Chadwick High School

Chadwick Centre and Medical School Mainway, Skerton, Lancaster, LA1 2AY

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Good 2 This inspection: Inadequate 4 Leadership and management Inadequate 4 Behaviour and safety of pupils Inadequate 4 Quality of teaching Inadequate 4 Achievement of pupils Inadequate 4

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

This is a school that requires special measures.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The overall effectiveness of the school has declined since the last inspection and is now inadequate. Safeguarding arrangements are inadequate, leaving students at risk. In some instances, students are not kept safe.  The achievement of too many students in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School is poor.  Students’ knowledge and skills in reading, writing and mathematics are low and not developed effectively.  The impact of the pupil premium on the achievement of disadvantaged students is negligible.  In nearly all respects leadership and management are inadequate. Leaders, managers and governors do not have the capacity to drive the necessary improvements.  The management committee is not challenging leaders adequately, nor is it holding them to account over safeguarding, students’ progress and the quality of teaching.  Checks made by leaders on students’ progress and on teaching are inaccurate. Leaders and the

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

management committee do not understand the school’s strengths and weaknesses.  The quality of teaching is inadequate. The expectations that teachers and their assistants have of students are too low, in terms of the amount and quality of work students should produce and the level of challenge the work presents.  Students’ starting points are not assessed rigorously. As a result, students’ work is not matched well enough to their needs and lacks challenge.  Too often, students’ behaviour is poor. Students are not inspired to learn and make progress. Their attitudes to learning are weak. Attendance is low at the school and in some of the alternative provision used. The school’s policy for managing and improving behaviour is not robust enough.

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The school has the following strengths

 Students, particularly those in the Medical School, take advantage of the broad range of work and activities provided. The work-related learning in the alternative provision motivates those students who attend regularly and so they achieve well.  The separate provision for some Year 11 ex-high school students is led and managed well. Teachers’ expectations are high and the quality of teaching is good. Students are making good progress as a result.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspectors observed teaching and learning across the Chadwick Centre and Medical School. The school’s consultant for teaching and learning joined the lead inspector in observing lessons.  Meetings were held with senior and middle leaders.  Discussions took place with the Chair of the Management Committee and representatives of the local authority.  An inspector spoke to a group of students and heard their views of the school and their experiences of learning.  An inspector visited the Lancaster Training Services, which makes alternative provision for some students.  Inspectors looked at a range of the school’s documents, including information on students’ progress, the school’s improvement plan and the school’s evaluation of its work. They also scrutinised policies and procedures for child protection and safeguarding pupils.  Too few parents completed Ofsted’s online questionnaire (Parent View) for inspectors to take account of

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Information about this inspection

their views. Inspectors reviewed the responses from parents to a survey made by the school. Inspectors examined the views of 10 staff who responded to the Ofsted inspection questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Alan Lemon, Lead inspector Additional Inspector

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Full report

In accordance with section 44 of the Education Act 2005 (as amended), Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

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Information about this school

 The Chadwick Centre and Medical School serves mainstream schools in Lancaster, Morecambe, Carnforth and Garstang. Its students are aged 11-16 and are admitted for a variety of reasons, often because they have been excluded or are at risk of exclusion from their schools.  In September 2012, the Lancashire Education Medical Service’s provision for students unable to attend a mainstream school because of their medical needs was merged with the Chadwick Centre. The two provisions are in separate accommodation on the same site.  A key aim is to return students to their schools or to a new school and, where appropriate, a special school. Of the 74 students currently attending, 14 have been permanently excluded from their previous school and 32 have medical needs.  In September 2014, following the closure of Skerton High School, an interim arrangement was made with the Chadwick Centre and Medical School to provide accommodation for 23 Year 11 students to finish their

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Information about this school

GCSE courses. The provision is managed by a unit leader who was previously the headteacher at Skerton High School up to its closure. Students are taught by their own teachers in a separate building on the same site. The leader has kept the safeguarding procedures that were in place at Skerton High. The examination number for Skerton High has been retained so students’ results will not be allocated to the Chadwick Centre and Medical School.  The proportion of disadvantaged students supported through the pupil premium in all three settings is above average. The pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals and those who are looked after by the local authority.  The five alternative providers offering courses and training to students are Lancaster and Morecambe College, Lancaster Training Services, Strawberry Fields Training, Piccadilly Gardens and Regent Park

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Information about this school

