The Toynbee School

The Toynbee School Bodycoats Road, Chandler’s Ford, Eastleigh, SO53 2PL

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Overall effectiveness Good

Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness Good

Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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This is a good school

 Good leadership from the headteacher and his senior team has brought about significant improvements in all key aspects of the work of the school since the last inspection.  Subject leaders concentrate closely and effectively on the quality of students’ learning and teaching in their subjects. This drives improvements strongly.  Much of the teaching is good and some is outstanding. This is because there is a spirit of continual improvement, staff are held to account, and a wide range of good training is provided.  Students achieve well in English and mathematics and in a range of other subjects.  Gaps in achievement between the different groups of students currently in the school are closing.  Students are proud of their school. The vast majority behave in a mature and thoughtful manner around the site and in lessons. Some play an important part in bringing about improvements in the work of their school.

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This is a good school

 Students supported in the visual impairment (VI) resource are very well looked after and make good progress.

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

 Students do not achieve as well in science or in design and technology as in other subjects, because the teaching does not always give a secure grasp of essential ideas or vital skills in these subjects.  A very small number of students, mainly boys, sometimes exhibit poor behaviour.  Some students are not confident in their understanding of the different cultures, religious beliefs or lifestyles of people in modern Britain.  Students occasionally lack confidence in their learning and do not show resilience when they meet problems.  Some gaps remain between the achievement of disadvantaged students and others.  Some students with disabilities (other than sight loss), and those who have special educational needs, do not yet make the very good progress now common across the school.  Students with disabilities (other than sight loss) or special educational needs, and disadvantaged students, have attended less often, and have been

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It is not yet an outstanding school because

excluded more often, than others in the past. This is improving, but gaps remain.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of all students’ learning, especially in science and technology, to the standard of the best currently in the school, by ensuring that all teachers: require students to acquire a deep understanding of the key concepts in each topic assist students to develop more resilience in their learning, so that they can use moments of doubt or confusion in their learning positively secure very high standards of behaviour from all students.  Improve the effectiveness of leadership and management in ensuring that outcomes for all groups of students are outstanding, by: eliminating remaining gaps in achievement between disadvantaged students and others ensuring that all students with disabilities and those with special educational needs make very rapid and secure progress in every subject improving the attendance and reducing the exclusions of disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities and those with special educational needs.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Deepen students’ understanding of diversity and equalities so that they are able to express their innate respect for others clearly and confidently, and are very well prepared for life in modern Britain.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 The headteacher has shown strong and determined leadership and has brought about substantial improvements in all areas of the school’s work since the last inspection. A culture of continual improvement is evident from the top down and teachers and other staff are proud to be a part of this success. The overwhelming majority of parents who expressed an opinion praised the quality of leadership and management, and nearly all would recommend the school to other parents. One described the school as a ‘gem in Chandler’s Ford’, adding that she is ‘extremely glad that [her] daughter is attending the school’.  Subject leaders demonstrate determination in securing very good teaching and learning in their areas. They make very good use of the excellent information available to them about the current achievement of individuals and groups of students and hold their teachers to account for outcomes in a firm but

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

supportive manner. These procedures ensure that there is equality of opportunity for all.  Working relationships between middle and senior leaders are strong and effective. There is a spirit of trust and mutual challenge in their work. This generates very effective ideas and strategies for further improvement. Between them, leaders manage to drive improvements in achievement and maintain a strong and supportive culture in the school to the benefit of students and staff.  Senior leaders know their school very well. Their self-evaluation of every area of its work is accurate and this has driven good development planning around entirely appropriate priorities. Their evaluation of the quality of teaching is perceptive, accurate and keenly diagnostic.  The leadership and management of the quality of teaching is impressively well organised and very effective. This is because it is driven with a passion for securing the best for students. It is managed with

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

a close eye to detail and the efficient use of time, energy and resources. There are strong links between the identification of strengths and weaknesses in teaching and the provision of a range of training opportunities for staff and more focused special support for individual teachers. This is reflected in high- quality formal mechanisms to manage performance and reward the best teaching with pay rises.  Among the wide range of opportunities for training and developing teachers and teaching assistants, there is good provision to encourage innovation and explore new strategies to stimulate better learning by students. The effect of this high-quality support is to generate high levels of staff morale and satisfaction with the leadership of the school, evident in the staff surveys returned.  The curriculum meets the students’ needs well. There is a balanced allocation of time across subjects and some useful flexibility. Even in Key Stage 3, for example, Year 9 students appreciate being able to choose

