Carlton Bolling College

Carlton Bolling College Undercliffe Lane, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD3 0DU

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Satisfactory 3 This inspection: Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  As a result of a clear understanding of how it can move forward, the school has improved all aspects of its work since the previous inspection.  Students’ achievement is now good. From their low starting points on entry to Year 7, they reach broadly average attainment in English and mathematics by the end of Year 11. White British students are now doing much better than over the past three years.  The quality of teaching is good and is more consistent across the school. Indeed, there is more outstanding teaching than the school has known previously. Relationships between students and between students and adults are strong.  There is good leadership of teaching and learning. Staff rightly judge the quality of their teaching by how effectively it helps their students to learn.  The school succeeds in encouraging students to behave well. Students feel safe, are proud of their school and have a high regard for their

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

teachers, for the staff who support them in the classroom and for the adults in The Engagement Centre who do much to make them feel more confident in what they can achieve.  The sixth form is good and progress and attainment in vocational subjects are outstanding. Specialist status in mathematics and computing has a positive impact in all areas of the school’s life.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Teachers miss opportunities for students to develop their skills in reading, writing and mathematics in all subjects.  On occasions, the work and questioning students receive in class is not at the right level of difficulty. In addition, in a few lessons students do not have enough opportunities to work things out for themselves.  The quality of marking and of written feedback is inconsistent and students are not always sure about how they can improve their work and move to the next level.  Although the sixth form has improved, use of assessment data does not always identify those academic subjects which are not doing as well as they should rapidly enough.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed teaching and learning in 43 lessons or part lessons. Five of these observations were made jointly with senior staff.  Meetings were held with six groups of students, including the student council and sixth formers. Inspectors also had discussions with members of the governing body, heads of faculty, pastoral leaders, members of the inclusion team, the senior leadership group and a representative of the local authority. They also met with sixth form leaders and staff with specific responsibility for improving the quality of teaching and learning and for the development of the specialist status.  Inspectors took account of 33 responses to the staff questionnaire. There were no responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View.)  They observed the school at work and looked at students’ work during lessons, internal and external student progress data, school improvement planning and documentation on the school’s

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Information about this inspection

analysis of how well it is doing. They also considered documentation on performance management, on staff training and on safeguarding, attendance and behaviour.

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Inspection team

James Kidd, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Jane Alexander Additional Inspector Andrew Henderson Additional Inspector Fiona McNally Additional Inspector Janet Pruchniewicz Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 This school is much larger than the average-sized secondary school. Student numbers have increased since the previous inspection.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students’ attainment and progress.  The proportion of students supported by the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for students known to be eligible for free school meals, looked after by the local authority or the children of service families is high and is twice the national average.  Most students are from minority ethnic heritages and have English as an additional language. There is a small percentage of White British students.  The proportion of students supported at school action is well above average. The proportion supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is just above that usually found.  The school has been a specialist mathematics and computing college since 2006. It is also an

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Information about this school

Investor in People and an Investor in Diversity. It has established The Engagement Centre (TEC) within the school, to promote the self-esteem of students who sometimes lack confidence in themselves. The school also runs a Construction Centre, which offers qualifications designed to help students acquire employment skills. The school does not use any external alternative provision.  The headteacher, who was in post since 2009, has recently taken up another appointment. The school is, therefore, currently led by an acting headteacher, who was the former senior deputy headteacher.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Continue to accelerate students’ progress and raise their attainment further by:  providing ample opportunities in all subjects for students to use and develop their skills in reading, writing and mathematics, thus increasing the proportion of students who make at least good progress  ensuring that students always receive work which is at the right level of difficulty and enables them to learn effectively  ensuring that questioning in class helps students learn well, whatever their ability  giving students more opportunity to find things out for themselves and take more responsibility for their own progress  improve the quality of marking and feedback to help students understand how they can do better next time  ensure that those academic subjects in the sixth form which are not doing as well as they should are identified more rapidly.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students enter Year 7 with consistently low levels of attainment in English and mathematics. All groups of students make good progress across the school and reach broadly average standards by the end of Year 11. Indeed, since the establishment of specialist status, and the use of funding for revision clubs, after school, at weekends and during residential visits, the proportion of students reaching GCSE grades A*-C in mathematics has almost doubled. During the same period, the percentage reaching five or more A*-C grades, including English and mathematics, has more than doubled. The GCSE results in 2012 were the highest for many years.  Students enter the sixth form with below average attainment. Achievement is good overall, but particularly so in vocational programmes where it is outstanding. Academic achievement is not as impressive, since fewer students reach grades A* to B at A-level than found nationally.

