Daubeney Academy

Daubeney Academy Orchard Street, Kempston, Bedford, MK42 7PS

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Requires improvement 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

 Teaching has not proved consistently strong enough to ensure that all pupils make good progress throughout Years 5 to 8.  Pupils’ achievement at the end of Years 6 and 8 is not consistently good enough for all groups of pupils.  The full impact of a number of initiatives to improve pupils’ achievement, which have been put in place since the last inspection, have still to be felt.  Senior leaders have not placed enough emphasis, when they check the quality of teaching, on how much pupils are learning or on the quality of marking.  Not all subject leaders and heads of year have developed the skills needed to help senior leaders improve teaching and learning.  Not all teachers are yet making full use of the improved information on pupils’ attainment and progress to plan lesson activities at the right level of difficulty for all pupils, including more- able pupils.  The gaps in attainment between various groups of pupils, including those supported by

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

additional government funding, and their classmates are closing but remain too wide.  Pupils’ attitudes to learning in lessons are not always consistently positive, although behaviour is generally good.

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The school has the following strengths

 A new system for the recording pupils’ attainment and checking their progress is playing an increasingly helpful role in identifying underachievement more quickly.  Senior leaders and the governing body have been working closely with the school’s improvement advisor to secure longer-term improvements and not just ‘quick fixes’.  Most staff are keen to improve their professional skills. They are open to advice that will help them ensure pupils accelerate their learning.  Most pupils enjoy school; most parents feel their children are happy and safe at school.  Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted well.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed teaching in 29 lessons; in total, 24 teachers and their teaching assistants were seen. Six lessons were observed jointly with members of the senior leadership team.  Form tutor time and the school’s breakfast club activities were observed. In addition, various initiatives to support pupils’ learning were seen, including where Year 8 pupils help those in Year 6 with their reading.  Inspectors looked at examples of pupils’ work, and heard a sample of pupils from Key Stages 2 and 3 reading.  Meetings were held with groups of pupils selected at random by the lead inspector. In addition, many informal opportunities were taken to talk with pupils.  Inspectors looked at a wide range of school documents, including improvement plans, policies and reports on the school’s strengths and aspects for development, monitoring records and reports, safeguarding and curriculum materials, information provided for families, and

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Information about this inspection

documents from the governing body. The school’s data, including records of pupils’ progress, were reviewed.  Discussions and conversations were held with the headteacher and deputy headteachers, the special educational needs coordinator, heads of year, subject leaders, class teachers, teaching assistants, administrative staff, members of the governing body and a representative of the local authority who is the school’s improvement advisor.  The 39 responses to the online questionnaire, Parent View, were taken into consideration. Inspectors also took account of the 21 responses to an inspection questionnaire for school staff.

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Inspection team

Michael Miller, Lead inspector Additional Inspector Catherine Howard Additional Inspector Ogugua Okolo-Angus Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 As a middle-deemed secondary school, Daubeney Academy is much smaller than the average- sized secondary school.  The large majority of the pupils come from White British backgrounds. A small minority are of Asian or Asian British heritage. A few come from Black and Black British backgrounds, and a very few from other ethnic heritage backgrounds.  A minority of pupils speak English as an additional language; there are very few at an early stage of English language development.  Most of the pupils starting in Year 5 then continue their education at the school until they leave at the end of Year 8. The school does not make any use of alternative off-site educational provision.  The proportion of pupils for whom the school receives the pupil premium (additional government funding for some groups, including, in this school, those known to be eligible for free school meals) is average.  The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs supported