Studios.  Since its last inspection, the school has had changes in senior leadership. Currently, there is an acting headteacher and deputy headteacher. The acting headteacher is absent.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Urgently improve the arrangements for safeguarding students in the school, by:  ensuring that the management committee understands its duty to keep students safe, to follow safe recruitment procedures when appointing staff and to nominate an independent committee member to hold the school to account for safeguarding  implementing a safeguarding policy that is specific to the needs of students in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School  ensuring that student absences are properly recorded in accordance with statutory requirements, rigorously followed up and that safeguarding procedures are applied where any student is at risk.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Take immediate action to improve the leadership and management, including governance of the school sustainably, by:  the senior leadership and governance developing a clear and ambitious vision for the Chadwick Centre and Medical School and planning its improvement systematically, with clear milestones to be achieved within set timescales  implementing rigorous checks on students’ progress and the quality of teaching to identify strengths and weaknesses  driving the improvement of students’ progress and of the quality of teaching relentlessly  ensuring that the management committee has all the detailed information it needs to be effective in holding the school to account  providing teachers with high quality training and support so that they have the opportunity to teach well  bringing the curriculum and its assessment arrangements up to date with current requirements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching and raise achievement in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School so both are at least good, by:  implementing a rigorous assessment of students’ progress and ensuring that teachers take students’ starting points into account when planning lessons so that work is matched more closely to their needs and abilities  ensuring that teachers and their assistants set high expectations of what students can achieve and provide greater challenge for students  developing students’ knowledge and skills in reading, writing and mathematics effectively  ensuring that the marking policy is applied consistently by all teachers and that their advice to students is acted upon by students and followed up by the teachers.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve students’ behaviour and attendance, by:  strengthening the school’s policy and procedures for managing students’ behaviour and raising the expectations set by staff as to what constitutes good behaviour and an ethos of positive regard and respect for all in the school  setting high expectations for each student’s attendance and celebrating good and improved attendance at school and to lessons.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

An external review of governance should be undertaken in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be undertaken in order to assess how the impact of leadership and management may be improved.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Both the Chadwick Centre and the Medical School are suffering from the frequent changes and temporary nature of senior leadership. This has brought uncertainty and lack of clarity in direction, expectations and improvement in its wake. Staff morale is low. Some staff are upset by the school’s downturn and are rightly worried by the lack of clear leadership and the absence of a settled staff team. The local authority provides some support, but this has had little effect in halting the school’s decline.  Safeguarding arrangements are not effective and do not meet statutory requirements. The acting headteacher is the designated person responsible for safeguarding in school. She is also the nominated management committee member overseeing safeguarding arrangements. This creates a conflict of interest. The child protection policy is a model policy provided by the local authority which has not been personalised to the circumstances of the school and consequently is not fit for purpose.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Current temporary leadership and staff on short-term contracts have not been conducive to driving improvement. Weaknesses in the leadership of the Chadwick Centre and Medical School are engrained. There are serious deficiencies in safeguarding students, managing students’ attendance and behaviour, and addressing shortcomings in teaching and assessment. These weaknesses are not recognised clearly by leaders and therefore they have not taken robust action to tackle them. Improvement plans are vague and fail to offer an ambitious vision for the future of the school. This is because they are not based upon a good understanding of the school’s current position.  Senior and the few middle leaders carry out checks on the work of the school, but these are inadequate and do not support effective self-evaluation. Checks are not rigorous and the outcomes do not contribute effectively to improvement.  Senior and middle leaders are not convinced the data on students’ progress are reliable or that the

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The leadership and management are inadequate

assessments providing the data are accurate. They are unsure how to rectify this. The inaccurate checks on teaching tell leaders that the quality is good. However, this conclusion is completely opposite from the learning outcomes for students, which are poor.  There is no impact from the use of the pupil premium in improving the academic performance of disadvantaged students. The premium is spent using a broad-brush approach. This lacks sharp focus because accurate data on students’ progress are not available. Also, leaders do not understand the strengths and weaknesses in teaching at the school.  Leaders are not effective in promoting equality of opportunity for students. However, better promotion of students’ personal development ensures that relationships are generally positive and there is no discrimination.  The recording of students’ attendance does not meet requirements. It does not provide a sound basis for

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The leadership and management are inadequate

tackling the high level of absences or for safeguarding students who are at risk when absent.  The alternative providers used to educate some students plan the students’ work and manage a wide range of awards effectively. They report, as leaders require them to, on the students’ progress, behaviour and attendance, meeting the school’s expectations on this. However, students’ poor attendance at alternative providers is not tackled effectively. This is also the case for students attached to alternative providers who do not attend, as they should, for their English and mathematics lessons at the Chadwick Centre and Medical School.  The unit leader’s good leadership of the ex-Skerton Year 11 provision ensures that the aim of students completing GCSE courses successfully is being met. The unit leader ensures that these mainstream students receive good teaching, make good progress, complete their examinations and that most achieve

