Burton PRU

Burton Pupil Referral Unit Church Hill Street, Winshill, Burton-on-Trent, DE15 0HT

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 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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This is a good school

 Students on all sites make good progress from low starting points. The few students at Key Stage 3 successfully return to their mainstream schools. Older students at Key Stage 4 are well prepared for the next stage of their lives. They achieve a range of relevant qualifications and nearly all enter further education or training.  Students make good gains in their knowledge, skills and understanding because teaching is good. Teaching promotes students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well. Consequently, students rapidly gain in confidence, re-engage with learning and make good progress.  Teachers provide a range of interesting activities and make good use of resources in lessons. These encourage and motivate students to get involved.  Students’ behaviour and safety are good. They are well behaved in lessons and around each site. Their safety is also good in each site and when they attend college. Students make at

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This is a good school

least good progress, and sometimes outstanding progress, in improving their behaviour and attendance.  The strong leadership of the headteacher has ensured that leadership and management across all sites are good and parents have confidence in the work of the unit. Leaders and managers have ensured that students’ achievement and the quality of teaching have improved since the previous inspection.  The management committee is effective in holding the unit to account for its work and the local authority is providing the right level of support for the unit. These factors contribute to the unit's continuing improvement.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Occasionally, teachers give more-able students tasks that they find too easy. At times, they also give those who find learning difficult, work that is too difficult.  Sometimes, during lessons, teachers do not give enough feedback to students on what to do to improve their work.  Leaders are not always rigorous in measuring the impact of teaching on students’ learning.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspector saw eight lessons across the four sites, and these lessons were all observed jointly with the headteacher.  Informal discussions took place with two groups of students. Meetings were held with staff with leadership responsibilities, a few members of the management committee and a local authority representative.  The inspector held telephone discussions with a small number of parents to seek their views as there were no responses to the online questionnaire (Parent View). Nine questionnaire returns from staff were also examined.  The inspector observed the unit’s work and looked at a range of documentation, including risk assessments for each of the four sites and college placements, safeguarding policies and procedures, records of attendance and behaviour, samples of students’ work and records of their progress.

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Inspection team

Declan McCarthy, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 Burton Pupil Referral Unit serves the district of East Staffordshire on four sites, three of which are in Burton-on-Trent and one is in Uttoxeter.  Currently, the unit provides education for 21 secondary-aged students who have been excluded from schools and are registered only at the unit. Nearly all of these students are at Key Stage 4. A small number of these students attend either part-time or full-time to pursue a range of vocational courses at Burton college.  The unit also caters for 31 students who are at risk of exclusion and who are dual registered with mainstream schools. The majority of these students are at Key Stage 4 and attend the unit for up to five terms. The remaining students are at Key Stage 3 and attend the unit typically for six weeks to one full term before returning full time to their schools.  Nearly all students receive support at ‘school action plus’ and a very small number of students

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Information about this school

have a statement of special educational needs.  Most students are White British and none are at early stage of learning English as an additional language.  An average proportion of students are supported by the pupil premium, which is additional funding for those known to be eligible for free school meals or those in local authority care.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Move teaching to outstanding and raise achievement further by ensuring that:  teachers always provide learning tasks for more-able students that are challenging enough and give those who find learning more difficult work they are able to complete  all students are kept well informed about how well they are doing in lessons and how to develop their learning further  leaders always measure the impact of teaching on students’ learning when they check on teachers’ work.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students arrive at the unit with significant gaps in their learning. Nearly all students arrive with histories of poor attendance and negative attitudes to learning. As a result, their attainment on entry is low. Students become interested and quickly re-engage with their education and make good progress because all staff create a positive climate for learning in their lessons.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The few students at Key Stage 3 make good progress, particularly in literacy and numeracy and in their personal development. This enables them to successfully return to mainstream schools.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The unit prepares older students at Key Stage 4 well for the next stage of their lives. All leave with at least three relevant qualifications, most leave with five and a few leave with up to 13 qualifications, including one or more GCSEs.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students choose which course to follow and this motivates them to learn. Leaders ensure that the range of courses provided match different levels of ability and the more-able work towards qualifications that are sufficiently challenging for them. Since the previous inspection, there has been a marked increase in the range of qualifications students have gained and nearly all students have left to enter further education, training or employment, sustaining their places in college or employment.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students at Key Stage 4 also make good progress in developing their skills in literacy, numeracy and communication, because good opportunities are provided for them to apply these skills in practically-based, real-life contexts.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students participating in vocational courses across the four sites are developing good workplace skills, enabling a few to enter apprenticeships, for example in marine engineering. Those attending Burton College also make good progress in courses such as hair and beauty.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The unit’s accurate records of students’ progress show that all groups of students, including the more-able, those at school action plus, those with a statement of special educational needs and the few students from minority ethnic backgrounds usually make good progress.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students known to be eligible for pupil premium funding make as much progress as the rest of their class because teachers provide additional individual support to enable them to catch up quickly. As a result, their attainment in GCSE or equivalent courses in English and mathematics is the same as that of their classmates.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Occasionally in lessons, more-able students find their work too easy and, therefore, do not make as much progress as they should. A few others find work too difficult at times and this means that they make slow progress.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching on all sites is good. All adults promote a positive atmosphere for learning in lessons, especially through the consistent management of behaviour, working alongside students as they learn and maintaining good relationships. This was seen, for example, in a Junior Sports Leadership Award lesson where all staff engaged in the football activities led by the sports coach. Based on the good role models that staff provided, students developed positive attitudes and made good progress.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers and teaching assistants place a strong emphasis on promoting students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. For example, in many lessons, teachers encourage students to work individually, in pairs and in groups promoting turn-taking and sharing. During whole class discussion, adults actively encourage students to show respect for the views and opinions of others. This enables students to reflect on their own and others' views and share their ideas confidently in lessons, and contributes to their enjoyment of learning.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers usually provide a range of interesting activities and make good use of resources to stimulate students' interests. For example in a science lesson about the Doppler effect, the class teacher made excellent use of a video presentation showing his model of the Doppler effect using a funnel and rubber tubing before challenging students to produce their own video demonstration, which increased their understanding of the Doppler effect. In a cycle maintenance session, a few students assembled wheel bearings and pedals on a bicycle frame, sustaining good effort and interest in the activity. They learned particularly well because of the practical nature of the activity.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Good teaching of the basic skills of literacy, numeracy and communication was seen in most lessons where teachers and teaching assistants nearly always applied these skills to real-life and practical situations, such as reading and writing about the work of other artists in art, and applying mathematical skills following recipes for making different cheesecakes.

