Ark Globe Academy

Ark Globe Academy Harper Road, London, SE1 6AG

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Good 2 Leadership and management Outstanding 1 Behaviour and safety of pupils Outstanding 1 Quality of teaching Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Early years provision Outstanding 1 Sixth form provision Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Attainment in GCSE examinations is rising rapidly and is now above the national average. Students make good progress in English, mathematics and science.  Students achieve well in a range of subjects in the secondary academy and they make outstanding progress in the primary school.  High-quality teaching using a wide range of stimulating activities ensures that children in the early years make an excellent start to their learning.  The sixth form is good. The students make good progress in their study programmes because they are well taught.  Disadvantaged students, disabled students and those who have special educational needs make good progress because their achievement is tracked carefully and they are given support that matches their needs very well.  Students of all ages show excellent attitudes to learning. They say they enjoy coming to the academy, and their behaviour is outstanding.  Teaching is good throughout the academy and

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

improving strongly. The staff have high expectations and make good use of information on what students know and can do to plan work that usually builds well on their previous learning.  The Principal and the primary school headteacher provide outstanding leadership. Together with leaders at all levels they make sure that all staff and students know what is expected of them, check students’ progress in detail and give staff a very good range of training opportunities.  The academy has had excellent support from Ark Schools in developing the curriculum and its assessment. The support for students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is very strong.  The governing body is well organised and highly effective. Governors are well informed about the academy’s strengths and development areas through regular meetings and visits. They track the impact of spending decisions very carefully.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Sometimes the work set for the most-able students is not demanding enough.  Teachers do not always make clear to students what they are aiming to achieve in each lesson.  Teachers do not consistently give students enough help in improving their work, and do not routinely expect them to respond to the advice given when it is marked.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 51 lessons, including 13 seen with members of the senior leadership team. In addition, inspectors made short visits to other lessons and tutor periods. They looked at samples of students’ work and interviewed groups of students across the age range.  Meetings were held with the Principal, the primary school headteacher and other members of the senior leadership team, heads of subject departments, teachers, members of the governing body, and representatives of the trust which sponsors the academy, Ark Schools.  Inspectors scrutinised a variety of 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 110 questionnaires returned by academy staff. Although too few parents had completed the on-line questionnaire (ParentView) for results to be available,

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Information about this inspection

inspectors took account of the 274 responses submitted by parents to an academy survey carried out in July 2014.

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Inspection team

Roger Waddingham, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Inspection team

Anthony Felsenstein Additional Inspector

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Information about this school

 The Ark Globe Academy comprises an average-sized secondary school with a small, newly-opened sixth form and a primary school. All its students are educated on the same campus. Children in the early years attend the Nursery part time and the Reception classes full time.  Nearly three quarters of the students are known to be eligible for support through the pupil premium, which is well above average. This is additional funding allocated by the government for students who are looked after by the local authority or known to be eligible for free school meals.  The proportion of disabled students and those with special educational needs receiving extra support through school action, at about one in 12, is below average. About one in every eight students is supported at school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs, which is above average. No students are currently supported by an education, health or care plan.

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Information about this school

