Chellaston Academy

Chellaston Academy Swarkestone Road, Chellaston, Derby, DE73 5UB

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected as an academy This inspection: Good 2 Leadership and management Good 2 Behaviour and safety of pupils Good 2 Quality of teaching Good 2 Achievement of pupils Good 2 Sixth form provision Good 2

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 A large proportion of students achieve five GCSE A* to C grades including English and mathematics; this is much higher than seen nationally.  Progress in English and mathematics is consistently strong. In both subjects, a very large majority of the students, including the most able, make more than expected progress.  The achievement of disabled students and those who have special educational needs is good across the main school.  The attainment of students eligible for the pupil premium is high compared with these students nationally. Differences in attainment between these students and others within the academy are reducing.  Achievement in the majority of subjects across the academy is consistently strong. The proportion of students achieving the highest GCSE grades is often significantly above the national average.  The strengths in the quality of teaching over time, across a range of subjects have led to good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

outcomes for most students.  Students’ attitudes in lessons and conduct around the academy are usually exemplary. They report that they feel safe at all times.  Leaders, including governors, communicate a strong, sound ethos and high ambition for all academy members.  Leaders and managers, including governors, have worked successfully to develop effective strategies to improve both teaching and the outcomes of students, especially disadvantaged students.  Provision in the sixth form is good. The quality of teaching is improving across a range of subjects. The progress made by students in most subjects is good overall.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 A minority of teachers do not provide precise feedback to students to allow them to make necessary improvements or use their assessments as effectively as they should to refine their lesson plans.  Students supported by the pupil premium funding, whilst achieving highly at the academy, are still slightly more represented in absence and behaviour logs than other students.  Leaders’ systems for tracking students’ progress are not always coordinated effectively. Leaders have to wait too long to get a full picture of student performance and know whether support plans are working.  The academy does not always do enough to fully develop students’ awareness and understanding of the local cultural and religious communities.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors collected a range of evidence to evaluate the quality of teaching including observing 45 lessons; in addition, they conducted some short visits to practical lessons and carried out a work scrutiny of students’ books, across a range of subjects and year groups. Most of these activities took place jointly with senior members of the leadership team.  A range of documentation was evaluated, including, the academy’s self-evaluation summary and improvement plan, assessment information, policies, including behaviour and safeguarding and other monitoring records.  Inspectors spoke with students both formally and informally during lessons. Inspectors also observed students’ behaviour during break and lunch time.  Other areas of the school were visited by inspectors, including the library, the Behaviour Reflection Unit (BRU), assemblies and small group intervention classes.  Inspectors interviewed members of the senior leadership team, the special educational needs coordinator

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Information about this inspection

(SENCO), subject leaders, key stage progress managers, the sixth form leader, the pupil premium and English as an additional language (EAL) coordinators, the school improvement partner and the Chair and several other members of the Governing Body.  Inspectors took account of 214 responses from Parent View (Ofsted’s online survey) and 58 responses from the staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Zarina Connolly, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Information about this school

 This is the first section 5 inspection since the school became an academy in 2010; its predecessor school, known as Chellaston Foundation School, was deemed to be outstanding.  The academy is a larger than average-sized secondary school. The sixth form is larger than average.  Most of the students are from White British backgrounds.  At 16%, the proportion of students for whom the pupil premium provides support is about half of the national average.  The proportion of students who are from minority ethnic groups is just over half of the national average and the proportion of students whose first language is believed not to be English is much smaller than average.  At 7.5%, many fewer students than the national average of 18.9% are disabled and have special educational needs.  The academy uses three off-site providers who offer alternative provision for a small number of students: Junction 16, Rathbone and Kingsmead Pupil Referral Unit.

