Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy

Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy Beaconsfield Drive, Blurton, Stoke-on-Trent, ST3 3JD

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected This inspection: Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Leadership and management Outstanding 1

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a good school.  The leadership provided by the Principal is outstanding. The academy has improved rapidly and substantially since it opened.  Students have a positive attitude to learning, work hard and make good progress overall. In English, their progress is outstanding.  Teachers plan interesting lessons that ensure that students of differing ability make good progress. In most lessons students take an active part in their learning.  Students behave well in class and around the academy. They find the academy to be a very safe environment.  Students are ambitious for their future careers and have confidence that the academy is enabling them to achieve these ambitions.  Senior and middle leaders have a clear vision of high quality teaching and have been effective in making sure that this is implemented.  Students develop their skills as readers well and enjoy reading.  The academy is very successful in developing

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness in assemblies, in educational visits, through visitors to the academy and in many lessons.  The proportion of students who are persistently absent is below the national average.  The governing body is highly effective in ensuring that the academy improves.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 The attendance of students overall is below the national average.  In a small proportion of lessons, the activities that are planned do not challenge students to reach deep levels of learning.  Students’ wider reading does not extend across all their subjects.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 29 lessons taught by 28 different teachers.  Inspectors scrutinised the work of Year 11 students in English, mathematics and science.  Inspectors held meetings with the Principal, senior leaders, middle leaders, members of the governing body, a representative of the academy sponsor and students.  Inspectors scrutinised documents including data on student performance, academy plans, the academy’s own evaluation of its effectiveness, reports from the academy’s sponsor, behaviour records and governing body minutes.  Inspectors examined 47 questionnaires submitted by staff and 16 responses by parents to the on-line website, Parent View. Inspectors also scrutinised information on the views of parents collected by the academy.  Inspectors heard a small group of students read.

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Inspection team

Robert Barbour, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Elizabeth Haddock Additional Inspector Peter Humphries Her Majesty’s Inspector David Woodhouse Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The academy is smaller than the average-sized secondary academy.  The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is high. The academy receives Pupil Premium funding based on this number. The pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals, children from service families and those children who are looked after.  The proportion of students with a statement of special educational needs or supported at school action plus is above average.  The proportion of students supported at school action is about average.  About 94% of students are of White British heritage. The remainder is from a wide range of heritage groups.  The academy exceeds the government’s floor standards, which represent the minimum expectation for students’ attainment and progress.  The predecessor school converted to an academy sponsored by The Ormiston Academies Trust

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Information about this school

in September 2010. In January 2013 the academy moved to a new building adjacent to the old site.  The academy hosts the football academy of Stoke City Football Club.  The academy makes use of off-site alternative provision for a small number of students. The other providers are: Kinetic, Equality Training Childcare, A-P Motor Vehicles, Sporting Stars, Groundwork, Merit, MARTEC, PACE, Learn4Work, REACH and Phoenix.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Use the outstanding teaching in the academy to improve the overall quality of teaching still further by making sure that the active approaches to learning prevalent in the academy engage students and deepen their learning consistently well.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the level of student attendance to at least the national average by July 2014.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Ensure that students read widely and often across all their subjects.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students enter the academy in Year 7 with attainment that is broadly average, but with reading ages that are below average. They make good progress at the academy and in English their progress is outstanding. In the mathematics GCSE results in 2012 the more-able students did not achieve as many high grades as would be expected as a result of a policy of early entry to the GCSE examination. This policy has since been reversed and now more-able mathematics students study calculus and other topics beyond the GCSE specification as well as leaving their GCSE examination until the end of the year. Scrutiny of students’ work confirms that they now make good progress.  In 2012, boys gained lower results than girls. The academy has been highly successful in reducing this gap in the current year. The academy has also been successful in reducing the gap between those students who are known to be eligible for free school meals and other students.

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The achievement of pupils is good

Currently students known to be eligible for free school meals are about a third of a GCSE grade behind the other students in mathematics and English on average. Support to help students catch up is well-organised and effective throughout the academy from Year 7 onwards.  Disabled students, and those with special educational needs, also make good progress. Throughout their time at the academy they receive well-targeted extra coaching and are also supported well in their lessons by teaching assistants.  The academy successfully develops students’ enjoyment of reading. Students borrow books regularly from the library and have a short computer-based test on each book to establish that they have understood it. Their reading skills are developing well over time as a result. However students do not extend this reading into wider background reading relevant to all their subjects.  Older students, who remember the old school before it became an academy, comment on how

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The achievement of pupils is good

much more aspiration they now have for their future. One said: ‘It’s as if the ceiling has been taken away’. They express strong confidence that they can achieve their higher ambitions as their progress is regularly checked and they receive support from teachers if they experience difficulty.  A small group of students undertake some of their education with off-site educational providers. This provision is targeted carefully according to the specific needs of students. Students’ progress is monitored closely and they make good progress.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers group students in their classes by ability and set work of a level appropriate for each group. This remains the case even where the classes themselves are organised by ability. Teachers adapt their teaching material to these differing groups and so make sure that all groups of students make good progress.  Most teachers are highly effective in planning lessons so that students take an active part in their learning in ways that enable them to learn at a deep level. In a Year 10 history lesson, students made outstanding progress as they researched issues surrounding the women’s suffrage movement. They had a wide range of resources to use, and had opportunities to question each other and reflect on the role of women in this period. This reflection developed students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness. In an English Year 10 class, students made outstanding progress as they explored persuasive techniques. Students worked in groups

