Setting

CfBT Inspection Services Suite 22 West Lancs Investment Centre Maple View Skelmersdale WN8 9TG T 0300 1231231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01695 566933 Direct F 01695 729320 Direct email: ggleaden@cfbt.com

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Mrs Teresa Pukiello Deputy Headteacher Cloughside College Bury New Road Prestwich Manchester Lancashire M25 3BL

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Cloughside College

Following the visit of Linda Christie, Her Majesty’s Inspector, and myself to the school on 16 October 2013, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection in the temporary absence of the headteacher, Ms Farzana Shah, and for the time you made available to discuss the actions which have been taken since the school's previous monitoring inspection.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Cloughside College

The inspection was the second monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection which took place in March 2013. 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.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Cloughside College

Having considered all the evidence I am of the opinion that at this time:

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Cloughside College

The school is making reasonable progress towards the removal of special measures.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Cloughside College

The school may appoint newly qualified teachers before the next monitoring inspection.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Cloughside College

This letter and monitoring inspection report will be published on the Ofsted website. I am copying this letter and the monitoring inspection report to the Secretary of State, the Chair of the Governing Body, the Trust and the Director of Children's Services for Bury.

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March 2013

 Improve teaching in subjects other than English and art so as to help students make at least good progress by:  making sure that teachers know what they expect students to learn in each lesson, that their expectations are high enough, and that they plan well for their lessons and teach what has been planned  making sure teachers prepare lessons that are interesting and innovative enough to encourage students to engage in learning and produce a good amount of work making sure that activities are suitably matched to students’ abilities and build on what they know already  making sure that teachers assess the progress that students make in every lesson making sure that all timetabled activities have a clearly defined educational purpose  doing more to encourage students to make the right choices and to be more responsible for their own behaviour and learning  ensuring students attend the lessons they are expected to be in.

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March 2013

 Urgently improve the effectiveness of leadership, management and governance by:  ensuring that the single central register of recruitment and vetting checks meets current requirements and is kept up to date  establish clear expectations for students’ behaviour and ensure that the agreed approach taken by staff to managing behaviour is consistently followed  establishing systems that rigorously track the progress of students  taking steps to improve teaching so that it is at least good by ensuring teachers meet the National Teachers’ Standards  making sure that the targets for improvement in teachers’ performance are suitably challenging and that those teachers on upper pay scales demonstrate they provide value for money  gathering evidence about the achievement of students, the progress they make and the quality of teaching they receive to help establish an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses and drawing up a robust plan for

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March 2013

improvement in the light of the findings  developing stable leadership so the school becomes less reliant on external support  providing a relevant curriculum for all students and establishing a stable timetable across the school so that there is consistency for all students in relation to groupings and lessons  making sure that governors make effective checks on the quality of the school’s work, including improving their knowledge of the quality of teaching and improving their understanding of what they should be asking for, including information about students’ progress  improving the governing body’s ability to challenge the school’s leaders rather than accepting the information as fact.

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March 2013

An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved. Report on the second monitoring inspection on 16 October 2013.

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the school's work and met with the deputy headteacher, staff, groups of pupils, governors, representatives of the Greater Manchester West NHS Trust Mental Health Services, including health and nursing staff, and a representative from the local authority.

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Context

Since the first monitoring inspection, a deputy headteacher has been appointed.

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Achievement of pupils at the school

Early signs suggest that the achievement of students at both the Gardener and Junction 17 sites is beginning to improve. All the young men in the secure Gardener unit have left school and none intended to continue their education. Although participation in lessons is relatively low and students may opt to leave lessons, a number of the young men are beginning to achieve well, often for the first time. Good quality learning was observed in literacy, skills for sport, geography project work and in three-dimensional artwork within the Gardener unit. Much higher levels of attainment are characteristic of the students in the Junction 17 unit, the majority of whom are girls. These students are from mainstream secondary schools and sixth form colleges who have been admitted to the hospital because of mental health issues. Their length of stay in hospital and, therefore, the time they spend at the college, varies

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Achievement of pupils at the school

considerably. It may be less than a week. However, typically it is four weeks or so. Students in Junction 17 may not be well enough to attend lessons every day and sometimes, being unable to cope, have to leave lessons part-way through. For a minority of students, remaining in a lesson is an achievement. Despite such a difficult context for learning, significantly better progress is being made in the Junction 17 unit now than that recorded in the Section 5 inspection of May 2013. Good quality learning took place in French, design and technology and in humanities during this monitoring inspection. A small number of students study diligently for their A-Levels on personal programmes, where the college works collaboratively with the students’ home sixth form college.