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The leadership and management are inadequate

well. The unit leader has good support from local authority advisers and from the headteacher of another local secondary school, which has helped ensure that his leadership is effective.  The curriculum offers a wide breadth of work and activities, although the impact of this is negated by the weak quality of teaching and the poor attendance of students. Also, there has been no work undertaken to bring curriculum planning up to date with the new National Curriculum or to develop assessment in line with this. The curriculum is not planned well enough and, as a result, learning experiences across the school week are not well balanced. In some instances, balance is adversely affected by the need to fit in activities at school, off site and with alternative providers. For example, horse-riding cuts across some mathematics lessons. Moreover, as the mathematics teacher teaches horse-riding, some mathematics

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The leadership and management are inadequate

lessons are taught by less expert staff.  Students’ studies nearly all link to a qualification leading them on to college or work-related training opportunities. Every student is offered expert advice and support with their choice of college course or training.  There is sufficient content planned for students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, including their preparation for life in modern Britain. Students are offered, for example, the opportunity to study aspects of civil and criminal law and consider how the legal system reflects rights and respect. Students are taught how laws are made and, as citizens, how they can influence decisions through democratic processes. However, the impact of this provision on students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is patchy. The Medical School students respond more positively and show greater appreciation of British values compared to students in the Chadwick Centre.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 Newly qualified teachers should not be appointed.

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The leadership and management are inadequate

 The governance of the school:  The management committee is not effective. It has not held leaders to account for the impact of the work of the school. It has not acted robustly in challenging leaders in relation to safeguarding arrangements, teaching, students’ outcomes and their behaviour. The members of the committee are hindered by the lack of useful, accurate information coming to them from school leaders. They do not gain independently a good knowledge of the quality of the teaching and the school’s performance through their own visits and questions.  Members of the management committee do not understand the extent of their duties. They are unclear about the information and work required for them to have a secure knowledge and understanding of the school’s performance. The committee does not insist on having the detailed information it needs, such as data on the quality of teaching, to ask the right questions of leaders. Reports on the

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The leadership and management are inadequate

performance of teachers are not helpful to members of the management committee in understanding how good teaching is rewarded and how underperformance in teaching is tackled.  There are gaps where there ought not to be gaps in governance, such as knowing whether or not committee members have had training in safer recruitment. It is unclear whether the committee’s appointment panel has a member trained in safer recruitment or that the right procedures for making an appointment have been exercised.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of students is inadequate. In the Chadwick Centre and Medical School, students’ attitudes to learning vary considerably. Attitudes to learning of ex-Skerton students are good. The low rates of attendance in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School underline the antipathy of many students towards school, which is not improved significantly by their poor quality experiences in this school. This attitude is more marked among Chadwick Centre students but is evident to a lesser extent in the Medical School.  Staff expectations for good, respectful behaviour are too low. The school’s policy and procedures to manage behaviour and encourage good behaviour are not robust. While work is undertaken with students and parents to improve attendance, there is neither a strong ethos nor an effective policy to reduce absences.  Discussions with students reveal that, in the Chadwick Centre, they believe behaviour is poor. Students

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Behaviour

state that this poor behaviour disrupts learning and is not managed effectively. These views are confirmed by the reports of incidents involving poor, challenging and sometimes violent behaviour between students and towards staff.  The behaviour of Chadwick Centre students observed during the inspection was not good. At times, a few students were angry, aggressive and disrespectful towards staff. Inspectors observed some conflict between students.  While Medical School students say that, over time, behaviour is good in their classrooms, inspectors observed behaviour that required improvement. This was particularly so in relation to the low engagement of some students in learning. However, students’ relationships with staff are usually friendly and respectful. Students feel that staff manage behaviour well. Many Medical School students take an interest in learning. They are earnest about making progress and in preparing well for the next stage in their

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Behaviour

education.  The Year 11 students from the now closed Skerton High School have positive attitudes to learning. They are settled, cooperative, hardworking and intent on doing well in their GCSE examinations.  In the alternative provision visited, students were well motivated and keen to succeed.

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Safety

 The work to keep students safe and secure in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School is inadequate. Safeguarding arrangements lack the rigour needed in relation to the many vulnerable students on the school’s roll.  School leaders are not sufficiently alert or quick enough to take the initiative when a student is at risk. This is particularly the case for students who do not have a history of child protection issues, but who are absent and known to be putting themselves at risk. However, the safeguarding of students on record with a history of child protection issues is managed diligently and the school’s work in supporting them is well recorded.  While serious conflicts between students happen occasionally, they are not as a result of bullying. Students do not think bullying is a significant feature of interactions between each other. They know the many ways bullying manifests itself, but do not experience these in school.