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Information about this school

 The headteacher is a national leader of education (NLE) and there are three other leaders who are specialist leaders of education (SLE).  The academy is the secondary teaching school of the Derby Teaching School’s Alliance, comprising of four primary and two special schools.  The academy meets the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for students’ attainment and progress by the end of Key Stage 4. It also meets the interim minimum standards for sixth-form students.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching so that all teaching is as good as the best in the academy by ensuring that all teachers:  consistently provide high-quality feedback to students to accelerate their learning and progress  use assessment information to plan accurately for the different groups in their class

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen leadership and management by ensuring that:  the coordination, collection and analysis of assessment data are carried out more regularly so that the impact of support plans can be measured accurately  provide further opportunities to develop students’ understanding of the diverse religions and customs of their local communities.  strategies to support disadvantaged students are further developed to improve their attendance and behaviour even more.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher’s leadership is underpinned by sound values, which have become part of the fabric of the whole academy community. Staff, governors and students mirror these values in everything they do and this is reflected in their often exemplary behaviour and attitudes. There is a high degree of mutual respect between all adults and students, and a strong drive to ensure all have the same opportunities to succeed and that standards remain high.

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The leadership and management are good

 Some of the recent successes in reducing the achievement gap between different groups of students are due to some well-considered intervention plans drawn up by leaders.

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The leadership and management are good

 Twenty-three staff left the academy last year, mostly for promotion and retirement reasons; new leaders have already brought new energy to the academy and implemented effective new systems and structures to further improve the consistency of teaching and secure high standards. Teachers appreciate the work of these new leaders and refer to this period of the academy’s journey as ‘invigorating’ and ‘exciting’.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leadership of teaching is improving; a set of quality assurance activities and subject reviews that are scheduled for different times in the academic year have led to improved practice in the main, although there is still inconsistent practice in some aspects of teaching. For example, the quality of marking and use of assessment is not always as good as it should be amongst some teachers.

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The leadership and management are good

 Subject leaders have a clear understanding of the key issues facing the school. They carry out their monitoring activities regularly and many ensure consistent practice through regular reviews and training.

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The leadership and management are good

 The special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) provides strong leadership for teaching assistants and other support staff. This has resulted in steady progress made by many disadvantaged students and students whose circumstances make them vulnerable. Students supported by the pupil premium are provided with one-to one-mentors and individual learning plans which help them make progress.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders of behaviour and safety monitor and track students’ attendance and behaviour rigorously, including those of students attending alternative provision. New support plans and the use of an educational social worker to improve the attendance and behaviour of students supported by the pupil premium and boys are showing early signs of success. These initiatives are in the early stages of implementation; students supported by the pupil premium are still in the BRU slightly more than others and some of these students do not regularly attend the academy compared to their peers.

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The leadership and management are good

 The pupil premium and catch-up government funding is used effectively; the recent impact seen in narrowing the in-school achievement gap is testament to the effective intervention plans made over time. Targeted students in Years 7 and 8 make good progress in literacy, especially in their reading levels. Leaders and governors have identified the lower attainment of pupil premium students, relative to their school peers, as a priority at every meeting.

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The leadership and management are good

 The academy sponsors an orphanage in Uganda. It provides an important focal point for students to gain a deep understanding of the plight of children in the developing world. Students speak knowledgeably and passionately about global, moral and cultural issues; they get involved in a range of charity fundraising activities. However, their knowledge of local cultural diversity is still underdeveloped.

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The leadership and management are good

 The quality of careers advice and guidance across the school meets statutory requirements. Students have access to a wide range of opportunities to help them make informed decisions about the next steps in their education. Support for students to develop their employment skills and the arrangements for work experience are good.

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The leadership and management are good

 The headteacher enlists support from a school improvement partner, who provides valuable external validation of the work of the academy. The Derby Teaching Alliance has provided effective training for key middle leaders and newly qualified teachers.  The leadership team receives the overwhelming support and confidence of the staff as well as parents, as evidenced by the staff questionnaire and the significant number of responses received from the parent survey, Parent View.

