Oasis Academy Mayfield

PROTECT - INSPECTION Oasis Academy Mayfield Ashley Crescent, Southampton, SO19 9NA

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Satisfactory 3 This inspection: Requires improvement 3 Achievement of pupils Requires improvement 3 Quality of teaching Requires improvement 3 Behaviour and safety of pupils Requires improvement 3 Leadership and management Requires improvement 3

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

 Although progress in English is better in current GCSE classes than previously, standards require further improvement in the subject because students are not always clear about what they are expected to achieve.  Teachers’ expectations of the progress students should make in mathematics are not high enough, especially for the more-able.  Students’ do not develop their skills of evaluation and written explanation in science consistently well.  Some students do not pay close attention to their work throughout their lessons because their teachers do not set tasks that interest them or because the tasks set for the more- able are not demanding.  Not all teachers check students’ understanding of their learning carefully enough, mark written work in enough detail to show students what they need to do to improve, or ensure students respond to these comments in their subsequent work.  Some subject leaders do not have enough

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This is a school that requires improvement. It is not good because

expertise to use students’ progress information as effectively as they could, particularly in setting demanding targets for students.

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The school has the following strengths

 Actions taken by the principal are steadily improving teaching and learning in the academy. His view of what is needed to make it an effective place of learning is communicated very clearly to all staff.  Reliable information about students’ progress is now readily available to staff at all levels of management.  Students say they enjoy coming to the academy. They feel safe and well looked after.  Standards are rising for students supported by the pupil premium because the extra help they are given is well-organised.  The support for disabled students and those who have special educational needs is well- managed and younger students, in particular, are now beginning to make better progress.  Governance is strong. Representatives from the academy council and the sponsor trust check students’ progress regularly and have a good understanding of strengths and weaknesses in the academy. PROTECT - INSPECTION

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 36 lessons, including 11 joint observations with members of the senior leadership team. In addition, inspectors made short visits to other lessons, tutor periods and an assembly. They looked at samples of students’ work and interviewed groups of students across the age range.  Meetings were held with the principal and other members of the senior leadership team, heads of subject departments and year teams, teachers, members of the governing body, and representatives of the academy trust.  Inspectors scrutinised a variety of academy documents, including: the academy’s self-evaluation, academy-development plans, behaviour records, safeguarding records, governing-body documents, and documents relating to the management of teachers’ performance.  Inspectors also considered the views expressed in 39 questionnaires returned by academy staff, together with the 33 responses submitted by parents to the on-line, Parent View, survey.

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Inspection team

Roger Waddingham, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Josephine Lewis Additional Inspector William Houldsworth Additional Inspector Stephen Hall Additional Inspector PROTECT - INSPECTION

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Information about this school

 Oasis Academy Mayfield is a smaller than average-sized school for students from 11 to 16, and is a member of the Oasis Community Learning trust.  The proportion of students known to be eligible for support through the pupil premium is above average. This is additional funding allocated by the government for groups of pupils, including those looked after by the local authority and those known to be eligible for free school meals.  The number of students from minority ethnic backgrounds is broadly similar to most schools of this size and the proportion of students who speak English as an additional language is below average.  The proportion of disabled students and those with special educational needs receiving extra support through school action is average. The proportion of students supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is above average.  The academy meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum

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Information about this school

expectations for the attainment and progress of students by the end of Year 11.  The academy offers work-related training for a small number of Year 10 and 11 students through part-time provision from City College and the ‘Motiv8’ organisation.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Make all teaching at least good by making sure:  students’ behaviour is managed more consistently by teachers so that all students pay close attention to their work throughout lessons  demanding and interesting tasks are set for all students, especially the more-able  all teachers question students carefully to check their learning, and use marking consistently to inform students about what they need to do to improve  teachers check that students have responded to their written comments in their subsequent work.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise achievement in English, mathematics and science by:  making sure students are always clear what they are expected to achieve in English lessons  setting higher expectations for students’ progress in mathematics, especially for the more-able  improving students’ progress in science, especially in the skills of evaluation and written explanation.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve leadership and management by:  making sure that all subject leaders use students’ progress information well and set demanding targets for students’ examination results. PROTECT - INSPECTION