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Information about this school

through school action is average. The proportion supported through school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs is below average.  Childcare provision for the school’s pupils is available for families through the privately run ‘The Lodge Playgroup’ (EY369948) on the school site. This is inspected separately by Ofsted.  The governing body runs a Breakfast Club each day during term time for its own pupils.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for the attainment and progress of pupils by the end of Year 6.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching by ensuing more is consistently good and better, and accelerate pupils’ progress by:  ensuring teachers make better use of the increasingly helpful information now being made available about pupils’ attainment and progress  setting work that is matched more closely to pupils’ different abilities and stages of development  challenging more the school’s most-able pupils through more demanding and increasingly testing tasks and activities in lessons  ensuring all teachers mark pupils’ work promptly and regularly, and provide written feedback of consistently high quality, not only to challenge pupils to make faster progress but also to help them understand and remember better what they need to do to improve their work  closing any gaps between the attainment of different groups of learners in English and mathematics, including those between pupils eligible for additional government funding and

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

their classmates  extending further the opportunities for pupils to use and apply their literacy and numeracy skills across the full range of subjects, and in ways which relate directly to their everyday lives.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen the leadership and management of the school and the monitoring of teaching and pupils’ progress, by:  ensuring that the development of the school’s new systems for the more regular recording of pupils’ attainment checking their progress is completed by the end of the current term, for full implementation from the start of the 2014-15 academic year  helping subject leaders and heads of year to develop fully the skills they need to support senior leaders in checking and evaluating the school’s work and raising pupils’ achievement  making sure that leaders’ monitoring of teaching and lessons focuses more on the quality of pupils’ learning and their progress, the marking of their work and the way pupils’ learning is assessed.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils join the academy in Year 5, in the middle of Key Stage 2, and leave at the end of Year 8 before they have completed Key Stage 3. In order to assess pupils’ attainment when they begin Year 5, Daubeney uses information from its feeder lower schools and commercial tests, which are independently marked and assessed.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Such tests and checks on teachers’ assessments at the start of Year 5 show that pupils’ attainment on entry is broadly as expected for their age. However, this can vary from year to year. For example, the data indicate that pupils in the current Year 5 were attaining around three-quarters of a term behind their peers nationally when they started at the school. Girls were a term ahead of boys. Those who speak English as an additional language attained in line with similar pupils nationally. Others for whom the school receives additional government funding were over a term and a half behind.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ progress in Years 5 and 6 is not yet consistently good. Pupils do not all achieve as much as they could from their starting points at the end of Key Stage 1. In the 2013 national tests at the end of Year 6, pupils reached average standards, but the progress they had made between Years 2 and 6 was below that expected. The proportion of pupils making better than expected progress was too small.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Data from the school’s latest assessments, checks on pupils’ progress and other inspection evidence show that pupils in the current Year 6 have made the expected progress. Most pupils, made just under half a term’s progress more than expected nationally. Disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs made around half a term’s less progress. Those supported through the pupil premium have made the expected progress overall, but slightly faster progress in reading than in writing and mathematics. Pupils from minority heritage groups, including those who speak English as an additional language, made around a term’s better progress than their classmates.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Over the past year, the school has placed an increasing emphasis on raising attainment in English. More-able readers in Year 8 now volunteer to pair with and support less-able pupils in Year 6. Discussions with the pupils show that both groups benefit considerably from the experience, both personally and academically, with the pupils in Year 6 gaining much in confidence as their reading skills improve.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 The school has developed satisfactorily its ‘Year 7 catch-up’ programme to support those pupils who did not achieve high enough standards in English and mathematics by the end of Year 6. However, data show this was more successful in 2012-13 than with pupils in the current Year 7, who are not yet making better than expected progress. The school has yet to analyse and evaluate the full impact of this additional support for the current academic year.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 School data and pupils’ work in the current Year 8 show some improvements in attainment and progress in English and mathematics. However, differences in the performance of different groups mean that progress overall is still not consistently good for most pupils.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 When inspectors analysed the latest school data for Year 8 pupils, they found that they have made just under a term’s progress more than expected nationally since the start of Year 7, but girls were two terms ahead of boys in both English and mathematics. However, almost all disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs are boys; their progress is around a term behind that expected, given their individual starting points. As in Key Stage 2, those who speak English is an additional language continue to make around a term’s better progress than their classmates by the end of Year 8.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Those pupils in Key Stage 3 who are supported through the pupil premium are around half a term behind their classmates in English and mathematics; this is due mainly to weaker reading skills. Overall, the school is starting to close the gap between those for whom it receives the additional funding and other pupils, compared with summer 2013 when the gap was too wide However, the analysis of this data is not yet regular or sharp enough.