 The number of students from minority ethnic backgrounds is much higher than in most schools of this size and the proportion of students who speak English as an additional language is above average.  The proportion of students who join or leave the academy other than at usual transfer times is higher than in most secondary schools.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students’ attainment and progress, at the end of Year 6 and the end of Year 11.  The academy offers work-related training for 13 students in Years 10 and 11 for three days per week, mainly at Ilderton Motors or the Building Lives organisation.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Establish high achievement in more subjects by making sure that all teachers consistently:  set demanding work for the most-able students  make clear to students what they are aiming for in lessons  give students clear guidance on how to improve their work, and require them to respond to the written comments given when their work is marked.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The high expectations of the Principal and the primary headteacher for students’ behaviour and progress, and for effective teaching, are communicated very well to all students and staff. As a result, staff clearly and consistently apply the academy’s teaching and learning policies, and the quality of teaching and students’ achievement are improving rapidly.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Senior leaders evaluate accurately the academy’s strengths and development areas, leading to clear and appropriate plans for its future development. They review these plans regularly and make sure that progress towards demanding targets is maintained well. This has led to the sustained rise in standards in English and mathematics.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Leaders at all levels, including subject leaders, monitor the quality of teaching and students’ achievement with a notable impact on outcomes for students. The regular gathering of detailed evidence about the quality of teaching is now established well, so staff are aware of what they need to do to improve their skills and are given ready access to any training required. The systems for tracking students’ progress are particularly strong. All staff analyse academic progress information to ensure that students are given the support they need to succeed.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The academy has developed new programmes of study and assessment methods very carefully, with excellent assistance from Ark Schools. Subject leaders use this support very well to produce detailed schemes of work that help new staff in particular to plan challenging and interesting activities for students. Students say they appreciate the wide range of after-school clubs, sports and activities.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The support for students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and opportunities for their wider personal development are very strong. Topics relating to life in modern Britain promote tolerance and respect for people of other cultures and faiths well, so that students show positive attitudes about living in a modern democratic society. Students say that they feel well prepared for the transfer to the sixth form or further education because of the opportunities they have to develop their learning skills and the information they get about future career paths from a variety of external providers.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Students appreciate the good range of sporting activities provided for them, both during the day and after school. The academy uses its primary school sport funding well to provide well-qualified specialist staff to run many of these activities.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The academy uses its pupil premium funding very effectively to support disadvantaged pupils, with well- targeted individual support and careful monitoring of the impact on students’ progress of the different types of help provided.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The academy tracks the progress, attendance and behaviour of students educated off-site for part of the week very well through weekly contact with the providers.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 The provision for disabled students and those who have special educational needs is very well organised. The manager ensures that these students make good progress by providing support from knowledgeable specialist staff. Highly effective systems ensure that these students behave and attend well.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Ark Schools, the academy’s sponsoring trust, gives very good support. Specialist advisers work closely with the academy in carrying out reviews, supporting subject leaders, providing staff training and supporting financial management.

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The leadership and management are outstanding

 Leaders have a clear commitment to making sure that all students have equal opportunities to succeed, and that students feel confident there is no discrimination. The arrangements for safeguarding are effective, meet all national requirements and have the confidence of students and parents alike.  The governance of the school:  The governing body is highly effective. It is well informed about the quality of teaching and students’ achievement through regular meetings and school visits, and tracks the impact of spending decisions very carefully to ensure the academy achieves good value for money.  Governors review the use of pupil premium funding regularly and are aware of improvements in attendance and the way the gaps between these students’ attainment and progress and that of their peers is narrowing.  Expenditure on primary sport and Year 7 ‘catch-up’ funding for eligible students is monitored regularly

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The leadership and management are outstanding

at meetings and governors know how well these students achieve.  Governors have a good level of expertise in analysing student performance information and know what checks senior managers make on the accuracy of staff tracking of students’ progress.  The governing body is aware of the quality of teaching and ensures that the staff performance management review system works effectively, basing decisions about pay increases on teachers’ performance.  Governors ensure they are well trained by carrying out a regular skills audit and attending courses to meet their needs as appropriate.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of students is outstanding. This applies throughout the academy, including in the early years and the sixth form. Students respond extremely well to teachers’ insistence on high standards of behaviour in lessons and show very positive attitudes to their work. No instances of disruptive behaviour were seen throughout the inspection. Students across the age range showed equally high standards in their positive responses to a variety of subjects with different staff.

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Behaviour

 Students maintain their high concentration levels in lessons in all situations and share their teachers’ high expectations for the quality of their work. They have mature attitudes to learning and contribute well to class discussion, tackle individual work enthusiastically and work collaboratively in group activities. They show a high degree of interest in their learning and show through their own questions that they are concerned to do well in lessons and make good progress.

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Behaviour

 Staff, parents and students are all highly positive about behaviour in the academy. Students explained that they enjoy coming to the academy because they recognised that effective learning was key to their future prospects. Students attending alternative provision off-site attend and behave well.