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Students are now making better progress at GCSE after a drop in their performance in the key subjects of English and science in 2013. The work seen in the inspection, and reliable information on progress provided by the academy, show that more students are now working in line with national expectations. Achievement still requires improvement, however, because not enough students, especially the more-able are making good progress.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Achievement in English is improving because students have a better understanding of the tasks they need to complete for their GCSE examination. However, students in other classes and subjects across the age range are sometimes unclear about what is expected of them and lack the confidence to persevere when the work is challenging.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The progress of most students in mathematics has been only in line with expectations for several years and too few students make good progress. The work set has not fully met the needs of the more-able students, disabled students and those with special educational needs, so that the progress of these groups in particular requires improvement.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Science results have been very variable, with good progress seen in the BTEC course but much weaker performance at GCSE. New arrangements for the teaching at GCSE have been introduced and students now have a better understanding of the course requirements. Standards in science require improvement because students are not always clear about how much detail is needed in a good quality written explanation and they are not encouraged to develop their skills of evaluation consistently.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The academy has a clear plan for developing students’ literacy skills and good support for these is now provided, but this extra help has not been available long enough for it to have had a full impact on the work of weaker students. Support for the development of students’ numeracy skills is also provided in mathematics lessons, but opportunities for them to apply and refine these skills are not found consistently in other subjects.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The gap in attainment between students supported by the pupil premium and their peers is decreasing because the support for these students is well-organised and teachers know the individual needs of these students well. In both English and mathematics, Year 11 students were half a GCSE grade behind in 2013, and, from the work seen during the inspection and the academy’s own progress tracking information, the gap is set to close further this year.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Support for disabled students and those with special educational needs is improving and many of the younger students are making at least expected progress from their different starting points. Older students are now benefiting from further support from smaller classes and from teaching assistants, to build on progress that has been less secure in the past. The progress of students who speak English as an additional language and those from minority ethnic backgrounds is also as expected.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 ‘Catch-up’ funding to support Year 7 students who have fallen behind is used appropriately and weaker readers in particular make good progress because the effectiveness of the support they receive is checked regularly. They often work in separate groups so that individual students can be helped with spelling, reading and comprehension.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Students use computers confidently and their progress in ICT examinations is good. PROTECT - INSPECTION  The progress of students educated off-site on work-related courses is checked carefully. The academy has used these courses well to promote better behaviour and attendance, and many of these students successfully go on to further training courses.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching requires improvement because staff do not have high enough expectations to promote good progress for all students in the full range of subjects they study. While good teaching was seen in modern foreign languages, physical education and art in particular, in many other subjects teaching does not consistently engage students well enough in their learning, so that their interest in lessons decreases and they lose concentration.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In some subjects, teachers use their good subject knowledge to plan demanding tasks that interest students. Here, the requirements for different GCSE grades are explained carefully and students are able to measure their own progress against these requirements. However, in other subjects, not all students are clear enough about what they needed to do to improve, either because not enough detailed guidance is given to them, or because teachers do not encourage them to refer to it often enough.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In some subjects teachers follow the academy’s newly-agreed principles of effective planning consistently and set work that builds on what is known about students’ previous work and progress well. In others, the work planned is not well-matched to students’ needs and is not demanding enough. Consequently, more-able students do not progress as rapidly as they should and many other students also find the work too easy. Teachers do not always question students carefully enough to check their understanding or to encourage students to explain their thinking, for example in science.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers’ management of classroom behaviour requires improvement. In a significant minority of lessons, students allowed their attention to wander and were not challenged over this quickly enough, so that this sometimes led to poor behaviour that distracted others.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching assistants work closely with teachers in class to support the progress of less-able pupils, and this works well where the assistants are clear what questions to ask.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers check students’ general progress through marking major assignments each half term and students report that this feedback is helpful. Some staff encourage students to respond to their comments and reflect on their own progress, which helps them improve, but this is not consistent practice across the school. The detail and frequency of teachers’ marking of general written work is inconsistent, and does not always give clear guidance to students on what they need to do to improve.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Homework is used appropriately to set tasks that give students opportunities to practise their learning.