The Jubilee Academy

The Jubilee Academy Lowlands Road, Harrow, HA1 3AW

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Overall effectiveness

Previous inspection: Not previously inspected 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

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The headteacher, ably supported by the executive headteacher, has established this good academy very quickly. His ambitions are clear and they are shared by all who work and learn with him.  Staff and parents and carers are unanimous in their support for and confidence in the academy. Those who teach and support students across the academy are resolute in their mission to serve these young people well.  The strong community foundations of this academy are apparent in precise and strong governance. Governors reflect the headteacher’s ultimate determination to provide an outstanding alternative education for Jubilee students. To this end, they provide very effective challenge and support to all in the academy.  Students behave and attend well. They feel safe and secure each day. They are routinely polite, smartly dressed and good friends with each other. They are hugely loyal to their academy.  Teachers have clear expectations for their classes.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

Their strong subject knowledge combines with good understanding of students’ needs. The result is a large majority of lessons in which students thrive, making good and sometimes outstanding progress.  Leaders are effective in improving teaching through focused coaching and mentoring. Teachers have made great strides, in a short time, in improving their practice as a result.  Most groups of students achieve well, including the many with special educational needs and those who speak English as an additional language. Disadvantaged students usually make as much progress as others and sometimes more.  The curriculum is a great strength. Its combination of a core of academic subjects with a suite of work-based disciplines works well. Students enjoy the wide range of experiences they have. They and their parents praise how well the academy prepares them for higher education and work. Inspectors agree.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because:

 Some aspects of the academy’s development plans are unclear. They are not precise enough to enable leaders and governors to secure the outstanding progress they aim for.  The schools’ assessment and marking policy is inconsistently applied. For a small proportion of pupils this has a limiting effect on their academic progress.  More-able students are sometimes insufficiently challenged.  On occasion, teachers do not give students sufficient time to fully consider their responses to questions. Answers are then formed hastily, which impedes further, deeper thought and greater progress.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors visited 14 lessons, one assembly and one tutorial session. They observed teaching, scrutinised students’ work and listened to students read. Eleven lessons were observed jointly with senior leaders.  Inspectors were unable to consider the views of parents through the online Ofsted questionnaire, Parent View, as none were completed. However, they evaluated the views of 35 parents collected by the academy in May 2015.  The views of 24 members of staff, submitted through the Ofsted staff questionnaire, were considered.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders, other staff, groups of students and a representative from the local authority.  Inspectors met with two members of the governing body, including the Chair.  A range of documentary evidence was scrutinised. This included academy improvement and development plans, minutes of governing body meetings, and internal and external reviews of the academy’s

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Information about this inspection

performance.  Inspectors evaluated records of students’ progress, anonymised performance management information, and records of staff training. They scrutinised the single central record of recruitment checks, safeguarding referrals to the local authority, case studies organised by the academy, and behaviour tracking and attendance records.

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Inspection team

Debbie Clinton, Lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Information about this school

 The Jubilee Academy is a smaller than average sized secondary free school for students aged 11 to 16, which opened in October 2013. It offers alternative provision for students who have not settled well in their mainstream secondary school. The academy was initially established through a partnership between the Harrow Collegiate group of secondary headteachers and the local authority.  The academy opened in October 2013 rather than the originally planned September 2013 start date. This was due to delays in securing the lease on the building.  The original headteacher left the academy in October 2013. The governors then decided upon the existing leadership structure. The current headteacher has day-to-day responsibility for the school’s leadership and management. The executive headteacher is also a serving headteacher in a local outstanding secondary school. He spends approximately one and a half days per week in the academy

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Information about this school

and is responsible for its strategic development in the locality.  At present, the academy’s 47 students in Years 7 to 11 are all full-time students. From September 2015, the academy will expand its admission capacity to 125. All students will then attend the academy on a fixed-term, respite, outreach or full-time basis.  The vast majority of students are admitted from mainstream schools in Harrow local authority. However, an increasing proportion are being referred from mainstream schools in neighbouring local authorities.  The proportion of students from minority ethnic backgrounds is higher than the national average. The largest ethnic group is from any other ethnic heritage. The next largest group is of White British origin.  The proportion of disabled students and those who have special educational needs is significantly above the national average. All students have some form of special educational need.

