Setting

Mr Adam Daly Principal Crawshaw Academy Robin Lane Pudsey West Yorkshire LS28 9HU

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Crawshaw Academy

Following my visit with Suzanne Lithgow, Her Majesty’s Inspector, and Phil Riozzi, Her Majesty’s Inspector, to your academy on 2 and 3 June 2015, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection and for the time you made available to discuss the actions which have been taken since the academy’s previous monitoring inspection.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Crawshaw Academy

The inspection was the fourth monitoring inspection since the academy became subject to special measures following the inspection which took place in January 2014. The full list of the areas for improvement which were identified during that inspection is set out in the annex to this letter. The monitoring inspection report is attached.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Crawshaw Academy

Having considered all the evidence I am of the opinion that at this time:

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Crawshaw Academy

The academy is making reasonable progress towards the removal of special measures.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Crawshaw Academy

The academy may appoint newly qualified teachers (NQTs) but I strongly recommend no more than one NQT be appointed per faculty.

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Special measures monitoring inspection of Crawshaw Academy

This letter and monitoring inspection report will be published on the Ofsted website. I am copying this letter and the monitoring inspection report to the Secretary of State, the Chair of Interserve Academies Trust and the Director of Children’s Services for Leeds. CfBT Inspection Services Suite 22 West Lancs Investment Centre Maple View Skelmersdale WN8 9TG T 0300 123 1231 Text Phone: 0161 6188524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 01695 566937 Direct F 01695 729320 Direct email :jsimmons@cfbt.com Yours sincerely

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place in January 2014

 Improve the quality of teaching, including in the sixth form, so it is at least consistently good and enables students to make good or better progress in English, mathematics and science, by ensuring all teachers: - take into account the varying needs and abilities of students to set work that is well matched to their capabilities, particularly to challenge the most able - ensure all students, especially boys, are engaged in their learning and encouraged to answer questions more often to show they understand what they are being taught - mark students’ books regularly in order to provide them with the information and advice they need about how to improve their work and by insisting students act upon this - check carefully students’ understanding, especially the boys, of what they are learning by asking searching questions and swiftly reviewing their work during lessons - support the development of English skills by insisting on high-quality

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place in January 2014

presentation of students’ work, especially their written work and ensure spelling is always accurate give students more opportunities in mathematics to work things out for themselves and extend their understanding.

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place in January 2014

 Improve students’ behaviour, safety and attendance, as well as reduce the number of students who are excluded by: - rapidly reducing students’ absenteeism, particularly that of pupils supported by the pupil premium and those with special educational needs - making sure all students arrive at school on time - making sure disrespectful behaviour is managed consistently well by all staff both inside and outside the classroom - developing the confidence of those very few vulnerable students who say they feel unable to socialise at breaks and lunchtimes.

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place in January 2014

 Rapidly improve the impact of leadership, management and governance by: - appointing as soon as possible permanent key senior leaders and headteacher - ensuring leaders at all levels, including governors, focus relentlessly on improving the quality of teaching and learning and standards of student’ behaviour - eradicating the inadequate teaching that exists and improving that which requires improvement so teaching is at least good - ensuring subject leaders take the information about students’ progress fully into account when assessing the impact of teaching in their areas of responsibility - ensuring the pupil premium funding is used effectively to improve achievement, behaviour and attendance of those students supported by the funding - checking rigorously on the quality of teaching and students’ achievement in the sixth form - ensuring governors hold the school to account effectively for ensuring the

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place in January 2014

quality of teaching, students’ achievement, and behaviour and attendance improve quickly.

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place in January 2014

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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place in January 2014

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

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the academy’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the Principal, other senior and middle leaders, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the trust, the Chair of the Leeds Governing Board, the trust’s director of education, the national leader of education from the Red Kite Teaching School Alliance which is supporting the academy, three groups of students, a group of teachers and a group of associate staff. Inspectors also spoke informally with students during social times and attended an assembly.

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Context

Since the previous monitoring inspection, a complete staffing restructure has taken place. Twenty-seven internal appointments have been made; 14 staff have already taken up their posts, the remaining 13 will take on their new responsibilities in September 2015. One teacher and three associate staff members have left the academy. A further 10 teachers and five associate staff will leave at the end of August. Six experienced teachers, including four with leadership responsibilities, will join the academy in September.

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Context

As an interim measure, the local advisory body and the Leeds Governing Board have been combined with a small reduction in the overall number of governors. A new CEO for the trust has been appointed.

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Achievement of pupils at the school

Academy data show a similar picture of predicted Year 11 outcomes as at the time of the last monitoring inspection. Further work has been done with external partners to validate the accuracy of the academy’s assessments and leaders are confident that results will be very close to current predictions. If achieved, this will represent a notable improvement in both progress and attainment compared to 2014. The gap in the attainment of disadvantaged students in Year 11 and others in the academy is also on track to narrow considerably. However, the academy accepts that more needs to be done to tackle differences in performance between subjects and groups of students in some other years. An increased use of standardised testing and diagnostic assessment in Years 7 to 10 is improving the accuracy of assessment data in other years and enabling teachers to identify more precisely where gaps in students’ knowledge, understanding or skills need to be addressed.

