Setting

Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 0300 123 1231 F 020 7421 6855 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mrs C Barr Principal Barnfield South Academy Luton Rotherham Avenue Luton Bedfordshire LU1 5PP

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alternative provision

Thank you for your hospitality and cooperation, and that of your staff and students, during my visit on 10 and 11 December 2013 to look at the academy’s use of alternative provision. During the visit I met with you, the vice principal, the assistant headteacher, the additional needs manager, the special educational needs coordinator and the Chief Executive Officer of the Barnfield Academies Trust. I also met students and visited the following providers that your students attend: Ridgemond Training, Burnell Training for Life and the On Track Education Centre (Silsoe).

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alternative provision

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.

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alternative provision

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

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Strengths of this aspect of the school’s work

 The academy’s staff are highly committed to the small proportion of students who access alternative provision, and the programmes are tailored to meet their individual needs and interests well.

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Strengths of this aspect of the school’s work

 The reasons for placing students with alternative providers focus clearly on developing good learning behaviours quickly, alongside maintaining students’ academic development.

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Strengths of this aspect of the school’s work

 Most students who access alternative provision in Years 9 and 10 successfully reintegrate full time at the academy for Year 11 studies.  The academy’s ‘education plus’ and learning support arrangements work well to reintegrate students, to help them keep up with their studies and to maintain good learning behaviours.

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Strengths of this aspect of the school’s work

 Students are very positive about how their time with alternative providers helps them to resume their studies successfully and confidently back at the academy.

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Strengths of this aspect of the school’s work

 Staff respond quickly when students say that they would like to stay with an alternative provider for one day a week to help them manage the rest of the week at the academy successfully.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 checking formally and frequently on the quality of teaching and students’ learning at each of the alternative providers

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 making sure that the quality of accommodation and resources at alternative provision is as good as that at the academy

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 monitoring and tracking students’ personal development alongside their academic performance while at alternative providers

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, include:

 being more proactive about the consistency and quality of information that you want from alternative providers, such as during the referral process and for progress reports.

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