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The quality of teaching is good

 In nearly all lessons, teachers provide activities at different levels of difficulty for different pupils, which they can do and which challenge their thinking. Sometimes, all students in the class are given the same tasks to complete despite their different levels of ability. Consequently, the more-able students finish the tasks too quickly as it is too easy, and some, lower attaining students’ do not manage to complete at all as the task is too difficult for them.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Good feedback is usually given to students on how well they are doing in lessons and what they need to do to improve. This is evident in students' written work where teachers clearly identify the next steps for learning. However, on occasion, students who are working on their own are not given as much feedback on their learning as others and so are unclear about how to make faster progress or what to do next if they finish.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Behaviour is good across the unit and on all sites. Students are courteous and polite, they show great respect for staff, and are generally punctual to lessons. Their good behaviour and positive attitudes in lessons make a good contribution to their learning and progress. During lunchtime, on arrival to the unit and in recreational activities, students are equally well behaved.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Students’ safety across the unit is good because staff encourage students to stay safe at all times. They have developed a good awareness of the safe use of technology and the dangers of smoking as well as of the importance of good behaviour in the community and in the work place. As a result, students who carried mobile phones did not use them inappropriately during lessons and no students were seen smoking. Over the last two years, the incident book records very few occasions of misuse of mobile phones and no incidents of smoking on the premises. Students wear protective clothing and handle tools and equipment safely in practical lessons.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils are good

 Parents and students confirmed that behaviour and safety are good on each of the sites. They said there is no bullying and if it did occur, it would be dealt with effectively.  Parents also remarked on the good progress their children had made in their attendance and punctuality. Although still below average overall, records show that the attendance rate has improved significantly in the last two years, with fewer persistent absences. The attendance of the majority of students improves markedly once they join the unit and their attendance is broadly average. Attendance has risen steadily since the last inspection. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the robust systems in place for monitoring and promoting good attendance.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher provides strong and purposeful leadership, and enjoys the full confidence of staff and parents in driving the school forward. Team work and staff commitment to continuous improvement are strong and reflected in the overwhelmingly positive responses in staff questionnaire returns. Consequently, a positive climate has been created within which good teaching and good behaviour flourish.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders ensure that students from different backgrounds and with different abilities and aptitudes have the same opportunities to succeed, participating fully in all the unit offers. Discrimination of any kind is not tolerated.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders have greatly improved the range of subjects and courses on offer since the previous inspection, with more choices and opportunities for students and a significant increase in the range of academic and vocational examination options available. There is a strong emphasis on developing students’ literacy and numeracy skills to help prepare them for future life. Students also receive good guidance and support through the careers service.

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The leadership and management are good

 The well-conceived ‘beyond learning’ programme, which takes place one day a week, provides good enrichment and promotes students’ self-esteem because they feel valued and gain confidence through the menu of stimulating activities available such as sports awards, and canoeing and climbing.

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The leadership and management are good

 All leaders, including subject leaders, by leading their own areas well, make an effective contribution to the progress and development of the unit.

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The leadership and management are good

 Senior leaders monitor the school’s work, particularly the quality of teaching, regularly and use the findings from monitoring to inform school improvement plans. However, records of the monitoring of teaching show that, in some cases, leaders are focusing too much on what teachers are doing rather than the impact they are having on the learning and progress of students.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders have greatly improved assessment systems which now include external checking of teacher assessments for the core subjects. Consequently, students’ individual targets are more precise and sufficiently challenging to accelerate their learning and ensure good progress.

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The leadership and management are good

 The local authority provides appropriate light touch support for the school and has provided particularly good support for the management committee, especially in financial management.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  There has been good improvement in the way the management committee holds the unit to account for its spending. As a result, it has overseen the change from a deficit budget to surplus budget in the last year. Members of the committee know how effective the spending of the additional funding for pupil premium is and ensure this has a positive impact on learning and achievement. They visit the unit regularly to gain a first-hand and realistic view of the impact of the unit’s work on students’ learning and behaviour. Members receive regular reports on the progress students are making and use this data well to influence priorities for development and to feed into the headteacher’s performance management objectives. Their thorough scrutiny ensures that they have an accurate view of the quality of teaching and they ensure that good teaching is rewarded and any weaknesses are tackled quickly. The

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The leadership and management are good

management committee ensures that the unit meets its legal requirements especially for safeguarding. Members check that all training and policies to ensure students safety and wellbeing, including the single central record for vetting staff and visitors are up to date.

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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 134880 Local authority Staffordshire Inspection number 428922

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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 Pupil referral unit School category Pupil referral unit Age range of pupils 11–16 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 50 Appropriate authority The local authority Headteacher Gareth Caldwell Date of previous school inspection 24 May 2011 Telephone number 01283 239526 Fax number 01283 239530 Email address office@burtonpru.staffs.sch.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

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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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