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The achievement of pupils is good

Nonetheless, all students have reached A to E grades in mathematics since 2009. In 2012, over two-thirds of sixth form students gained places in higher education and there is an increasing number entering prestigious universities.  Better use of information about how well students are learning and the employment of a specialist learning mentor have resulted in much better achievement over the past two years for White British students. Over the past two years, the proportion of these students gaining at least five grades A*-C, including English and mathematics, has increased fourfold.  The gaps between how well students eligible for the pupil premium are doing and similar pupils across the school are closing rapidly as a result of the appointment of more teachers and support staff for these students. Classes are now smaller and students receive more small group and one-to-one tuition. Students, therefore, make even better progress than their peers.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled students and those with special educational needs achieve as well as other students. This is a consequence of the sterling work of support staff in the classroom, of those in the Engagement Centre and of the inclusion team as a whole, who place so much emphasis on ensuring that all students can benefit from everything the school has to offer.  Early GCSE entry is used sensitively and well. Even if students reach the higher grades in their subjects, if they have not made three levels of progress, they are required to sit the examinations again and their results improve.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The strong drive to improve teaching across the school continues to bear fruit. Leaders of teaching and learning have an accurate idea of where good and exemplary teaching exists and also of where improvements need to be made. Good practice is shared across the school and faculties take the lead in providing in-house training for their own staff and for staff in other subject areas. Staff are, therefore, fully aware that teaching quality is judged on its impact on students’ progress. As a result, the quality of teaching is now good across the school and there are examples of outstanding teaching in all key stages. Reading is taught particularly well.  Students pay tribute to the support they receive from academic and pastoral staff with the words, ‘The adults know when we are finding things difficult and give us as much support as we need.’ The good subject knowledge of staff and effective use of new technology, including the

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The quality of teaching is good

electronic whiteboard, as a teaching and learning tool are the hallmarks of good and better teaching.  Specialist status plays its part here too: the ‘Learning Gateway’, funded by the status, comprises a wide range of recorded lessons in all subjects, revision sites for many topics and past examination papers in all subjects.  In the best lessons, a Year 10 history session on the Great Depression, for example, where teaching was judged outstanding, students responded positively to high levels of challenge and were delighted when they could work in pairs to find things out for themselves. They used key subject terminology, for example ‘recession’, ‘economic downturn’ and ‘the American Dream’ accurately and in context.  In lessons where teaching requires improvement, students are sometimes given work which is either too hard or too easy. Questioning in such classes is not challenging enough and students

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The quality of teaching is good

are not expected to work things out for themselves and take more responsibility for their own learning.  Marking is inconsistent and varies from good practice, which gives students accurate advice on how to improve to little or no comment at all. Too many students, therefore, are not sure about how they can make their work better.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Students are proud of their school, feel safe within its walls and speak highly about the staff who work with them. In their words, ‘Staff care about us and always put in extra effort to help us.’  They value the Engagement Centre in particular and say that pastoral and inclusion staff support them to the hilt and help them to feel good about themselves. Indeed, the care and support they receive are exceptional and enable them to take full advantage of all that the school has to offer. The Construction Centre does much to prepare students for the world of work and to equip them with the skills they need. There is a wide range of extra-curricular activities, to help families support their children’s learning too, and drama has a high profile in school. Students are proud to have put on plays in theatres in both Bradford and Leeds.  Students’ personal development in the sixth form is outstanding. They are excellent role models

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

and, along with students in Years 10 and 11, willingly take on a wide range of responsibilities in school. As sports leaders, paired readers and peer mentors, they support younger students and those who find some of the work difficult. Year 9 students visit local primary schools to teach the pupils French.  Students behave well and sometimes outstandingly well in class and show good attitudes to their studies, to their classmates and to teachers and teaching assistants. There are some incidents of minor misbehaviour on the corridors but this is generally limited to small groups of boys. Punctuality to school is good, but there are examples of lateness to lessons.  The school develops students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. Students are rewarded for their use of ‘shared value’ words, for example ‘diversity’, ‘respect’, ‘dignity’ and ‘honesty’. They support a variety of local, national and global charities and look after the