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

from a range of creative and performing arts and design and technology subjects to suit their interests and GCSE aspirations.  Tutor time is used well to promote interest in a broad range of issues, stimulated by current affairs. This, a strong and effective religious education programme at Key Stage 3 and a wide range of opportunities in other subjects and beyond the school day, promote a good awareness of moral, social and spiritual issues. Students have a reasonable, but not deep, understanding of how society reflects the diversity of cultures and beliefs in modern Britain, and what this will mean for them as they live and work in different parts of the country and beyond, in the future. They are not all entirely confident about how to express respect for, and interest in, different kinds of relationships and sexualities. The school is conscious of this gap in provision and there are plans in place to address it.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 The very small number of students in Years 10 and 11 who learn elsewhere for part of the week benefit from their experience of a broader and more vocational curriculum. Their progress and welfare are overseen closely by a nominated member of staff who liaises frequently with college staff. These students’ learning in core subjects when back in school is carefully organised. A few students attend the local pupil referral unit to meet their particular high levels of need. Again, there are good links between this provider and the school which ensure their welfare and progress towards appropriate qualifications.  Provision for careers advice and guidance is well organised and effective. Students in Key Stage 4 feel very well informed about the range of opportunities open to them at age 16, including different kinds of college courses, different institutions and the kinds of qualifications required to support their aspirations.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

They also feel well prepared for application and interview processes through the school’s careers programme. As a consequence, the proportion of students moving on to further education is higher than the national average, and there are hardly any students not in employment, education or training when they leave the school.  The pupil premium grant is used effectively. It has funded training for middle leaders in strategies to narrow gaps in outcomes, and time for a member of staff to monitor the achievement of this group of students throughout the school and plan interventions to support their progress. In addition, there is a system of reading mentors, extra help available in English and mathematics, and the provision of book and other resources to support the learning of disadvantaged students outside of school. Although published data do not yet show a significant reduction in gaps in standards achieved by students, these

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

gaps are closing much more convincingly for students currently in Key Stages 3 and 4, who are therefore set to achieve well by the end of their time at the school.  The Year 7 catch-up premium is also being used well to drive up standards of literacy and numeracy for those students who arrive with lower than average Key Stage 2 attainment in one or both of English and mathematics. These students’ progress over Key Stage 3 is accelerated by the extra support they receive.  The type and quantity of support from the local authority is well regarded by both the link adviser and the school. Regular monitoring visits take place which usefully affirm both the accuracy of the school’s self- evaluation and the quality of the improvement work. Consultants from the local authority have been employed to support better teaching, learning in a range of subjects, and the school’s leadership, to good effect.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

 The governance of the school This is good because governors are very well informed about the work of the school through a range of strategies, including special focus days on aspects of the school’s work such as safeguarding and teaching and learning, and being link governor to a subject department. They also use the significant amount of performance data and other information provided by the school, and externally produced analyses of performance, very well to assess the success of the school against its own targets and local and national standards. Governors exercise their responsibility for performance management and pay awards diligently and effectively: they scrutinise the quality of procedures and their fair and consistent application, ensuring that only the best teaching is rewarded. Committee structures and communications systems enable the governing body to use its knowledge and understanding of the school’s effectiveness to offer good

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is good

levels of support to the headteacher and senior staff. The wide variety of training they are undertaking is giving them the capacity to be able to offer highly targeted and systematic challenge to specific aspects of the work of the school that are not yet outstanding. Governors oversee the achievement of specific groups of students carefully. They are aware that gaps remain between the achievement of disadvantaged students and others and have plans to bring their forensic oversight to this issue to close gaps further. They are also aware that while students are prepared well for life in modern-day Britain, there is a need to audit provision and evaluate its impact with more care if this is to be an outstanding aspect of the school’s work.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. There are very good systems in place to secure the well-being and safety of students, regular and high-quality training for all staff, and a strong culture of

