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 566855 Direct F 01695 729320 Direct email: gail.hill@cfbt.com

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Mr Adrian Whiteley Headteacher The Mosslands School Mosslands Drive Wallasey Merseyside CH45 8PJ

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Wirral

Following my visit to your school on 12 March 2014, I write on behalf of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills to report on the findings. Thank you for the help you gave me and for the time you made available to discuss the actions you are taking to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

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Wirral

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in November 2013. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Wirral

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection.

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Evidence

Meetings were held with the headteacher, senior leaders, members of the Governing Body including the Chair of Governors, and representatives of the local authority to discuss the action taken since the last inspection. The school’s improvement plans were evaluated. The inspector visited a number of classes, accompanied by the headteacher.

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Main findings

The school is improving steadily. The recent inspection did not stimulate a radical change in direction but provided added leverage for the headteacher to continue his programme of improvement.

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Main findings

The headteacher is driving improvement very effectively. More effective leadership is making an impact across all aspects of the school: developing capacity in leadership and management, improving teaching and learning, developing the curriculum, improving behaviour and pastoral care and, strengthening governance and the school’s partnership with local schools. The impact of improvements is beginning to be seen. The decline in attainment has been arrested; the school’s GCSE results in 2013 were considerably better than predicted with improved results in English. A quarter of students in the sixth form obtained places at Russell Group universities despite competition from grammar schools. At the same time the numbers of students who left school without employment, further education or training fell to almost zero. The number of new students joining from primary schools has significantly increased, from around 120 to nearly 180.

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Main findings

The emphasis of leadership is on a much clearer sense of accountability. Heads of faculty are now responsible for the performance of students and their second-in-commands are responsible for the quality of teaching. Assistant headteachers have oversight of quality assurance and the improvement of teaching and learning. Performance management is very rigorous for all staff, reinforcing the culture of accountability. There is a clear understanding of where improvements are required, for example, within the humanities faculty.

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Main findings

Reading and writing are being improved by a concerted attempt to improve literacy across the curriculum. A curriculum is being developed that better meets the needs of students and the opportunities for work after students leave school. The school is re-establishing its interest in engineering and rural (farm) studies, for example, and the curriculum offer in the sixth form is being developed to eradicate the unacceptably high level of ‘unclassified’ grades that students achieved in the past.

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Main findings

Expectations of behaviour are higher. Fixed-term inclusions have fallen dramatically as a consequence of the school’s giving students who step outside the rules the opportunity for time-out away from class in a controlled environment. New positions have been created to lead on support for students and for family liaison. The house system is strong, enabling students of all ages to mix and develop pride in collaborative achievement, including within the community. The ethos of the school is improving.

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Main findings

After a period when partnerships with other schools and the community have deteriorated, the school is actively reaching out once more to local schools and to other schools in the Wirral with common interests. The engagement with local primary schools in educational achievement, for example, is already gaining the confidence of primary headteachers.

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Main findings

The Governing Body is slimmed and refreshed with members who have a range of skills relevant to the school. Governors show a good understanding of the challenges the school faces and are developing a strategic view of the direction the school is moving towards. They understand the need for greater challenge as part of the drive towards greater accountability.

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Main findings

Ofsted may carry out further visits and, where necessary, provide further support and challenge to the school until its next section 5 inspection.

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External support

The local authority is fully supportive of the direction the school is taking and what the headteacher is doing, particularly in challenging the old ways of working and embracing new approaches. Officers have conducted a recent review of mathematics. They support the school’s collaboration with school partnerships so that schools learn from good practice within each institution. Governors access training opportunities outside school and have access to a National Leader in Governance when required. I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body and the Director of Children's Services for Wirral.

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