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

environment through their work in the Eco group. They have an accurate awareness of all types of bullying and say that programmes on the ‘Learning Gateway have taught them about the dangers of homophobic behaviour, which, they say, ‘Is not only illegal, it is also immoral.’ They say that bullying is rare in school, but that whenever it occurs, it is dealt with swiftly and effectively.  The school’s surveys of parents’ views show that most are happy with what the school is doing for their children.

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The leadership and management are good

 The school knows itself well. The establishment by senior leaders of effective strategies to develop students’ personally and academically have led to marked improvements in all areas of school life since the previous inspection. Staff at all levels of responsibility, including the senior leadership team, heads of faculty, pastoral staff and the inclusion team share the same clear view for how the school is to develop; they all see the vital links between students’ self-esteem, their attitudes to learning and their academic achievement.  Leadership and management in the sixth form are good and have led to students’ outstanding achievement in vocational subjects. However, assessment data are not always used well enough to identify when performance in academic subjects is not as good as it should be.  The curriculum is continuously under review and leaders monitor the impact of the ‘pathways’, which are designed to provide students with the combination of courses, academic, vocational or

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The leadership and management are good

a mixture of both, which meet their particular interests. Specialist status funding has also had a positive impact here, through the provision of laptop computers for those students who have no access to new technology at home. Leaders recognise, however, that there are insufficient opportunities for students to practise and reinforce their literacy and numeracy skills in subjects other than English and mathematics. As a result, insufficient numbers are making more than expected progress.  The school takes the safeguarding of its students and, indeed, of all those connected with the school very seriously. Relevant policy and practice is fully up to date and safeguarding and child- protection arrangements fully meet requirements. The school promotes equality of opportunity for all groups well and does not tolerate any form of discrimination.  The local authority provides on-going and effective support for the school in relation to

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The leadership and management are good

leadership development and advice on teacher recruitment. There are particularly strong links with the Bradford Partnership, which enables schools to learn from each other about how accurately they can gauge their performance and areas for development.  The governance of the school:  Governance has improved over the past two years and is now good. Members of the governing body have an accurate view of how well the school is performing and of how effectively it has addressed areas for improvement from the previous inspection. They hold leaders to account with increasing rigour and are never afraid to ask challenging questions if they believe that performance is not as good as it should be. The governing body has a close overview of how the school is attempting to improve teaching and learning and ensure that performance management arrangements are secure and reward teachers who consistently reach their classroom targets. Governors monitor how pupil premium funding is spent and

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The leadership and management are good

check regularly on the impact of this spending on the progress and attainment of students known to be eligible for free school meals.

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Grade Judgement Description

Grade 1 Outstanding An outstanding school is highly effective in delivering outcomes that provide exceptionally well for all its pupils’ needs. This ensures that pupils are very well equipped for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 2 Good A good school is effective in delivering outcomes that provide well for all its pupils’ needs. Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education, training or employment. Grade 3 Requires improvement A school that requires improvement is not yet a good school, but it is not inadequate. This school will receive a full inspection within 24 months from the date of this inspection. Grade 4 Inadequate A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors. A school that requires special measures is one where the school is

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Grade Judgement Description

failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school. This school will receive regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors.

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School details

Unique reference number 107413 Local authority Bradford Inspection number 400910

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School details

This inspection of the school was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Secondary School category Community Age range of pupils 11–19 Gender of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils in the sixth form Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 1455 Of which, number on roll in sixth form 295 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Faisal Khan Headteacher Andy Taylor Date of previous school inspection 20 May 2010 Telephone number 01274 633111 Fax number 01274 630635 Email address a.taylor@carltonbolling.co.uk guidance ‘raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted', which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.ofsted.gov.uk . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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School details

You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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School details

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk, or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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School details

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. Further copies of this report are obtainable from the school. Under the Education Act 2005, the school must provide a copy of this report free of charge to certain categories of people. A charge not exceeding the full cost of reproduction may be made for any other copies supplied. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please

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School details

telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’.

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School details

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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