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

 Good teaching drives good achievement for all groups of students across the school. The best teaching is exciting, lively and challenges students of all abilities to achieve high standards. For example, in one dance lesson observed, students demonstrated a mature and professional approach to their work, using the skills and confidence which the teacher had modelled so very effectively.  Teaching in English is very good because it balances creativity and structure in a very effective manner. For example, Year 11 students looking at gun control in the USA showed perceptive insights, scholarship and the capacity to bring their learning from the study of a range of writers to bear in the discussion.  Teaching in mathematics is very effective and supports good progress. Students gain good insights into important mathematical techniques, but there is an underemphasis on the development of skills of

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

mathematical reasoning through problem solving.  Teachers’ subject knowledge is good and the great majority convey an enthusiasm for their subject. Work of an appropriate level of demand and challenge is provided for different groups of students and expectations of the achievement of all students are appropriately high in many classrooms.  Not all of the teaching promotes rapid and secure learning, however. When progress is less than good, it is usually because teachers do not emphasise the acquisition of important concepts and skills by students at key points. This is associated with an overreliance on delivering content clearly and methodically, rather than building up a deep understanding of topics among students. This can sometimes be the case in science and in design technology particularly.  Marking is consistent in its manner and its good quality across the school. Students find the feedback

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment is good

offered by teachers very useful and many respond to it by correcting work and contributing further ideas in the form of a dialogue in their books.  Literacy is taught well across the school, with all teachers sharing responsibility and using agreed strategies for improving students’ written, oral and listening skills. Sometimes opportunities to encourage wider subject-specific reading are missed, however.  There are many opportunities for students to enjoy learning in different ways in school and beyond the school day. Personal development learning (PDL) days involve a variety of topics. There are field trips in geography, theatre visits and trips to other European countries organised by the language department. The school runs a wide variety of clubs including several sports clubs, a sports club dedicated to students supported in the VI resource, Toynbee Radio, history and science clubs and a jazz band.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote students’ personal development and welfare is good.  Teachers and other staff model high standards. Students spoke to inspectors about how they value the respect that they are shown by staff. There are good opportunities for some students to take on responsibilities as prefects, or to contribute to the development of teaching and learning through working with teachers in department meetings. This level of cooperation is appreciated by students and they respond admirably.  Attendance is improving from being slightly below national averages over recent years. This is due to a concerted approach on the part of the school to showing the value of good attendance and responding to any persistent absence assertively. Disadvantaged students and students with disabilities and those with special educational needs have contributed disproportionately to absence levels in the past, but there are

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Personal development and welfare

good indications that this is being addressed. Students are punctual to school and to lessons.  Exclusions for poor behaviour are used sparingly and effectively and rates of exclusion have been below national averages for some time. Disadvantaged students and students with disabilities and those with special educational needs have tended to be excluded more than others in the past, but there is now earlier intervention to prevent the escalation of problems experienced by these students.  Students are safe in the school and they feel safe there. Their welfare is a very high priority for staff and very good systems are in place to offer help and support, sometimes involving external agencies when appropriate. A very high proportion of parents say that their child is looked after well at school and is happy here. This very strong level of faith in the school is well founded; this is a very caring community.

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Personal development and welfare

 Students value the opportunities they have to learn about keeping themselves safe, in and around school as well as online. Learning about e-safety has an appropriately high status. There are relatively few opportunities for older students to learn about what constitutes safe sexual practices, however.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of students is good.  Students enjoy each other’s company at social times and value the good friendships they make here. They are respectful to each other, staff and visitors and enjoy the pleasant and secure environment the school offers.  Bullying is rare and students say that it is limited to a small number of students and tends to be about day-to-day relationship problems. They are very confident that concerns can be shared with adults in the school – including the ‘guidance managers’, whose work is greatly valued – who then make appropriate responses. Students are pleased that adults handle potentially awkward situations with sensitivity, but also solve problems effectively and promptly.  Behaviour in lessons is good. The majority of students are keen to learn and many are attentive and thoughtful in class. Few, however, show the confidence to speak up to question teachers or challenge the

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Behaviour

views or opinions of other students. Some have a tendency to be slightly disheartened by failure, and only a few really appreciate its important role in learning or value the opportunity that getting something wrong offers.  A small number of lessons are disrupted by low-level poor behaviour, usually by what is accurately described as ‘laddish’ behaviour by a small number of boys. Students say this is rare and regard it as not in keeping with how they see their school and want it to be. Staff regard it as a consequence of higher expectations about behaviour and the quality of work being required, and usually manage it well. There are good systems in place to tackle it when it happens and there is little adverse impact on learning.  Students who attend college part time usually behave well and their welfare is assured due to good systems in place and very good communication between the college and the school.

