Eskdale School

Eskdale School Stainsacre Lane, Whitby, North Yorkshire YO22 4HS

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Outcomes for pupils Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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This is a school that requires improvement

 The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is inconsistent. As a result, pupils do not make good progress in all subjects.  The expectations of what pupils can do and understand are sometimes too low. Consequently, the most-able pupils are not sufficiently challenged.  Teachers do not always use progress information or the work in pupils’ books to plan appropriate next steps in pupils’ learning.  Some teachers do not use the school’s marking and feedback policy to good effect and this slows the progress of pupils.  The progress of boys and the most-able learners is not good enough.  Leaders and governors have not addressed weaknesses in the quality of teaching and in pupils’ progress quickly enough. As a result, inconsistencies within and between subjects remain.  Much of the responsibility for school improvement has been borne by the headteacher and her deputy. It is too soon to see the full impact of the

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This is a school that requires improvement

work of new middle leaders on the quality of teaching and pupils’ progress.  The school’s approach to development planning does not enable leaders and governors to measure the impact of actions taken to improve the school effectively.

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The school has the following strengths

 Leadership and management, including governance, are improving.  The quality of teaching and the progress of pupils in English have improved.  Girls make good progress.  Some highly effective practice in teaching, learning and assessment exist.  The school has a very caring ethos. Staff, pupils and parents value this. As a result, excellent relationships and good behaviour are the norm and pupils feel safe.  The curriculum prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain and provides for their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development effectively.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Raise achievement so it is consistently good in all subjects, especially for boys and the most able by: – improving the quality of teaching so it matches the best practice which exists in school – ensuring that teachers use progress information and pupils’ work in books to plan activities to match their needs more closely and to stretch and challenge learners – having high expectations of the quality of pupils’ work and the amount they are expected to produce – applying the school’s marking and feedback policy consistently well.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Increase the rigour of monitoring and evaluation and development planning by: – using the new monitoring cycle to embed forensic analysis of the work of the school – responding rapidly to weaknesses identified by monitoring, both in the quality of teaching and in pupils’ progress – improving the development plan so that leaders and governors can monitor the impact of actions taken to address the areas for improvement – further developing the role of the middle leaders in the process of monitoring and evaluation.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

 The headteacher and the governors have a clear vision for the future of the school which is shared with staff and the community. The responses to the Ofsted staff survey are unanimously positive. Staff say they are lucky to work at the school. The vast majority of parents who responded to the Ofsted questionnaire Parent View expressed highly positive views of the school.  Leadership and management have improved. The headteacher and her deputy are taking a more strategic role in school improvement. A new more robust monitoring and evaluation cycle started at the beginning of this term. Self-evaluation is improving, but has not been rigorous or accurate enough to quickly identify weaknesses. Consequently, the progress of some groups of pupils is not consistently good.  School leaders are now setting higher expectations and holding teachers to account for the quality of their teaching and the progress of their pupils. However, the lack of rigour in reacting to weaknesses

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

identified by monitoring in the past has resulted in progress which is uneven and some teaching, learning and assessment which does not promote good progress.  In the recent past all teachers have received annual pay rises. The headteacher and the governors recognise the need to improve the rigour of the performance management processes and the related pay policy. They are reviewing the systems, but it is too soon to see the impact of the review.  A group of energetic and enthusiastic middle leaders have recently been appointed. They are starting to be involved in lesson observation and scrutiny of pupils’ work. The new middle leaders are involved in supporting and developing teaching and in providing training. As a result, they are sharing their good practice. Training is provided for teachers on a weekly basis. It is too soon to see the impact of this work across the school, but there are signs of improvement, for example in the marking and feedback of

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

teachers who have received support.  Appropriate areas for improvement are identified in the school development plan. However, the plan lacks numerical targets which allow leaders and governors to measure the impact of actions taken to address the areas for improvement. Consequently, it is not easy for leaders and governors to judge whether actions are having sufficient impact.  The curriculum is appropriate for the Key Stage 3 pupils in this school. Teaching of different subjects in the curriculum is improving because leaders have ensured that teachers are teaching their subject specialism. Newly appointed teachers with specialist knowledge are having a positive impact on the delivery of the curriculum. The new curricula for religious education and personal social and health education (PSHE) are supporting well the preparation of pupils for life in modern Britain. Pupils have good opportunities to learn about different faiths and cultures, and understand diversity and the need for

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

tolerance. In PSHE lessons, pupils confidently discuss issues which matter to them, including their rights and responsibilities and their emotional well-being.  The school provides well for the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of its pupils. They have many opportunities to make visits abroad and in this country. Parents and pupils value these opportunities. A wide range of extra-curricular activities including sports, drama, art and music clubs enhance pupils’ experiences.  Pupil premium funding has been used in part to appoint an assistant headteacher whose remit is to monitor and track the progress, behaviour and attendance of disadvantaged pupils. Spending also provides for additional academic support and opportunities for disadvantaged pupils to prepare for the next stage in their education, for example thorough visits to universities. As a result of the school’s spending of pupil premium, attendance of disadvantaged pupils has improved and gaps in progress