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Information about this school

 The proportion of students at the academy eligible for pupil premium funding, which is additional income for disadvantaged students, is much higher than the average. However, the academy does not attract pupil premium funding in its annual grant.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Strengthen leadership and management further by ensuring that: – middle leaders’ targets and success measures are as precise as those in the academy’s overall improvement plan – all staff routinely use and apply the academy’s established systems and processes in all aspects, including marking and assessment – performance management expectations are equally robust for all staff.  Increase the proportion of outstanding teaching so that most students make exceptional progress by: – ensuring that all lessons provide a secure, structured framework in which students can make progress – giving students and parents sufficiently clear advice about how to improve students’ work in subjects – providing more difficult work, more often, for the most able – allowing students more time in lessons to reflect on their responses to teachers’ questions.

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The leadership and management are good

 The academy’s ambition for its students to ‘aspire and achieve’ is shared by all. The headteacher and his senior leaders are trusted and respected throughout the academy. Staff are convinced that their ambition to be outstanding is a realistic one; it is shared by all in the community.  The academy is a warm, happy environment in which students feel safe and cared for. Leaders are determined that the academy must be a refuge from the concerns which have led to a student’s admission and they are successful in this regard. This tangible ethos makes a significant contribution to the students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  Leaders have created a very strong referral system. Commissioning schools are required to complete comprehensive assessments for all applications into the academy. These records are then used, in detail, to manage the transition from the mainstream school into the academy. Briefing summaries of referrals

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The leadership and management are good

are shared with all staff and these are used to create learning and care packages and to inform lesson planning and intervention. This process is robust and results in good care for students and typically good academic progress.  Good social behaviour is the norm. High levels of respect, good manners and courtesy between and among staff and students are routine. Leaders ensure that experiences beyond the classroom challenge and extend students’ social skills. All students are required to complete a period of work experience and many of the BTEC qualifications necessitate some voluntary or community work to be undertaken. Combined as it is with the everyday expectations of social interaction in the academy, this recipe is an effective one. These factors, together with expectations for consistently good conduct, combine well to secure an orderly community.  Spiritual and moral development is similarly impressive. During the period of Ramadan, Muslim students

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The leadership and management are good

chose to attend the academy’s voluntary breakfast club. They happily engaged in conversations with other students and staff, including some intelligent spiritual commentary on their reasons for observing Ramadan. Students also work closely with youth offending teams and reformed criminals. In these high- impact workshops, they learn the reality of the wrong choices being made at key decision-making points in their lives.  The academy’s student council, and students’ recent detailed work around the May 2015 British general election, go some way to ensuring that democracy and other key British values are understood and celebrated. The very strong personal, social and health education programme has at its heart these core values.  Leaders have ensured that the curriculum is bespoke, wherever possible, to each individual student. A wide range of academic and vocational opportunities is combined with a growing programme of extra-

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The leadership and management are good

curricular activities. This breadth ensures that the vast majority of students make consistently good progress, and for some it is outstanding. Students who speak English as an additional language do very well in this regard. The academy strongly encourages them to take a GCSE qualification in their native language. As a result, many of these students progress onto their post-16 college courses with a wide range of qualifications and experiences. For two successive years now, all Year 11 students leaving the academy have progressed successfully onto college courses, apprenticeships or full-time work. This is an impressive record and clear evidence of the academy’s passion for equality of opportunity.  Such commitment is also clear in the wide range of interventions used to ensure progress for all. The high quality of most intervention is clearly impacting upon the very successful progress and attendance

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The leadership and management are good

rates of disadvantaged students, for example.  The academy’s self-evaluation is strong and mostly accurate. The systems in place for the monitoring of teaching and for the measurement of students’ progress are sound and generate accurate information. However, the inconsistent use of this information in some parts of the academy means that leaders are not always able to evaluate staff and subject performance with sufficient confidence.  Middle leaders have benefited from working closely with senior leaders in key parts of the academy’s improvement planning. As a result, most of them are confidently monitoring teaching quality and achievement. They are increasingly able to diagnose what needs to improve. This has been particularly successful, with literacy improvements across all subjects. However, this developing picture is hindered by the lack of precise improvements detailed in subject development plans. This means that senior

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The leadership and management are good

leaders and governors are not always able to identify relative rates of progress across the academy with complete accuracy.  Leaders provide good support for newly qualified teachers. They benefit, as do all staff and governors, from a comprehensive, annual, flexible, training programme based on individual need.  The systems in place which enable the headteacher to report to governors on staff performance are well designed and, when used thoroughly, very effective. In the best cases, performance reviews are detailed and accurate, providing absolute clarity for staff on how to improve further. However, this is not consistently the case.  The academy takes its safeguarding duties seriously and it meets all statutory requirements. Examination of the comprehensive referral and admission records and child protection case studies reveal that the academy is diligent in this respect.  The academy has benefited from a number of external reviews of its work. It has enabled leaders and

