their departments accurately. Nevertheless, the quality of departmental management remains varied with some strengths in English and science. Weaknesses in subject leadership have not been tackled sufficiently by senior leaders and are resulting in some low staff morale in certain subjects, such as mathematics. The school is moving along

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PROTECT-INSPECTION

Page5 its improvement plan appropriately but with the move to the new building and the planning for academy status, it has lost some of the urgency and rigour evident in the first monitoring inspection.

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PROTECT-INSPECTION

Governance has improved. There is a greater involvement in finding out exactly what is going on and governors have a much greater presence around the school. They ask more probing questions and are much less reliant on reports from the headteacher.

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PROTECT-INSPECTION

The specialist subject of science continues to be used to help with improving the quality of teaching and learning through modelling good practice. The technology aspect of the specialism is less effective.

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PROTECT-INSPECTION

The inspection team was concerned to discover that the instruction not to appoint newly- qualified teachers to the school has been disregarded. Several newly-qualified teachers have been appointed to take up post in September. These appointments have been made without any consultation with Ofsted or Education Bradford. Although they will be appointed to the new academy rather than the current school, the fundamental reason for not appointing newly-qualified teachers has been ignored. For example, inspectors are very concerned that appointing three newly-qualified teachers to the mathematics department could result in them receiving insufficient support, guidance and experience of what good teaching looks like at the start of their career. This point was made to the senior leadership team, governors and the academy sponsor representative and they were informed that this will need to be monitored.

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PROTECT-INSPECTION

Progress since the last monitoring inspection on the areas for improvement:  Ensure that leaders and managers at all levels, including the governing body take responsibility and are accountable – satisfactory

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External support

The support provided to the school from Education Bradford continues to be well-matched to need. The work of the associate headteacher and the School Improvement Partner along with other consultant provision is valued by the school. The consultant executive headteacher has also provided much-needed advice and guidance throughout the journey to academy status.

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Priorities for further improvement

 ensure that newly-qualified teachers taking up post in September are supported by high-quality staff and that plans are in place to provide all necessary effective guidance.

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