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

closed between disadvantaged pupils and their peers in Year 9 in 2015.  The local authority has provided support for the development of middle and senior leaders. The impact of this is seen in the improvements in monitoring and evaluation. The local authority has supported moderation of assessment in mathematics. As a result, the school is confident that the progress information for mathematics is accurate. The local authority representative plays an active role in monitoring the school as part of the governing body’s school improvement group.  The partner school has also been involved, with positive impact, in the professional development of leaders and another school has provided effective support by moderating and confirming the accuracy of assessment in English.  The governance of the school – Governance has improved. Following a review of governance, and an audit of governors’ skills, the governing body has been strengthened. New governors with expertise in education have added

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

considerable capacity. As a result, governors are now holding school leaders to account more effectively. However, actions to address weaknesses in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment have not been rapid enough. – The information provided to governors is beginning to be more detailed and evaluative. However, monitoring of progress at governing body meetings has been limited to the review of English and mathematics. Although governors have a clear understanding of the progress of disadvantaged pupils they have not been challenging enough about the actions taken to improve the progress of boys and the most able. – A school improvement group of governors meets monthly to monitor the actions taken to address the areas for improvement. The work of this group has improved the way school leaders are held to account. However, the group is not as rigorous as it could be, because the school development plan

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Effectiveness of leadership and management requires improvement

does not identify precise numerical targets to measure success in future actions to improve pupils’ progress, attendance and behaviour, and the quality of teaching. – The governors ensure that the school’s budget is planned and balanced.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The school meets all the statutory requirements for safeguarding. Parents are positive about the way the school works with them to keep their children safe. The school works effectively with other agencies, for example the local police. Staff are appropriately trained in child protection and in managing risk related to radicalisation and extremism. Pupils missing from education are carefully tracked. Appropriate referrals are made to social care. The Chair of the Governing Body is trained in safer recruitment and attends all the interviews for new staff. The chair of the resource committee of the governing body makes regular safety checks on the school building with

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

 The quality of teaching is improving. However, as a result of the variability in the quality of teaching and assessment, both within and between subjects, pupils are not making consistently good progress.  Too often teachers give all pupils the same work. The work is sometimes too hard and sometimes too easy. Teachers do not use information about pupil’s progress and the work in their books to plan their next stage in learning. The marking and feedback policy is used infrequently. As a result, the progress of pupils is slowed. Poor planning and assessment sometimes results in low-level disruption by pupils who are insufficiently engaged in their learning.  Where the quality of teaching, learning and assessment are strong, teachers have high expectations of the quality and quantity of pupils’ work. Teachers plan challenging activities which engage learners and deepen pupils’ knowledge and understanding. Teachers share their strong subject knowledge to enthuse

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

their pupils and ask questions which require detailed explanations. Teachers use the school’s marking and feedback policy to identify next steps for pupils, who respond to the feedback by practising skills or trying more difficult work. Consequently, pupils make good progress.  Additional adults sometimes provide effective extra support for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs by asking questions and encouraging them to challenge themselves to work on more difficult activities. However, sometimes teachers’ planning does not include the additional adults and the additional adults are left as observers of the lesson or to distribute resources, limiting their impact on pupils’ learning  The quality of teaching in English has improved. Teachers use detailed assessment of pupils’ work to develop learners’ understanding and encourage them to improve their writing. Girls respond in detail to

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

teachers’ feedback and are consequently making good progress. Boys do not respond to feedback as effectively and this is hampering their progress. Teachers of mathematics use baseline and end of topic assessments to identify what their pupils know before and after learning a mathematics topic. These helpful assessments are not used well enough to plan next steps in learning which results in slower progress in mathematics.  A new assessment policy was introduced in September 2014. The policy encourages aspiration, with the phrase ‘pushing for purple’ representing excellent progress used by pupils and staff. In discussion with pupils, many said they would opt for the more ambitious learning challenges that would secure better progress. There is evidence of this more ambitious system yielding improvements in English, German, history and music, where teachers have a clear understanding of the policy and the opportunities it

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment requires improvement

provides to drive pupils’ progress. In other subjects such as mathematics, there is less clarity over the new policy and its potential to secure consistent and widespread progress across the school for all pupils.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Pupils are well looked after in this very caring school. Many parents made comments in response to Parent View about how happy, contented and settled their child was at the school. There was particular praise for the transition from primary school into Year 7 and the pastoral care provided for pupils. As a result, pupils feel safe and exhibit self-confidence at school.  Pupils have good knowledge of all forms of bullying, including homophobic and racist bullying. They say there is little bullying and staff deal effectively with bullying when it does happen. The school has set up ‘The Trust’, a group of pupils who help their peers with friendship issues.  Effective procedures are in place for young people to learn about staying safe when using social media and on the internet. The school include the local police in teaching pupils how to stay safe.

