Queens Park Community School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Mr Mike Hulme Headteacher Queens Park Community School Aylestone Avenue London NW6 7BQ

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Short inspection of Queens Park Community School

Following my visit to the school on 23 February 2016 with Sam Hainey, Ofsted Inspector, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since your predecessor school was judged to be good in March 2012.

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Short inspection of Queens Park Community School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of Queens Park Community School

You, together with other school leaders and the governing body, have a clear vision of maintaining Queens Park School as a truly inclusive community school. You have an accurate and realistic understanding of the strengths of the school and the areas that need further development. You have addressed issues identified during the previous inspection and continue to focus on improving the standard of education you offer pupils. Most notable is the diminishing gap between the progress made by disadvantaged pupils and other pupils at the school. You know which groups of pupils make less progress in each year group and are proactively tackling any potential underachievement.

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Short inspection of Queens Park Community School

You have created an ethos where staff feel valued and supported. They are keen to share their best practice and work closely with those new to teaching. The competent middle leadership team ensures that the quality of teaching, learning and assessment is of a consistently good quality across different subjects. A programme of professional development for staff at all levels provides opportunities for staff to continue to improve their skills.

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Short inspection of Queens Park Community School

You and the governing body are rightly proud of the inclusive nature of your community school. You have worked tirelessly to ensure that the transition to academy status did not hinder the very strong links you have created in the wider community. The importance of the community and a focus on creating the ‘whole child’ permeates throughout the curriculum. The development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding is a high priority. Similarly, the promotion of British values ensures that pupils are prepared to assume their role as effective citizens in modern Britain. Pupils feel highly supported by staff, are proud of their school and, consequently, attend regularly. They conduct themselves in an orderly, respectful and courteous way, and mix well together in this diverse learning community.

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Short inspection of Queens Park Community School

School leaders have invested heavily in ensuring that all staff have received regular, up-to-date safeguarding training. This includes keeping children safe in education, understanding issues around female genital mutilation and child sexual exploitation, and the ‘Prevent’ duty. All staff are clear about the procedures for identifying any concerns and passing on relevant information. Records of referrals are systematically kept and the school works closely with external agencies to appropriately support individual pupils. Attendance is tracked carefully and is improving.

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Short inspection of Queens Park Community School

School leaders have created a transparent and open culture around safeguarding. Pupils are encouraged to report any concerns they may have to staff through the website link ‘Tell somebody’ or on the regular pupil safety survey. Consequently, pupils say that they feel safe and that any issues are dealt with quickly and efficiently by staff. Pupils receive high-quality information about how to keep themselves safe in a range of situations including cyber bullying, radicalisation and extremism. The impressive and large school site is secure; pupils, learners in the sixth form and staff wear identity badges. Parents who responded to Ofsted’s online questionnaire, Parent View, endorse the opinion that pupils are safe at the school.

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Short inspection of Queens Park Community School

While school leaders and governors have undertaken safer recruitment training, inspectors found that the recording of checks on the suitability of staff to work at the school were not as robust as they should be. School leaders immediately addressed the situation and the procedures have been amended accordingly.

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Inspection findings

 Members of the governing body are experienced and highly skilled. They were instrumental in the establishment of the Queens Park Community School Academy Trust. Their primary concern was to achieve academy status while continuing to secure the support of staff, parents and the wider community. Their determination to succeed, together with their collegiate and open leadership style, ensured that the transition was seamless. They continue to appropriately challenge school leaders about the ethos and quality of education provided by the school. They are very aspirational and, as a result, there is a continuing programme of improvement.  School leaders at all levels work closely together to ensure that whole- school initiatives are implemented consistently across all subjects and the impact is regularly checked. For instance, a current focus is on improving the feedback offered to pupils about their work so that they can make

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Inspection findings

better progress.  Pupils arrive at the school with levels of attainment in line with the national average. Many make good progress across a range of subjects, including in English and mathematics.  Leadership of the growing sixth form is strong. A wide range of academic and vocational courses are offered, and opportunities to study psychology and sport at the neighbouring Capital City Academy increases learners’ choice. School leaders work hard to ensure that learners choose appropriate courses. However, the popularity of some courses and some inconsistencies in teaching, particularly in science, have meant that progress in certain subjects has been less strong. School leaders have acted swiftly to ensure that the progress of current learners is good. In many subjects, learners make very good progress, particularly at A level. Learners are proud of their sixth form, work hard and the majority go on to study courses at their

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Inspection findings

chosen university or undertake apprenticeships  A small number of pupils attend the College of North West London on a part-time basis. Their progress is systematically tracked and a teaching assistant accompanies those pupils with an education, health and care plan. School leaders are currently reviewing this provision as some pupils find it more difficult to establish continuity when back on site, having missed lessons in English and mathematics.  A number of effective changes to the provision for pupils who have special educational needs or disability is having a positive impact on the progress these pupils make. A robust system for assessing their needs and regularly checking their progress ensures that any underachievement is quickly identified and interventions are put in place. Teaching assistants are appropriately deployed and actively participate in pupils’ learning. Exclusions from the school for this group have dropped and their attendance is

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Inspection findings

improving. As a consequence, the gap between their progress and other pupils at the school is improving.   The gap between the progress made by disadvantaged pupils and their peers has closed over time, particularly in English. However, school leaders are not complacent. They know that there is still much to do with this group in some of the year groups within the school. They have identified those whom they feel are underachieving and have put in place a number of early interventions to help these pupils catch up with the progress made by their peers. School leaders, including governors, regularly check that pupil premium funding is used effectively to continue to narrow these gaps.  School leaders have accurately identified specific groups of pupils in each year group who are not currently making the same expected progress as others in the school. These groups vary in size, depending on the year

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Inspection findings

group. School leaders are working hard to address these issues and have in place a number of early interventions.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 an even higher proportion of pupils make or exceed their expected progress, particularly some pupils who have special educational needs or disability, some disadvantaged pupils and Black Caribbean boys, as identified by the school.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the Chair of the Governing Body, the Regional Schools’ Commissioner and the Director of Children’s Services for the London Borough of Brent. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

Inspectors met with you, other senior leaders, middle leaders and those new to teaching. They met with the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Governing Body and three parent governors. Inspectors scrutinised a range of documentation, including the school’s evaluation of its own performance, minutes of meetings, information on the progress of pupils and the single central record of the checks made on the suitability of adults working with children. Inspectors interviewed two groups of pupils and spoke to pupils informally at other times during the inspection. Inspectors visited lessons in English and science to gather evidence on particular strands of teaching, learning and assessment. They observed an assembly and visited some tutorial sessions. They took into account the views of staff, pupils and parents via online surveys.

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