Setting

Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0300 123 1234 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

p.1

Mrs M Barton Trinity High School and Sixth Form Centre Easemore Road Redditch Worcestershire B98 8HB

p.1

bullying practice in schools

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of your staff and students, during my visit on 21 September 2011 with Janet Thompson HMI as part of our survey of schools’ work to create a positive school culture and prevent and tackle bullying.

p.1

bullying practice in schools

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text without their consent.

p.1

bullying practice in schools

This letter briefly summarises our discussion at the end of the visit.

p.1

Strengths of this aspect of the school’s work

 The views of staff and students, coupled with the school’s data, indicate that the school’s policy and practices for managing behaviour have significantly improved the school’s culture and pupils’ responses to learning over the past three years. Both staff and students believe that these systems are now fully embedded.  The ‘6Bs’ system, which summarises the school’s most important expectations, is known and understood by staff and students. Students emphasised that these are talked about frequently and help to enforce expectations in a consistent way.  ‘Good choice’ cards reinforce the importance of students making positive decisions about their own behaviour and encourage staff to praise students for doing so.  Students spoken with said that they feel safe in the school. The school site is well supervised and bullying seldom occurs. Students understand the seriousness of racism in particular and students from different ethnic

p.1

Strengths of this aspect of the school’s work

backgrounds stressed that racist incidents or language were very rare. They have less understanding of homophobic and sexist language, particularly when this is viewed as ‘banter’ between friends.  Students feel confident to seek help if they need it, particularly from their form tutors and Heads of Year. The new computer-based reporting system is popular and high profile. It allows students to report something that concerns them even if they do not want speak to anyone, and issues can then be picked up very quickly by staff.  The range of topics that is covered in religious education and in personal, social, health and citizenship education (PSHCE) gives a high profile to equality and diversity issues. This is strongly reinforced in other subjects, particularly in humanities.  The school keeps up to date with current issues such as those related to cyberbullying. They use assemblies well to raise awareness of bullying-

p.2

Strengths of this aspect of the school’s work

related issues and involve outside agencies to provide specialist support.  By involving students in finding a solution, an effective rule about the use of mobile phones has been implemented. Students and staff spoken to feel that this has worked extremely well and has reduced conflict in lessons while providing pupils with opportunities to use their phones during break times.

p.2

Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 ensuring that records kept about bullying incidents note the extent of the actions that are taken and any subsequent follow-up action so that causes, patterns, trends, and the effectiveness of actions can be evaluated and changes made as appropriate  being more evaluative and analytical about the impact of the range of actions being taken to promote students’ social and moral development and to prevent bullying  using this evaluation to ensure that the governing body is fully aware of these actions and their impact so that they can ask suitably challenging questions and provide support as appropriate.

p.2

Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

I hope that this visit has been useful in the further development of this aspect of the school’s work.

p.2

Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

As explained previously, a copy of this letter will be published on the Ofsted website. It may be used to inform decisions about any future inspection. A copy of this letter is also being sent to your local authority.

p.2