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Personal development and welfare

 Independent advice and guidance is provided to all pupils by the school’s own careers adviser. The pupils have good opportunities to learn about their options for future careers or higher education, both through the PSHE curriculum and enrichment activities. For example, Year 7 pupils have recently attended a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers conference. As a result, pupils understand fully the options available to them.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good. Staff and parents support this view.  Behaviour in lessons and around the school is calm. Pupils show respect for staff and their peers and are largely self-disciplined. Occasionally, when pupils are not engaged in their learning, there is low-level disruption and pupils chat rather than work. The variability in the quality of teaching means that pupils do not always show excellent attitudes to learning, and this has an impact on their progress.  Attendance has improved and is in line with the national average.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 In 2015, the proportion of pupils making expected and more than expected progress in English and mathematics at the end of Year 9 was better than at the time of the last inspection, with significant improvements evident in English. The gap between the progress of disadvantaged pupils and non- disadvantaged pupils had also narrowed and was well below the national gap for both English and mathematics.  The current progress of disadvantaged pupils requires improvement. The current progress of disadvantaged pupils in Year 9 is weaker in both English and mathematics than that of non- disadvantaged pupils. In Year 9 less than half of the disadvantaged boys are making expected progress in English. The appointment of a new assistant headteacher to monitor the progress of disadvantaged pupils, alongside the introduction of a new integrated tracking system, is providing additional capacity to narrow these gaps. It is too soon to see the impact of these changes on pupils’ progress.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 In 2015, disabled pupils and those with special educational needs in Year 9 made good progress and better progress than the rest of their cohort in both English and mathematics. There was evidence of improved support for these pupils, particularly in support for literacy. The introduction of a reading programme has enabled pupils with lower reading ages to catch up with their peers. Initiatives, such as the weekly English clinic and a recent literacy evening for parents led by the new literacy coordinator, show the school’s commitment to improve outcomes for pupils with special educational needs. However, these strategies need to be implemented with greater consistency, as the current progress of pupils with special educational needs in Year 8 in English and Year 9 in mathematics is lower than pupils without special educational needs. Consequently, the progress of disabled pupils and those with special

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

educational needs requires improvement.  Boys’ progress requires improvement. The progress of boys is considerably weaker than girls across key subjects. No boy in Year 8 is making more than adequate progress in English, and more boys than girls are making less than expected progress. This is despite some impressive feedback from teachers that clearly identifies areas for improvement and encourages meaningful re-drafting. Scrutiny of books show that teachers have not been successful in driving boys to act decisively upon this guidance in order to make improvement. In mathematics, both the most-able and the middle-ability boys are performing significantly less well than girls.  The progress of the most-able pupils, in particular the most-able boys, requires improvement. Inspectors found a lack of challenge for the most-able pupils in mathematics, with some pupils swiftly completing low-level tasks that did not stretch their mathematical reasoning or problem solving.

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Outcomes for pupils require improvement

 Girls make good progress in English and mathematics, outperforming boys in many areas. Inspectors saw evidence of extremely high-quality writing from girls. Many girls respond well to high-quality feedback and use their assessment from teachers to produce mature and convincing pieces of writing.  The current progress of pupils in science is good. In both Year 8 and Year 9 there is evidence that a much higher proportion of pupils make good progress than in both English and mathematics.

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School details

Unique reference number 121668 Local authority North Yorkshire Inspection number 10002077

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Middle deemed secondary School category Community Age range of pupils 11–14 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 302 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Sue Verril Headteacher Sue Whelan Telephone number 01947 602856 Website www.eskdale-school.co.uk Email address admin@eskdale.n-yorks.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 5–6 December 2013

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Information about this school

 Eskdale is a middle deemed secondary school with pupils in Key Stage 3 only. It is much smaller than the average secondary school.  The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium is slightly below the national average. The pupil premium is additional funding for those pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals, children of service families and those children who are looked after by the local authority.  The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and those who speak English as an additional language is well below the national average.  The proportion of pupils who are disabled or have special educational needs is broadly in line with the national average.  The school is in the process of planning to become an 11–16 school in September 2016.  The school has been working in partnership with Scalby School in Scarborough.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 21 part-lessons, four of which were observed jointly with members of the senior leadership team. Inspectors also made shorter visits to tutor time. Inspectors carried out a detailed scrutiny of pupils’ work in books with senior leaders.  Meetings were held with the headteacher, other senior and middle leaders, and a group of staff. Discussions were also held with the Chair of the Governing Body and two other governors, and a representative of the local authority.  Inspectors spoke formally to pupils in a meeting and informally at breaktime and lunchtime.  The inspection team looked at documents provided by the school, including: the school’s self-evaluation and its development plan; safeguarding documents and those relating to attendance and behaviour; pupil progress information; records of monitoring the quality of teaching; and minutes of the governing body and the school improvement group.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors took account of 38 responses to the staff questionnaire and 67 responses to the online Parent View questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Helen Lane, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Malcolm Kirtley Her Majesty’s Inspector Janice Gorlach Ofsted inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . 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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Inspection team

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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Inspection team

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.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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Inspection team

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, further education and skills, 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. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Inspection team

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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