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Achievement of pupils at the school

Students who entered the academy in September 2014 with prior attainment below that expected for their age are being supported in a range of different ways including additional teaching in English and mathematics, reading intervention programmes and small group mentoring. This is enabling many students to make accelerated progress in English but in mathematics progress is not as rapid.

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Achievement of pupils at the school

In the sixth form, the academy is predicting an increase for many headline attainment measures. However, despite this overall picture of expected improvement, performance in a few subjects, remains a concern. A small number of students who started their studies in Year 12 have left the academy. Leaders have taken some action to improve the advice and guidance offered to students to try and improve retention in future years.

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The quality of teaching

Teachers remain positive about the support and training they have received to improve their practice. While teaching quality is clearly improving, for some teachers the impact of training and development is not strongly evident in the classroom. Inspection evidence, work in books and the views of students confirm that within English, mathematics and science, for example, the quality of teaching remains too variable. Nevertheless, there are some emerging strengths in teaching, such as the use of questioning to probe students’ understanding and move their learning on. Teachers are also increasingly confident in using their subject teaching to help develop students’ literacy and numeracy skills.

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The quality of teaching

The use of the academy’s marking policy is more consistent and there are some examples of good quality feedback and response by students that is successfully improving learning. However, comments to help students to improve their work or take the next steps in their learning are not always of good quality and student response to teachers’ feedback is inconsistent.

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The quality of teaching

Teachers are making more use of assessment information to plan for the needs of different groups of students but inspection evidence and students’ views confirm that work is not always matched closely enough to learning needs and this is hampering progress. This appears to be a more common weakness of teaching for groups of students with lower prior attainment. The academy has put many things in place to encourage students to take more care with the presentation of their work. Despite this, not all teachers are insisting that students present their work well.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Students’ attitudes to learning are improving and this is contributing to better rates of progress. Relationships between students, their peers and staff are increasingly positive. At its best, students are keen to learn, engage well in paired or group tasks and are willing to contribute to discussions. In contrast, particularly where teaching is less effective, students are reluctant to complete work and low-level disruption ensues. Overall, staff and student views, along with academy data, confirm that behaviour continues to improve. Students who spoke with inspectors feel that almost all teachers are consistent in their use of the academy’s behaviour policy and this policy is well understood. This is an improvement on the findings of the last monitoring inspection. Students who are not managing to meet the academy’s expectations for behaviour are receiving support and there are some notable individual successes. While incidents of fixed-term exclusion are declining, the

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

behaviour of a very small minority of students is still a cause for concern.

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Behaviour and safety of pupils

Robust and effective action to improve attendance, including work to reduce the number of students who are persistently absent, continues to have a positive impact.

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

The determined leadership of the Principal is instrumental in the academy’s continuing improvement. Other senior leaders are making a much stronger contribution to tackling remaining weaknesses and checking the impact of improvement activity. Staff who spoke with inspectors voiced confidence in senior leaders, felt fully involved in academy developments and valued that their views were heard. Senior leaders have undertaken training related to child sexual exploitation, and radicalisation and extremism. Plans are in place for similar training to be delivered to all staff to enhance the academy’s work to safeguard students.

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

Middle leaders are continuing to develop their skills and can talk with much greater confidence about the work they have done in their departments and the impact this has had on students’ progress. The more rigorous tracking of students’ progress is enabling leaders at all levels to pinpoint and address more effectively where students are not making as much progress as they should. Similarly, the closer monitoring of whether gaps in performance between different groups of students are closing is ensuring additional support is targeted where there is the greatest need. Agreement has been reached with the two other schools in the sixth-form confederation to improve the monitoring of students’ progress and attendance and the quality of teaching from September 2015.

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The quality of leadership in and management of the school

Changes to the academy’s governance arrangements since the last monitoring inspection are beginning to bear fruit. Minutes of meetings reflect a sharper focus on the academy’s performance and leaders are being more effectively challenged. Progress has also been made in ensuring a local governor with responsibility for safeguarding has been appointed and a child protection policy is now in place. All meetings of the Leeds Governing Board feature a training element in recognition that many governors are still developing the skills needed to provide effective challenge and support for the academy’s leaders. Links have also been established with the National Governors Association and support is being provided by a national leader of governance. It is too soon to see the impact of these recent developments.

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External support

The new CEO of the trust has been very proactive in developing his understanding of the academy and has quickly grasped the most urgent priorities. The increased amount of time being spent in the academy by the new CEO, alongside leaders and other staff, is ensuring that action to bring about improvement is being taken more swiftly. As ‘back office’ support is developing this is increasingly enabling the principal to focus on driving the academy’s improvement.

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External support

External support from Red Kite continues to be valued by academy staff. It is having a positive impact on leadership, teaching and student support. Links with other external partners are also being used effectively. For example, to explore best practice in a particular area, help staff taking on new roles to develop their skills and check the accuracy of teacher assessment. External support from all sources is well matched to the academy’s changing needs because the Principal has an accurate view of what is required and ensures this is delivered.

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