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The leadership and management are good

governors to respond to perceptive feedback and to plan further improvements Gaining external views on progress of improvement priorities is a routine aspect of strategic planning.  The governance of the school:  Governors have a sharp, detailed understanding of the academy’s work. They take an active role in monitoring the progress of students and are confident and accurate in their use of internal and national performance information. However, they do not always focus so sharply upon the progress of students in all subjects, because some parts of the academy’s planning lack precise success measures.  While the academy does not specifically attract pupil premium funding, governors have a comprehensive picture of the progress of this key group of young people. Their close monitoring of this group is partly why the academic progress and attendance rates of these students have risen sharply.  While the vast majority of governors are rooted in the education sector, the Chair of the Governing

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The leadership and management are good

Body continues to widen the experience and skills of his governor team. He has ensured that the education professionals on the governing body have wide experience in working with other agencies, in financial and personnel management, and in strategic development. Inspectors agree that this should remain a focus to ensure sustained challenge to the academy’s leaders and staff.  Governors undertake their statutory duties diligently. They have a clear programme of policies review, and they systematically probe into the academy’s financial and safeguarding arrangements. They are fully involved in making decisions about pay for both teachers and support staff.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of students is good. The atmosphere throughout the academy is warm, affiliative and caring. Students and staff have a cheerful outlook and relationships are very positive in this busy, multi- ethnic academy.  Students move around the small building sensibly and safely. They are assisted in this regard by a very proactive staff who undertake their break and lunchtime duties assiduously. Several activities are provided within the school building during social times which were enjoyed by students. However, students would prefer to be able to access activities outside the academy building too.  Within lessons, students are almost exclusively focused and courteous, responding quickly if reprimanded. This only became less so in large group situations when the concentration of some students waned. As a result, some small amounts of low-level disruption were witnessed by inspectors. This impeded the

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Behaviour

progress of some. Better planning by the teachers in those large-group activities would have resulted in the positive attitudes to learning seen in the vast majority of lessons.  Students value the academy’s cultural diversity. They are clear that bullying, in every form, is not tolerated and are utterly confident that it is dealt with rapidly when it does occur. They have a very well- developed sense of right and wrong.  Exclusion rates are very low. Leaders have created a highly successful seclusion space to which students are referred if their behaviour falls below the academy’s high expectations. This facility is much praised by students. They recognise it as a place where sanctions are given, but also one in which highly effective mentoring and counselling helps them to modify poor behaviour. As a result, referrals to seclusion are declining as behaviour continues to improve. In some notable cases, students who were

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Behaviour

frequently excluded from their former schools have experienced no exclusions from the academy.  Attendance levels are improving rapidly. While no groups of students are yet at or above the national average, the improvements seen in most groups, including the disadvantaged and the persistently absent, are significant. For example, boys’ attendance, from a very low starting point, has improved by 38 percentage points since entry into the academy.

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Safety

 The academy’s work to keep students safe and secure is good.  The academy’s commitment to keeping their young people safe is most aptly put by a Year 8 student who said that he saw the academy as ‘my second family’. Students, without exception, describe their community as safe and caring.  Very high-quality referral systems provide a strong platform from which students’ safety is then further assured. Leaders’ insistence that commissioning schools complete these fully ensures that all potential risks to students are understood from admission. This results in learning and care packages which minimise risk and maximise safety.  Students know how to keep themselves safe. They spoke confidently about a wide range of risks and dangers to their well-being, and were equally confident in their knowledge of how to avoid them. The comprehensive personal, social and health education programme, along with a wide range of tutorial

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Safety

topics and assemblies, ensures that students are fully aware of many types of risk.  Staff are clear about their duty to keep students safe. Leaders ensure that good quality training is annually provided to keep staff fully up to date about how to identify and refer concerns. Records of such referrals are comprehensive and maintained well.  Inspectors agree with parents and students in their majority view that the academy is a safe, nurturing environment in which to learn.

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The quality of teaching is good

 Teaching is typically good and sometimes outstanding. As a result, most students, including those with specific needs and those who are disadvantaged, make good progress and achieve well. The most able make good progress overall, although in some subjects the work is not sufficiently challenging, impeding their chances of making outstanding progress.  The excellent rapport between staff and students is a significant strength in all lessons. Students are eager to please and try very hard, especially when taught in small classes. This is the result of superb relationships and increasingly effective lesson planning across most subjects. However, when they are taught in less structured, larger group activities, those relationships are less effective in securing full attention and hard work.  All students are formally tested upon admission into the academy. The resulting performance targets are then used by leaders and teachers in all lesson planning. Regular, half-termly assessments against those