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Behaviour

 Students show a high level of pride in the academy, demonstrated by their care for their uniforms, the effort made over presentation of written work and their greatly improved attendance, now above average, and punctuality. They demonstrate high levels of respect for their teachers, other adults, student prefects and visitors to the academy. Their movement around the academy site and their respect for the buildings show an excellent degree of care, responsibility and maturity.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is outstanding. Students say they feel very safe in the academy and staff carry out regular checks of the site to make sure of this. Students report that any instances of bullying or poor behaviour are very rare and dealt with well by staff, who monitor behaviour and attendance records very carefully to plan appropriate action if they detect any adverse trends.

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Safety

 The school has very effective systems in place to ensure students whose circumstances mean they may be vulnerable are fully engaged with school and their learning. Relationships with other agencies are strong and the school’s staff team keep regular checks on these students’ well-being.

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Safety

 Students describe a wide range of opportunities for them to consider how to keep themselves safe, including work in tutor period and on academy enrichment days.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is improving strongly. The academy uses excellent systems for monitoring teaching and supporting teachers, so senior staff identify any support needs quickly and provide appropriate training. While teaching quality in the past has been adversely affected by staff turnover, the induction of new staff is now thorough, ensuring that all staff are aware of the standards expected of them. Staff now feel confident to meet the academy’s high expectations.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Staff show good subject knowledge. They plan lessons that engage students’ interest for sustained periods of time, using well-chosen real-life examples to illustrate key points and explaining new ideas carefully, mostly building well on students’ previous learning. They use information on students’ previous achievement particularly well to help plan tasks at the right level of challenge.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching in the primary school and the early years is outstanding. Staff use their specialist knowledge of teaching literacy and numeracy very well to make sure pupils develop confidence in these subjects. Students have with good opportunities to talk about their ideas and consolidate their learning. In the sixth form, teaching is consistently good across subjects, and students are encouraged to develop their study skills well.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Many teachers use questioning well to involve students in the introductions to lessons and to check that they are developing their understanding correctly. Particularly good learning was seen when students carefully reflected on their progress and related this to the quality of work needed to achieve particular GCSE grades, for example. Sometimes, however, some teachers do not make clear what students are expected to achieve, so their progress is not as rapid as it could be.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Staff have high expectations of students’ behaviour and attitudes, and of their academic progress. Teachers apply the academy behaviour policy very well to ensure that behaviour is of a consistently high standard and that students are motivated to succeed. Although they set demanding targets for students overall, the work teachers set for the most-able students sometimes does not extend their knowledge, skills and understanding enough.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers make good use of visual resources to develop ideas in lessons and, in many cases, act as a prompt for good quality discussion by students. Information technology is also used well to present ideas to students. Teaching assistants offer good support for individual students and groups of students, helping them to concentrate on their tasks and making sure they know what they are expected to do.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers set homework and mark students’ written work in line with the academy policies. They check students’ answers carefully and often make comments to help students improve. Some of the comments however, lack helpful detail or do not require any follow-up, so students are not fully involved in responding to the teachers’ development points or reflecting on how they can improve their own work.

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is good

 Students make consistently good, and sometimes outstanding, progress from their starting points on entry to the academy. Attainment in GCSE examinations is rising rapidly and results in 2014 were above the national averages. Students make good progress in English, mathematics and science because they are taught well by staff who show high levels of subject expertise. The academy did not allow any early entry to GCSE examinations.

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is good

 Achievement in the primary school is outstanding. Pupils’ attainment has been consistently above average for the past three years and their progress is well above average. Pupils make particularly strong progress in mathematics, which is a specialist focus for the academy, and they clearly enjoy the varied and demanding tasks they are set. The progress of children in the early years is very rapid. Teachers are very skilled in helping children to develop confidence in their speaking and listening while working together on their activities.

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is good

 Progress in the sixth form is good. Some of the most-able students show very good progress in their confident use of technical vocabulary in explaining their ideas. However, in other lessons the most-able students are sometimes not challenged enough to make rapid progress.