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The quality of teaching is good

with very well-pitched resources that enabled them to understand the devices used for persuasion. Students were fully engaged and their learning was further enhanced by the way they were encouraged to express their understanding to other students.  In a few lessons teachers set up tasks designed to enable students to participate actively but the students lacked the skills to work as well independently. Occasionally the tasks were closed in nature and did not challenge students to think at a deep level.  The marking of students’ work is of a consistently high quality. Work is marked regularly and with helpful comments. Teachers place a sticker in books to commend students who respond to a teacher’s written comment and improve a piece of work.  Teaching assistants often make a strong contribution to students’ learning. In a Year 10 science lesson students undertook an experiment in which they extracted lead from lead oxide. Students

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The quality of teaching is good

who were disabled, or had special educational needs, made outstanding progress due to the support from teaching assistants. This was because the teaching assistants had high quality teaching skills, good subject knowledge and an understanding of the aims to the lesson. On some occasions, however, teaching assistants were less effective as they did not have the same wide range of skills.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 The academy is a very calm environment and students behave well around the building and in class. Students take a very positive attitude to their learning. Some low-level disruption occurs occasionally, but the behaviour systems in the academy ensure that students’ learning is not affected. Behaviour records show that the standard of behaviour has improved enormously since the academy opened: the numbers of exclusions are much lower, and the use of sanctions for poor behaviour has also declined sharply.  Students say that they feel very safe in the academy. On occasions when tensions arise between students, they say they know how to report it and that matters are resolved quickly. As a result students say that they do not regard bullying as a concern. Students understand issues surrounding personal safety and say that they have had useful lessons and assemblies on the dangers posed by extremism and predatory grooming. They have a good understanding of how

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

to stay safe on line.  Students appreciate the very wide range of extra-curricular activities available, including sports clubs before school, at lunchtime and after school. These opportunities support the positive ethos in the academy and the good relations between students and between students and staff.  The attendance of students has improved since the academy opened. The rates of persistent absence were very high. They have now dropped to a level below the national average. Despite the academy’s efforts, however, the overall level of student attendance is still below the national average.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Under the outstanding leadership of the Principal, all aspects of the academy have improved since it opened. There have been substantial improvements in the achievement of students, in the quality of teaching and in behaviour. The leadership of the academy has improved also with senior leaders, subject leaders and pastoral leaders all now highly effective in their roles.  The leadership of teaching and learning is particularly successful. Senior leaders have focused their attention on specific features of teaching that needed to be fostered. These included the marking of students’ work and the adaptations of materials for the abilities of all students in the class. In these areas there is consistently good practice across the academy. Teachers whose practice is exemplary are used as coaches to support other colleagues.  The management of the performance of teachers was not rigorous in the predecessor school. It

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The leadership and management are outstanding

is now managed highly effectively and had led to teaching being good and improving rapidly. The extent of the rigour now is that some teachers are delaying their application for advancement until they are sure that they can meet the challenging standards required. Since the academy opened, a few teachers have been denied automatic salary progression. However the academy also offers bonuses where the progress of students is outstanding.  Academy leaders planned the use of pupil premium funding well. They have monitored its effectiveness closely and audited the way it has been spent against Ofsted’s report on effective use of the funding across England. Additional one-to-one coaching of students has proved particularly effective.  The academy’s work with parents is highly successful, including with those who might find working with the school difficult. All aspects of the safeguarding of students are of high quality.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The academy curriculum meets the needs, interests and aspirations of students well. As a result the proportion of students who are not in education, employment or training on leaving is well below the Stoke-on-Trent average. An extensive enrichment programme is appreciated by students. Assemblies and reflection time in form periods are used well to enhance students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Students have been particularly moved by visits organised by the history department, such as to First World War battle fields in Belgium.  The academy sponsor, the Ormiston Academies Trust, judges the academy to be good, with outstanding leadership. The sponsor believes that this places the academy on a trajectory to become outstanding in the future. The sponsor provides the academy with good support in human resources, financial expertise and the service of an educational adviser. Its annual review

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The leadership and management are outstanding

of the academy is helpful.  The governance of the school:  Members of the governing body are ambitious for the academy. They have an excellent level of insight into its strengths, its areas for development and its context. Governing body minutes show a high level of challenge to academy leaders, as well as support. The governing body monitors and evaluates all spending thoroughly, including the effectiveness of the pupil premium. It supervises the way in which the performance of staff is managed and evaluates this intelligently.

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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 136145 Local authority Stoke-on-Trent Inspection number 399781

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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 Academy sponsor-led School category Non-maintained Age range of pupils 11–16 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 720 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Bill Goodall Principal Mark Stanyer Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 01782 882200 Fax number Not applicable Email address info@ossma.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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