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Outcomes for pupils are good

 Students achieve well in English, mathematics and across a range of other subjects. This is due to consistently good teaching in most areas, and good-quality monitoring and intervention to support the progress of anyone who needs extra help. Students’ learning in science and in design and technology is secure, but is not as strong as in other areas.  Students in the VI resource achieve well because the support they receive is well matched to their needs and allows them to play a full part in lessons and in the life of the school. There is considerable and well- founded pride on the part of staff and students in how well this resource benefits the students it serves, and also the whole school.  Other students with disabilities and those with special educational needs are supported effectively. Previously this group had not achieved as well as others by the end of Key Stage 4, but leaders responded by improving the quality of teaching. These students are now making good progress in Years 7

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Outcomes for pupils are good

to 11.  Students who attend the local college for part of the week achieve well in the vocational subjects they study there and also acquire a useful range of qualifications from their school-based work to take them on to the next stage of training, or employment.  The most-able students in the school make good progress. In the 2015 examinations the proportions making the progress expected of them in both English and mathematics were higher than for this group nationally. A higher proportion than nationally made better progress than expected in English, and a similar proportion to the national average did so in mathematics. The proportion of A* and A grades at GCSE is good, given students’ starting points.  Early entry for GCSE is appropriately rare. It is limited to those whose personal circumstances mean that securing a pass grade in English or mathematics earlier than the end of Year 11 is desirable.

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Outcomes for pupils are good

 Disadvantaged students have previously underachieved in comparison with other students. In recent years students overall have achieved around half a grade better in English and mathematics than nationally, but disadvantaged students achieved around a whole grade less than others in the school in both English and mathematics because fewer made the progress expected of them. The leadership of the school has put in place a range of measures to address this and to accelerate the progress of this group. As a consequence, gaps in achievement are currently shrinking from Year 7 up to Year 11. The headteacher and governors are well aware that there is more to be done to eliminate these gaps.  The majority of students read widely, confidently and with pleasure. Lending rates from the library are healthy, with particularly high take-up by boys, and many students have a sense of the fun and excitement offered by books. This is a consequence of a concerted approach by the school to developing

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Outcomes for pupils are good

a love of reading involving dedicated time and consistent encouragement and support.  Steps taken to broaden and deepen literacy skills are successful. Simple but effective strategies are applied across a range of subjects and students pick up the clear message that good written and verbal expression is an important part of learning. While students’ exercise books are not always tidily presented, they are generally well organised, and there is a clear emphasis on spelling, punctuation and grammar.

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School details

Unique reference number 116411 Local authority Hampshire Inspection number 10002380 This inspection was carried out under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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School details

Type of school Secondary comprehensive School category Maintained Age range of pupils 11–16 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 746 Appropriate authority The governing body Chair Rysia Reynolds Headteacher Matthew Longden Telephone number 0238 026 9026 Website www.toynbee.hants.sch.uk Email address admin@toynbee.hants.sch.uk Date of previous inspection 19–20 November 2013

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Information about this school

 The school is smaller than the average-size school.  The proportion of students who are disabled or have special educational needs is average.  The proportion of students known to be eligible for the pupil premium (additional government funding) is less than the national average. Some students are eligible for the Year 7 catch-up premium.  The school serves a community with relatively little ethnic or cultural diversity.  A few students in Key Stage 4 attend Eastleigh College for one day each week to follow vocational courses and a very small number attend The Bridge, a local pupil referral unit.  The school has dedicated provision to support the needs of up to 20 students with a visual disability. Fourteen students are currently supported in this unit.  The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set minimum expectations for attainment and progress.

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Information about this inspection

 Inspectors observed 38 lessons, seven jointly with senior staff.  Inspectors met with the headteacher and other senior staff, representatives of the governing body, other staff, a representative of the local authority, and groups of students.  The school’s development planning, self-evaluation documents, policies and safeguarding procedures were scrutinised.  Inspectors took into account the 178 responses to Parent View, including 97 comments from parents, and the 73 staff survey responses received.

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Inspection team

Alan Taylor-Bennett, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector Jason Ashley Ofsted Inspector Roy Blatchford Ofsted Inspector Christopher Doherty 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

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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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