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The leadership and management are good

 The academy’s performance management is robust. Strict performance targets are set for teachers, which are monitored throughout the year. Teachers do not automatically receive pay progression unless they can demonstrate their impact on students’ achievement.

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The leadership and management are good

 Assessment information is gathered in a number of ways across the school, but only collated centrally and analysed three times a year. This means that some leaders do not always have sufficient information to assist them in deploying resources to support students. Therefore, the impact of initiatives is not evaluated as regularly as it should be.

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The leadership and management are good

 Leaders have recently introduced a new approach to develop students’ understanding of British values; assemblies and discussions in citizenship lessons go some way to develop these ideas but the academy does not know if this approach is having a real impact on students’ knowledge and understanding. Plans to help students challenge extremism has not been implemented fully.

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The leadership and management are good

 The curriculum is broad and balanced at Key Stage 3. At Key Stage 4 religious education is not taught as a discrete subject, which means that students’ knowledge and understanding of the religious and cultural traditions of major religions is not developed. Although the academy places great emphasis on global inequalities and the cultural understanding of parts of the developing world, in order to ensure students are prepared for life in modern Britain, there are few opportunities for students to gain first- hand experience of mixing and interacting with local people who follow cultural and religious practices other than their own.

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The leadership and management are good

 The academy’s arrangements for safeguarding students meet statutory requirements.

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The leadership and management are good

 The governance of the school:  The governors are large in number, committed and skilled. They have improved their constitution recently by improving the accountability of the local governing body; the trust board now monitors the work of the governing body carefully.  The recent audit of governance suggests that the members of the governing body are appropriately skilled to carry out their duties effectively. Governors, including the new Chair of the Governing Body have a clear understanding of the strengths and issues facing the school.  The governors’ action plan identifies appropriate activities to monitor the work of the school.  Minutes of meetings suggest that some governors challenge leaders but this is not always recorded in sufficient detail.  Governors hold the headteacher to account rigorously through the arrangements for his performance management; the headteacher’s targets are closely linked to students’ achievement and more

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The leadership and management are good

specifically the progress of certain groups, especially those supported by pupil premium.  Governors have a sound financial oversight of the schools’ budget. They are well- informed about how additional government funding is spent and they have a good understanding of the impact of this spending .  Governors ensure that statutory requirements, including those for safeguarding students, are met. They regularly ensure that policies are updated and reviewed and carry out their own observations of practice such as the ‘student pursuit’. This provides them with valuable first-hand information about how well school policy is working.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good  Students’ often excellent attitudes and behaviour in lessons allow them to make good progress. When there is good or better teaching, they thrive and are enthusiastic about their learning. They have a well- developed understanding of global moral issues as a result of the school’s strong relationship and links with Uganda.

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Behaviour

 Students’ conduct around the school and their appearance is mostly exemplary; they are polite and respectful to their peers and to adults. They represent their academy well during sports events and school trips. Sixth form students show a high degree of maturity when unsupervised.

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Behaviour

 New leaders of behaviour and safety have strengthened the academy’s behaviour management systems; teachers mostly apply the behaviour policy consistently. Behaviour logs show very few incidents of misbehaviour and disruption to lessons. Students confirm that lessons are very seldom disrupted by low level misbehaviour.

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Behaviour

 School leaders have not permanently excluded any pupil this year and have not for several years. The number of students given fixed-term exclusions has reduced compared to last year but disadvantaged students are represented slightly more frequently than other student groups.

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Behaviour

 The school uses an internal exclusion facility called the Behaviour Referral Unit (BRU). There is emerging evidence that this provision is effective for some students who had previous records for misbehaviour. Leaders’ work to reduce the proportion of re-offenders is not fully effective.

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Behaviour

 Students say that there is very little bullying and that it is not a problem in the academy, and logs support this. Students understand different types of prejudice bullying including homophobic, cyber and racist. Academy leaders tackle these incidents quickly and firmly.