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The achievement of pupils requires improvement

 Broadly expected proportions of pupils in the current Year 8 are on track to achieve the expected Level 5 standards in English and mathematics by the end of Year 9 (when they will be at their next secondary school). However, the percentage on track to gain the higher Level 6 is currently below expectations. Accelerating the progress of its more-able pupils is a key target for improvement across most subjects and year groups, particularly to meet the school’s aim of enabling equality of opportunity for all its groups of pupils.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teaching is not yet consistently good and has not had sufficient impact in accelerating pupils’ progress so that they achieve well over the course of their four years at the academy. School records, pupils’ work in books, and the independent school improvement advisor’s monitoring reports show that the quality of teaching has improved since the last inspection.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Teachers generally plan work which pupils find interesting, but they do not always include an extra element to spark the sustained interest of the more-able pupils. Not all teachers are yet using the school’s information on pupils’ progress when planning work for pupils of different abilities.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Marking by some teachers is not regular enough and does not provide sufficiently clear guidance to help students improve their work. Not all teachers insist on high enough standards of handwriting and presentation. Discussions with pupils, and the work in their books, show that not all teachers insist on regular corrections.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 The marking and promotion of literacy in all subjects has been a major focus when senior leaders check teaching and pupils’ work. However, a few teachers still require additional coaching and support to help them plan opportunities for pupils to use their literacy and numeracy skills across the full range of subjects.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 Most teaching assistants work effectively in their support for the pupils in their care and generally receive helpful direction from the teaching staff. Some teachers and their assistants are better than others in kindling pupils’ interests; much of the more successful teaching seen helped accelerate progress by relating work directly to the pupils’ lives and experiences.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 There is some outstanding practice within the school. Excellent teaching and learning were seen in two lower set mathematics lessons in Year 5. In the first lesson pupils very much enjoyed exploring and learning about the different types of angles by likening them to a family. Great fun was had by all and pupils learnt rapidly through relating to ‘Mr Obtuse’, ‘Mrs Right’ and ‘Reflex’ the dog.

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The quality of teaching requires improvement

 In the second lesson, pupils rose enthusiastically to the challenge of mental calculations involving doubling and halving numbers through the use of a computer program. With most pupils, the high levels of concentration were clear, and pupils gained a sense of achievement when they arrived at the correct answers.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. This is because pupils’ attitudes to learning are inconsistent, although their behaviour in and around the school is generally good. Typically, pupils are proud of their school but do not always take sufficient pride in their work.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Behaviour management during lessons is not always consistent. The governing body notes this in its latest minutes and understands that further training and guidance are needed before a recently updated behaviour policy can be adopted. The school also recognises the need to raise the awareness of its expectations of behaviour among pupils, parents and carers.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Nevertheless, most pupils are polite and courteous. However, a few pupils find it difficult to manage their own behaviour, and some do not always show the respect which should be accorded to other pupils and adults.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ attitudes are best, and they make better progress, where their teacher ‘signposts’ clearly exactly what is expected of them and the relevance of what they are doing. This helps pupils to gain increasing confidence, and take more pride in their work. Where work is not marked for some time, the presentation of pupils’ work and their attitudes to learning deteriorate.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils understand the implications of bullying. The school prepares them to recognise and deal with different types of bullying and any threats they might meet in the wider world. Discussions with pupils show confidence in their teachers because they act to put things right. The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good. Pupils say that they feel safe in and around the school. Attendance is average, but the school is working hard to improve this.