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The behaviour of students requires improvement. Students say that they enjoy coming to the academy and many show positive attitudes in their conduct around the building so that their behaviour outside lessons is often good. However, many parents, students and staff feel behaviour in lessons in particular needs improving and this was confirmed by the inspection PROTECT - INSPECTION evidence.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Students arrive at lessons on time and usually settle quickly to their work. Older students often listen well to each other and to the class teacher and follow instructions carefully. Low-level disruption in lessons is not common, but too often younger students in particular lose their concentration when they are not interested in the tasks they are set and allow themselves to distract others.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The academy’s work to keep students safe and secure is good. Students report that the academy’s procedures to deal with any bullying or incidents of a racial nature have improved and that such incidents are very rare. Students from all backgrounds work well together and feel safe in the academy.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Attendance has been below average for the past three years but figures held by the academy show an improvement to broadly average in the past six months. Levels of persistent absence have been above average during this time, although the academy reports increasing success in improving attendance for pupils whose circumstances make them vulnerable through individual support from pastoral staff. The academy offers good support to pupils who have behavioural difficulties so that there have been no permanent exclusions in the past year, and fixed-term exclusions have fallen to broadly average from the very high figures two years ago.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Actions taken by the principal to improve the school are still at a relatively early stage. Although there is clear evidence that they are making the difference the school needs, leadership and management require improvement because there remain inconsistencies and weaknesses in teaching that have not been eradicated and which mean students do not always make the progress they are capable of.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The academy has recently introduced systems for tracking students’ attainment and the use of reliably standardised testing. Whilst senior leaders, subject leaders and year leaders are increasingly effective in monitoring students’ progress, not all subject leaders have the expertise to use these new systems effectively, particularly in setting demanding targets for students.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The principal, senior managers and governors have a clear commitment to raising standards in the academy, which is communicated well to all staff. They have a good understanding of strengths and weaknesses in the academy. Their planning for the necessary improvements is well-directed and is beginning to have a positive impact on both teaching and students’ progress.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Changes to the leadership arrangements in the academy last year have led to better management of performance so that teachers are now held to account very clearly for their work and senior managers are offered a good level of challenge by the academy council.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 As a result of the new tracking system the academy’s expectations for students’ achievement are better informed, and targets for student progress are now designed to bring the academy into line with the national averages within one year. The academy intends to raise these targets to a higher level to make sure progress is good overall once these initial targets have been achieved.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Teaching is reviewed regularly, with evidence from lessons and students’ written work giving senior staff a clear picture of teachers’ strengths and development needs. Weaker teaching has been identified and addressed rigorously and school documentation shows how the support PROTECT - INSPECTION given has led to improvements in several cases.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Students are offered an appropriate range of work-related courses and academic subjects. Recent changes in teaching arrangements in science and examination entry policy in English have led to better progress in GCSE courses in these subjects. Students appreciate the wide range of clubs and sporting activities provided after school.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The coordinator for disabled students and those who have special educational needs monitors the progress of identified students carefully and has detailed plans for the support they are given. Recent improvements in the academy’s use of diagnostic tests means that this support is now more closely adjusted to match these students’ needs and progress for younger students is closer to national expectations.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The arrangements for safeguarding meet all national requirements and are effective. Staff are well trained and systems are reviewed regularly.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  Governance is strong. Members of the academy council have been well trained in the analysis of information about students’ progress and ask academy managers challenging questions about this regularly at meetings.  Representatives from the academy council and the sponsor trust have a good understanding of what the academy needs to do to improve, and monitor progress towards key performance indicators very carefully.  Governors make sure they are informed in good detail about the quality of teaching by receiving review documents regularly, and they know whether higher grade teachers are effective enough.  Trust representatives work alongside academy council members to monitor expenditure in the academy carefully. The use of the pupil premium is accounted for clearly on the academy web site and the allocation of salary increments within the performance management policy is

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The leadership and management requires improvement

given appropriate consideration. PROTECT - INSPECTION

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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. PROTECT - INSPECTION

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School details

Unique reference number 135629 Local authority Southampton Inspection number 431050

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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 Secondary School category Academy sponsor-led Age range of pupils 11–16 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 659 Appropriate authority The academy council Chair Juno Hollyhock Principal Phil Humphreys Date of previous school inspection 14 March 2012 Telephone number 023 80328128 Fax number 023 80328228 Email address info@oasismayfield.org PROTECT - INSPECTION 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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