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The quality of teaching is good

targets are then used to structure interventions for all students. This information, combined with very high-quality referral documentation at transition, means that teachers are exceptionally well briefed. It is as a result of this detailed, clear process that most students make good progress in most subjects.  Teachers know their subjects very well. In the majority of lessons, students thrive and make at least good progress. In one Key Stage 3 art lesson, students made rapid progress in the use of clay to create sculptures. They used artistic terminology with confidence and ease. They were clearly used to doing so. Their outstanding progress over time is the result of teaching where high expectations are the norm and where the teacher insists that students learn, in depth, about art.  The majority of teachers have high expectations. They and their teaching assistants plan and deliver lessons which stimulate students and deepen their understanding. They adapt their teaching to the needs

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The quality of teaching is good

of the young people and use interventions skilfully and with clear impact on students’ progress. This was less so in large-group, less formally structured activities where students were noticeably less comfortable and confident. In these situations, students do not always make the good progress of which they are capable.  Most teachers mark work regularly over time. They give precise guidance and use the academy’s systems to help students improve their work. In the very best examples, teachers’ deep subject knowledge results in clear improvement instructions. Students then use this guidance to modify their work and good, sometimes outstanding, progress results. However, some inconsistencies remain and a small proportion of students’ work is marked less helpfully.  The most-able students make more varied academic progress. Where it is most effective, students respond to skilled, probing questioning by teachers where they are given time to reflect on their answers,

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The quality of teaching is good

as do those who are not so able. However, some teachers require responses which are too hastily conceived. This results in less well-thought-out responses and a lack of challenge for the brightest.  The academy has made substantial progress with regard to students’ literacy. Students’ confidence in the use of English is clear and their written and verbal work shows this over time. The academy has had less success in developing effective skills in numeracy beyond mathematics teaching. Leaders acknowledge this and they are right to include this as a current priority in the academy’s improvement plan.

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The achievement of pupils

 Students achieve well in this academy. From a very wide range of starting points, the vast majority of students make good progress. A small but growing number make outstanding progress, particularly in English.  The significant disruption to their mainstream education experienced before their admission into the academy results in the vast majority of students arriving significantly behind nationally expected attainment and progress. However, a combination of rigorous, bespoke baseline testing at admission, strong care and guidance and skilled teaching results in rapid progress being made by the majority of students. In a small but significant number of cases, students catch up very quickly and then exceed their expected baseline progress before leaving the academy in Year 11.  Students make very good, sometimes exceptional progress in English. In their summer 2014 English GCSE performance, 12 out of 19 students exceeded their target grades from their baseline assessment

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The achievement of pupils

upon entry to the academy. A similarly strong picture is evident in the progress students make in Key Stage 3, where all students are currently expected to exceed their performance targets from entry. This is the result of very effective planning and teaching in this strong department.  Performance in mathematics is less impressive. Nevertheless, students make good progress against their baseline targets. In their 2014 mathematics GCSE performance, just over half of the Year 11 students met or beat their target grade from their baseline assessment. It is notable that all Key Stage 3 students are on track to exceed their predicted performance from entry into the academy. Leaders agree with inspectors that the less effective performance in mathematics when compared to English is a priority for the academy to improve.  Disadvantaged students achieve well. In 2014, their attainment was at least as good as that of other

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The achievement of pupils

students in the majority of BTEC and GCSE subjects. In English, they exceeded the performance of other students, while in mathematics they performed slightly less well than their peers. These students perform very well indeed when compared with their disadvantaged peers’ national averages, beating those averages in English and in most BTEC subjects.  Students attain well in the academy’s wide range of BTEC courses. These vocational qualifications align well with students’ higher education and career ambitions and students work hard in them as a result. Confirmed results for summer 2015 exceed the very strong results achieved in summer 2014.  Most-able students typically make good progress over time. They achieve well across most subjects and make very good progress in English in particular.  Students receive effective support to help them develop their reading, writing and communication skills.

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The achievement of pupils

The academy has rigorous and effective support for students who struggle with basic skills when they join from their mainstream schools. As a consequence of such strong provision, some students make a rapid recovery and are placed quickly back on track. In one notable example, one student’s reading age had moved from just above seven years to just under 15 years in five terms, which is very significant progress.  The great majority of students from minority ethnic backgrounds, including those who speak English as an additional language, make good progress from their varied starting points. The academy’s accurate tracking information shows that where gaps exist they are narrowing, and in some subjects rapidly.

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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 139925 Local authority Harrow Inspection number 450188

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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 Secondary School category Academy alternative provision converter Age range of pupils 11–16 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 47 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Howard Freed Headteacher Michael Jarrett Date of previous school inspection Not previously inspected Telephone number 020 3096 1221 Email address info@the jubileeacademy.org.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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