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Safety

 Staff ensure that students are kept informed about how to keep themselves safe and there is a strong emphasis on e-safety in the curriculum. Students are aware of the risks in using the internet and social media. They are also aware of key aspects of their personal safety, for example road safety, substance and alcohol abuse.  In the alternative provision visited, the high expectations for good behaviour in the workplace ensured that students had good attitudes to learning and they behaved well. Health and safety requirements were prominent in planning and teaching and students stayed safe as a result.

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

 The quality of teaching over time is in decline in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School. The quality of teaching is good for ex-Skerton students. Currently, there is no cohesive team of teachers in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School. Moreover, there is a serious shortfall in the leadership of teaching in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School, thereby reducing the capacity for its improvement. Good practice in teaching is not actively developed through sharing good practice and training, resulting in a decline in the quality of teaching.  In the Chadwick Centre and Medical School, teaching is not effective in engaging many students in learning. Teaching assistants are not deployed with good effect to support learning. This and poor teaching are failing to promote the progress of a high proportion of students. Many students absent themselves from school and do not gain the self-confidence good teaching can inspire them to achieve

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

well and aim high for the future.  The expectations teachers and teaching assistants have of students in terms of their work and behaviour are not high enough. Learning and progress in reading, writing and mathematics are not sufficiently at the heart of teaching. Opportunities for students to read aloud or independently are regularly missed in planning lessons. When students are asked to write, there is little expectation that they think about language appropriate to the subject, the use of lively, interesting language or to presenting their writing neatly and correctly.  Teachers do not know students’ learning needs well enough. The assessment of students’ starting points when they first arrive is not effective. It does not provide the detailed picture of students’ abilities that teachers need to plan appropriate work. On-going assessment at the end of lessons and topics is not rigorous and is sometimes inaccurate. As a result, there is too often a mismatch between what students

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The quality of teaching is inadequate

know and can do and the work set for them.  In the mathematics lessons observed, algebra tasks were set without teachers knowing what students already knew. This resulted in one student spending the whole lesson completing an easy exercise while another struggled with multiplying ‘x’ by three.  Very little homework is set in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School. The policy for marking students’ work is applied inconsistently. There is little evidence to show that students follow up teachers’ advice when it is given or make corrections when these are required.

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

 The majority of students currently in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School make little or no progress. This is reflected in the performance data for this year and last year and in the work seen in students’ English and mathematics books. Poor attendance is at the heart of the lack of progress but this is exacerbated by inadequate teaching and many students’ negative attitudes to learning.  Too often the experience of school and lessons fails to inspire or build confidence in many students. This leaves little to convince them of the worth of coming to school every day, of working hard and achieving well.  Students’ workbooks show that in English, they write for a broad variety of purposes, such as comprehension exercises, informative accounts and diary entries. However, there is little extended and imaginative writing, reflecting teachers’ low expectations. Handwriting is often untidy and errors in

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

spelling, punctuation and grammar are frequent. The amount of English work produced is small. Students produce more work in mathematics, where progress is more evident in students’ computational and problem-solving skills.  Small numbers of students, particularly those who make good use of alternative provision, gain vocational and GCSE qualifications, including in literacy and numeracy. Early entry for GCSE examinations is not used in the Chadwick Centre and Medical School. However, too many students do not turn up at the Chadwick Centre or the Medical School for English and mathematics lessons, once they have finished a session at their alternative providers. As a result, they make no progress.  The majority of disadvantaged students in the Chadwick Centre and the Medical School make much less than the expected rate of progress in English and mathematics. There are, however, no published national

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The achievement of pupils is inadequate

data against which to compare the attainment and progress of these students.  At the Lancaster Training Centre, the students who study motor vehicle maintenance are expertly taught. In accordance with their instructors’ high expectations, students work hard, developing good engineering knowledge and skills which prepares them well to seek higher qualifications at college.

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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 133398 Local authority Lancashire Inspection number 448023

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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 Pupil referral unit School category Pupil referral unit Age range of pupils 11–16 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 74 Appropriate authority The local authority Chair Debbie Ormerod Headteacher Elizabeth Holland Date of previous school inspection 20 September 2011 Telephone number 01524 840831 Fax number 01524 849791 Email address head@chadwick.lancs.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

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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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