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The quality of teaching

The quality of teaching has improved significantly. No inadequate teaching was observed during this inspection. The proportion of good and better teaching is increasing with examples of teaching of outstanding quality.

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The quality of teaching

The demands on teachers are high. For example, they must adapt to teaching students of radically different learning needs and attainment levels. In Junction 17, teachers cannot be sure who will be in their lessons for a variety of reasons. These reasons are often outside their control, such as when a new patient is admitted to the hospital in an emergency and becomes a student at the college.

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The quality of teaching

Teachers are rising to these challenges better. Their ability to form positive relationships and avoid confrontations is already good. Their teaching is becoming more rigorous and consistent. All lessons have clear learning objectives, which are shared with students. Good subject knowledge enables teachers to plan increasingly varied and interesting lessons. They are more encouraging of students, who are sometimes persuaded to cooperate socially with others and tackle tasks they did not know they could achieve. Literacy skills are taught in every lesson; each lesson has key vocabulary to be learned, promoting students’ language development.

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The quality of teaching

There remains work to do to maximise the opportunities students have to learn. Students are often absent from lessons, particularly the young men from the Gardener unit. In Junction 17, too many students return to the wards part way through lessons. Evaluating progress for short-stay students is difficult. Teachers have introduced individual targets and have closer links with the students’ home schools (in Junction 17), but more is required to provide reliable evidence of learning and progress in both units.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

The majority of students have reasonable attitudes to learning and have positive relationships with their teachers. There was evidence that attitudes, behaviour and attendance are improving as lessons become more interesting and relevant to students. For example, on one day recently, all students in Junction 17 were in college, with none on the wards. However, teachers must be ever vigilant, as students’ medical conditions mean their behaviour may change quickly and unexpectedly, putting themselves, other students and staff at risk.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

If behaviour issues arise in lessons, teachers call on nursing staff employed by the Trust, who remove students to the wards until they are ready to return to lessons. This arrangement works smoothly. However, although the immediate problem is solved, it is a solution that leaves learning disrupted. Working with its partners, the college should consider how best to further support students to stay in class. Improved communication, including written notes between Trust and education staff, is ensuring the care and safety of students at critical handover times. Nursing staff believe the quality and usefulness of the handover notes are in question, on occasion, and although this is an improving situation, there seem too few opportunities for face-to-face communication and mixing of staff. The safeguarding arrangements reported in the Section 5 inspection are fully resolved. During this inspection, the college’s records of newly-recruited staff were

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

already fully up-to-date, verified and properly maintained.

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

The good progress in leadership and management recorded in the first monitoring letter has been maintained. The increasing effectiveness in collaborative working between the college, the Trust and clinical staff is continuing and confidence in leadership is growing. The headteacher and senior leaders actively seek dialogue with a range of external providers, including the students’ schools and families, in order to smooth transitions further and reduce disruption to students’ schooling to a minimum. At a senior level, there is a willingness to innovate in order to improve multi-agency working, the opening up of relevant medical records to college staff is just one of the promising projects under development. Improved cooperative working among staff has begun, for example, with joint training and staff meetings. However, more work is required to continue to build bridges and promote even closer working in the best interests of the students.

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

Leaders remain focused on improving teaching and learning. Coaching opportunities are proving successful, good quality teaching is becoming consistent and widespread. Some curricular needs of the students have been evaluated and are being met, such as the drive to improve literacy skills. However, there is a clear need to re-evaluate the curriculum in the Gardener unit to provide the most relevant learning for the young men there. In Junction 17, there is a need to reconsider how best, through the curriculum, to use the short time students have in the unit to best promote their learning, well-being and confidence. Leadership and management are becoming more resilient. Leaders are more able to cope with absences and day-to-day upsets without interruption to smooth working, or a loss in the momentum for improvement.

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

Governors are increasingly involved and better informed through their first-hand knowledge of the college in operation. They are represented on the key strategic monitoring committee overseeing the school’s improvement. They have recently, with the support of the local authority, extended the membership to include an ex-student to provide a different dimension in the challenge and support they provide to leaders: a real innovation.

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External support

The local authority continues to provide good quality support to the college, mainly through the work of the School Effectiveness Partner. Support has been rightly focused on the issues that caused the school to be placed in special measures. The headteacher and the governing body have, in particular, benefited from the local authority’s support. Such is the progress the college is making, it is appropriate for the local authority to begin to consider scaling down their support earlier than initially anticipated.

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