Setting

Mr P Humphreys Principal Oasis Academy Mayfield Ashley Crescent Southampton SO19 9NA

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Mayfield

Following my visit to your school on 20 June 2014, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection 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 academy since the most recent section 5 inspection.

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Mayfield

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the academy was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in March 2014. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

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Mayfield

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection. The academy should take further action to:

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Mayfield

 continue its active work in developing its approaches to assessment, especially in Key Stage 3  develop further its links and networks with other nearby schools and providers, particularly within the city of Southampton.

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Evidence

During the inspection, I met with you, other members of staff and the regional academies director for Oasis, to discuss the action taken since the inspection. Together we toured the school and saw students in action during sports day. I evaluated documents, including academy plans, meeting minutes and data about students’ progress. Serco Inspections Colmore Plaza 20 Colmore Circus Queensway Birmingham B4 6AT T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T : 0121 679 9161 Direct email : ann.morris@serco.com

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Main findings

You have accepted and agreed the inspection findings readily. Correctly, you point out that improvements are clearly taking place in the academy, while recognising the distance still to travel before the academy becomes good.

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Main findings

Your post inspection action plan, which addresses Ofsted’s improvement recommendations, is well constructed and clear. It has already started to bear fruit by, for example, promoting improvement in teaching and raising expectations further of what students should attain. Quite rightly, however, you have not restricted yourself only to dealing with the inspection recommendations, important though these are. You have a much wider, and carefully thought out, vision of what the academy should aim for, and be, in the future.

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Main findings

You have re-arranged, and continue to re-arrange, the academy’s structures and culture in imaginative and well-considered ways. It was good to hear for example, of the breadth of the curriculum within Key Stage 3, and the carefully considered range of options at Key Stage 4, all within subject hubs. The approach taken by the academy to improve teaching appears robust. The newly implemented feedback stickers appear well used in encouraging written discussion between teachers and students, leading directly to students improving their work. Performance management arrangements for staff are appropriately structured and also appear rigorous. Students entitled to the support of the pupil premium achieve as well as their peers. You expect some improvement in GCSE results this year.

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Main findings

We discussed in some depth the academy’s arrangements and plans for assessing students’ progress. The very recently appointed assistant principal, whose key responsibility this is, also spoke with me about this. As the full inspection noted, assessment information, especially in Key Stage 4 is much more reliable. I was very pleased to note the academy’s view of the principles which should underpin reliable, ongoing assessment throughout the school. This has led you to seeking alternatives to using sub levels in Key Stage 3. It will be good to continue this discussion with you in future.

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Main findings

Students have ‘caught’ your inspirational and aspirational thinking. In my discussions with some of them during sports day, I was pleased to hear them talk positively about the academy and how they see that it is improving. Clearly they enjoy many lessons and subjects. However, they are also aware that not all of the teaching is good; they told me that their attention can wander in lessons in which they are not challenged or sufficiently interested. Their view entirely accords with yours, namely that the quality of teaching needs to be more consistently good.

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Main findings

The academy’s governance arrangements, through the academy trust, are clearly strong, as the inspection reported. You are evidently both supported and kept right on your toes! Minutes of the meetings of the local academy council, which includes community and parent representatives, indicate that this group asks useful and challenging questions also. I was sorry, however, not to be able to meet with any of the academy council members and hope to do so in the future.

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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. I look forward to continuing to work with you in the future.

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External support

The academy is outward looking. Clearly you draw well on support from the Oasis trust itself, and work closely and usefully with other academies in the chain, across the country. You have also developed local links with other Southampton schools, colleges and the local authority. We discussed the benefits of continuing to develop these local links and establishing new ones, with the music hub, for example.

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External support

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Director of Children’s Services for Southampton and the Academies Advisers Unit at the Department for Education.

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