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Behaviour

 Attendance in all year groups is above the national average. The proportion of students who are regularly absent has reduced compared to previous years. Attendance figures show that boys and those eligible for the pupil premium have tended to be absent slightly more frequently than others. Leaders are aware of this and have adopted strict monitoring and support systems which are beginning to successfully reduce this trend.

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Behaviour

 Ninety six per cent of parents who responded to the online questionnaire Parent View say that the school makes sure that the students are well behaved.

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Safety

 The school’s work to keep pupils safe and secure is good.

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Safety

 The academy’s personal, social and health education programme helps students to know how to keep safe, especially online. Students understand how to protect themselves from cyber-bullying; they are confident that the school tackles incidents of this type effectively.

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Safety

 Safeguarding policies and procedures are robust. Recruitment and vetting procedures are rigorous.

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Safety

 There are good systems to support and help students who are vulnerable and at risk; staff show a thorough understanding of their needs because they discuss each identified student on a weekly basis.

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Safety

 The academy is beginning to address their policy and approach about protecting students from extremism. The philosophy and ethics and citizenship curriculum, including assemblies, contribute to ensuring students are prepared for many aspects of adult life.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The quality of teaching over time is good and has led to exceptional achievement by many students. In very many subjects, the majority of students perform above the national average.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Most teachers communicate high standards of expectation; consequently, students engage well with the work and try their best. The work ethic across the school is good. Inspectors noticed very little low-level disruption to lessons.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The most-able students in many subject areas are stretched well. For example, in history, they develop high-level thinking skills, so that they can interrogate the sources rigorously and reach balanced conclusions. Most-able students consistently produce high quality written work demonstrating a wide range of vocabulary and well-developed writing techniques.

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The quality of teaching is good

 The most consistent and high quality practice was seen in English, art and design and technology subject areas. Here, teachers’ good subject knowledge and use of assessments help students to know how to progress to the next level. These teachers used targeted questioning and excellent modelling skills.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Literacy is taught effectively across the curriculum. Students’ written and spoken communication is mostly well-developed.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Small-group intervention work and subject-specific mentoring for students who are not making sufficient progress, is making a positive difference. Students report that they have ‘caught up’ as a result of this timely intervention and personalised help. The quality of teaching for these students is effective and making a difference to their confidence and progress.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Students’ work showed that most teachers set work appropriate to their ability. A small proportion of teachers left untidy work unchallenged and did not give meaningful feedback. Not all teachers insist that students act upon the teacher’s marking to make further improvements. Consequently, the same mistakes are repeated.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teachers generally use assessments to help plan challenging learning activities, some with varying degrees of success. Leaders have emphasised the need to plan for different groups of students, such as those supported by pupil premium funding, but not all teachers do this effectively. Where assessments are used well, these students, including the most and least able, make better progress.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The proportion of students achieving five GCSE A* to C grades, including English and mathematics, is high compared to the national average, and has been for the past three years. The in-school gap between students eligible for pupil premium funding and others is narrowing and improved by 9% from last year and improved even more when compared to national averages.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 More able students generally achieve well. The proportion of students achieving A* and A grades at GCSE, is high in a wide range of subjects at Key Stage 4 and make exceptional progress overall. Most of them make expected progress at the end of Year 11; nearly 70% make more than expected progress in mathematics and 60% in English. This is considerably higher than the national average.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students enter the school with attainment above the national average for both English and mathematics. Pupil premium students’ attainment is also above the national average across a range of key subjects. The in-school gap in attainment between these students and others is narrowing but remains wide; in mathematics, disadvantaged students are around two grades behind their peers, whilst in English they are one grade behind. This is an improvement from last year and current reliable in-school assessments, show that this gap is narrowing considerably and currently only equates to half a grade in both subjects. This is because strategies to improve outcomes for this group are having an impact.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 This gap is large because students who are not eligible for this funding make exceptional progress. Current assessments show that this gap is improving even more for both subjects in Year 11. Pupil premium students make much better progress in both English and mathematics compared to national averages.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The attainment gap between boys and girls is reducing, although the gaps remain wide in certain subject areas. 2014 examination results and projections for 2015 show that this trend is continuing. Various strategies to improve boys’ engagement and aspirations over the last year or so are beginning to show significant impact. Inspectors noted increasing evidence of equal progress being made between boys and girls in class.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Disabled students and those who have special educational needs make good progress, although this is more marked in English than mathematics. The effective support they are given in early Key Stage 3, especially in reading, give them the foundations to learn skills and knowledge more quickly.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The very small number of students who are from ethnic minorities and those who have English as an additional language (EAL) make progress. The EAL coordinator provides suitable intervention and their achievement is closely tracked and monitored. Some members of this group, however, have been represented too frequently in absence and persistence absence figures in the past. The new educational social worker has already provided support to improve their attendance and this is proving effective.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 Students supported by the government catch-up funding make good progress, especially in reading, but less so in mathematics. More targeted work with the primary schools is underway this year to accelerate their progress further.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The academy has taken an informed decision to enter their students early for mathematics. All students complete their final examinations by the winter of Year 11. Their results show that this does not adversely affect their performance, particularly those achieving the highest grades, as they are adequately prepared.