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The behaviour and safety of pupils requires improvement

 Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is promoted well; opportunities often run like threads and are woven into lessons. In one philosophy lesson in Year 8, looking at the role of the Church in mediaeval Britain, pupils showed a good grasp of the concepts of ‘hope’, ‘help’ and ‘power’. They put their ideas into context well and compared and contrasted mediaeval and modern understandings of the terms. Similarly, in a history lesson on the slave trade, pupils in Year 7 showed a good understanding of the morality of the trade and the ways society has changed in its approach to racial differences.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leadership and management are improving, but the leaders in charge of subjects and year groups are not yet making a full contribution to monitoring of the school’s performance or improving the quality of teaching. Since the last inspection, senior leaders have often taken too much upon themselves while supporting and coaching others in a wide range of areas.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Additionally, senior leaders and the governing body have had to deal with extended consultations on a potential secondary school reorganisation locally, which has meant their efforts to ensure sufficient improvement have sometimes become diluted.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Consequently, senior leaders have not always found themselves in the best position to draw together the threads of their monitoring and evaluation roles to ensure all initiatives and improvements are having sufficient impact. From day to day, the school operates well, but medium-term and long-term strategic planning is not yet sufficiently strong. Nevertheless, the school is looking for secure sustainable solutions and not for short-term ‘quick fixes’.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Since the last inspection and monitoring visit, the school has realised that its systems to assessment and check pupils’ attainment and progress needed improvement. Some major work on this has been undertaken during the current academic year; the school is poised well for the full implementation of the new procedures from September 2014.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Although data are now more securely in place, the school has not yet been undertaken regular enough analyses of pupils’ attainment and progress in sufficient depth. The school improvement plan has set a review date of June and July to evaluating fully how the new systems have focused teachers on raising achievement and this review has yet to take place, but is a vital next stage of development in sharpening planning and helping to accelerate pupils’ progress.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Shared lesson observations show that the headteacher and deputy headteachers evaluate the quality of teaching accurately. The school is now looking to shift its focus during regular lesson observations to place more emphasis on the quality of learning and pupils’ progress. Most staff are keen to take any opportunity given to improve and develop their professional skills.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 As an independent academy, the school has chosen to continue to purchase the services of an improvement advisor from the local authority. This is providing good value for money; the advisor has been providing effective advice and guidance for the school through regular visits and reports. These are helping the school understand better how to improve.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 Leaders are making sensible use of the primary school sport funding. This has been allocated to relevant equipment and training, but the minutes of meetings of the governing body confirm that not all the funding has yet been spent, or its impact evaluated. Nevertheless, the school works well to help pupils develop healthy lifestyles.

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The leadership and management requires improvement

 The governance of the school:  The governing body has recently carried out a self-review of its own work and the ways it monitors the school. As a result, it has recently reorganised its links with subject leaders, heads of year and the various year groups. It is now in a much-improved position to check on the school’s work. The minutes of governing body meetings show that governors are increasingly questioning the school, and are asking more challenging questions to hold leaders to account.  The governors know how well the school is performing in relation to others nationally and know about the quality of teaching in the school. They understand that, in 2013, the achievement of pupils at the end of Year 6, including those supported by the pupil premium, was not good enough. They also understand the importance of accelerating pupils’ progress throughout the school.  Governors ensure legal requirements are met, including those for safeguarding. The governing

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The leadership and management requires improvement

body works alongside the headteacher to ensure clear guidelines for staff about how salary increases are linked to pupils’ progress and the quality of their teaching.  Together with the school’s finance manager, the governing body monitors spending carefully. Governors check that the pupil premium and other additional funding is being spent sensibly to improve the achievement of eligible pupils, not only through additional resources, but also through staff support and various enrichment activities.  The governing body is committed strongly to the principles of middle school education. It works closely with the senior leadership team, and increasingly with other staff, to encourage the further improvement necessary to help the school become good.

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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 138067 Local authority Bedford Inspection number 442091

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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 Middle deemed secondary School category Academy converter Age range of pupils 9–13 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 463 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Ken Deveson Headteacher Jeremy Chopping Date of previous school inspection 24 January 2013 Telephone number 01234 400111 Fax number 01234 400112 Email address daubeneyacademy@schools.bedfordshire.gov.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 and 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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