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is good

 Disabled students and those who have special educational needs achieve well. They make good progress throughout the age range, and some groups make exceptional progress because their needs are provided for very carefully by well-trained staff. Their achievement is tracked carefully and the success of individual support is reviewed regularly.

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is good

 Disadvantaged students, those from minority ethnic backgrounds, and those who speak English as an additional language all make progress at least in line with other students. In many cases they make faster progress because the academy uses its funding very well to meet their needs.

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is good

 Students supported through the pupil premium make increasingly good progress. GCSE results in 2013 show these students in Year 11 were half a grade behind other students in English and mathematics, and a grade behind all students nationally. The academy’s analysis for 2014 shows that disadvantaged students made better progress than their peers in mathematics and better progress than found nationally in both English and mathematics. In Key Stage 2 in 2013 the disadvantaged students did better overall than the others in the year group and all pupils nationally.

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is good

 The extra ‘catch-up’ funding for Year 7 students who have fallen behind is used very effectively and they make good progress. They are well supported in improving their reading and writing through excellent teaching of phonics (the sounds that letters make) and individual support on reading and spelling. They develop their mathematical skills well through small-group support sessions and the use of diagnostic testing. Work on reading during tutor periods is used well to ensure that all students read widely and are heard reading regularly.

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is good

 Students get off to a very good start in using their communication skills because they are very well taught in the primary school. They continue to develop well in the secondary part of the academy, where they have many opportunities to use and develop their writing, numeracy and information technology skills.

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is good

 The academy tracks the achievement of students educated off-site for part of the week well through weekly contact with the providers. The results for 2014 show these students made good progress and met their course requirements.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Some children enter the primary school with skills below those typical for their age. These children make very good progress in both the Nursery and Reception classes because their opportunities for learning are well planned and challenging. By the end of the Reception Year all children reach or exceed the expected goals in all areas of learning, showing outstanding progress. Children from all backgrounds make particularly good progress in developing their spoken language and in reading, so that they are very well prepared for their work in Year 1.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 The teaching has many strengths. Staff track individual children’s progress very carefully so that they are able to plan work that builds very well on their previous experiences. They use play and exploration activities very effectively to develop children’s confidence in speaking. They promote children’s social development carefully by helping them to understand the importance of taking turns and sharing.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Children are very well trained in the expectations for their behaviour in the classroom and routines are well established so that no time is wasted when they are working as a class, on their own or when moving between activities.

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The early years provision is outstanding

 Leadership and management of the early years are outstanding. The activities planned for children successfully lead to high rates of progress in all the key areas of development, and match children’s needs very well. The development of children’s phonics understanding and their numeracy skills are notable strengths of this planning.

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The sixth form provision is good

 The sixth form opened in September 2014 and students were in the first half term of their A-level studies at the time of the inspection. The academy’s progress records for these students and the work seen in lessons show that they are making at least good progress and some are achieving highly. The induction of the new students has been planned very carefully with an appropriate emphasis on study skills.

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The sixth form provision is good

 Teaching is good. Staff showed very good subject knowledge when working with individual students, challenging them through the questions they asked and supporting them by identifying errors in their work which they helped students to correct for themselves.

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The sixth form provision is good

 Students’ attitudes to learning are outstanding; they work together very well in group research tasks, for example sharing responsibilities well and maintaining their concentration. They show good maturity in their work ethic, completing homework tasks in good detail.

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The sixth form provision is good

 Leadership of the sixth form is strong. The curriculum offers a wide choice of academic subjects and recruitment and induction are good. Leaders have a strong focus on balancing students’ academic success with their personal development. Students appreciate how this focus fits in with the academy ethos of promoting excellence with the aspiration of attaining the qualifications to enter university education.

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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 failing

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Grade Judgement Description

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 135584 Local authority Southwark Inspection number 449201

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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 All-through School category Academy sponsor-led Age range of pupils 3–18 Gender of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils in the sixth form Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 1250 Of which, number on roll in sixth form 38 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Jacqueline Russell Principal Matthew Jones Date of previous school inspection 3 March 2011 Telephone number 020 74076877 Fax number 020 79405116 Email address admin@globeacademy.org 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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