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The achievement of pupils is good

 The small numbers of students who attend the range of alternative off-site provision achieve well. Their attendance is good and their progress is reported to the academy on a regular basis.

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The sixth form provision is good

 The attainment of students at the end of the sixth form is very high and exceeds national averages for both A*to E and A* to B grades.

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The sixth form provision is good

 Progress indicators, such as value added information, show a declining trend over time. In part this is due to the increasingly high prior attainment of the intake which makes it harder each year to achieve very positive progress figures, because attainment in any one subject cannot be better than an A*. However it is also true that the most able do not consistently achieve A* and A grades in some subject areas. School leaders have therefore targeted the quality of teaching for the most able and the school’s tracking data suggests that the proportion achieving high grades is set to improve by over 5% next year.

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The sixth form provision is good

 There is a very small number of disadvantaged students in the sixth form; their outcomes are good and there is no performance gap between this group and their peers. The destinations of students who were eligible for pupil premium follows a broadly similar pattern to the others.

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The sixth form provision is good

 No-one entering the sixth form needs to take an additional examination in either English or mathematics. Consequently, the academy meets the 16-19 interim minimum standards.

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The sixth form provision is good

 Retention rates are exceptionally high, with 100% in-year retention. Less than 1% of students who leave at the end of Year 11 are not in education, employment or training (NEET), which is well below the national average. Eighty per cent of students go on to university and many to Russell Group universities, including a few to Oxford and Cambridge.

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The sixth form provision is good

 The study programme in the sixth form is coherent and effective. Students’ employability and social skills are developed through the tutorial programme. Students are encouraged to develop independence and responsibility both within school and outside.

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The sixth form provision is good

 Students know how to keep safe, especially online. Plans to develop students’ understanding of British values and the dangers of extremism are in its early stages of implementation.  The quality of teaching in the sixth form is predominantly good. Students say they make good progress at the academy. However, leaders’ collection of assessment data is not coordinated effectively; leaders have to wait too long to get up-to-date information about students’ before action is taken to deal with potential underachievement.

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The sixth form provision is good

 Attitudes and overall student conduct in the sixth form are excellent.

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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 136360 Local authority Derby Inspection number 449430

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005. The inspection was also deemed a section 5 inspection under the same Act.

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School details

Type of school Secondary School category Academy converter Age range of pupils 11–18 Gender of pupils Mixed Gender of pupils in the sixth form Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 1702 Of which, number on roll in sixth form 382 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Nick Hollis Headteacher Mr Roman Ruszczynski Date of previous school inspection Not inspected Telephone number 01332 702502 Fax number 01332 703779 Email address info@chellaston.derby.sch.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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