Blue River Academy

Blue River Academy Sara Park, 160 Herbert Road, Small Heath, Birmingham B10 0PR

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate Personal development, behaviour and welfare Requires improvement Outcomes for pupils Inadequate Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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This is an inadequate school

 Pupils’ behaviour, outcomes and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment are not consistently good enough at the two separate school sites.  Teaching is inadequate. Mundane learning tasks do not capture pupils’ interest well enough. Pupils lose focus because their lessons are long. The quality of teachers’ feedback to pupils is inadequate, and therefore pupils do not know how to improve their work. This has not improved since the last inspection.  Information on what pupils can already do is not used well to inform teaching so that all pupils are appropriately challenged. This means the work is either too hard or too easy for some pupils.  The curriculum is narrow and some key subjects are not taught. This includes physical education, and creative and aesthetic subjects such as art, music and technology. There are specific weaknesses in the science curriculum, including a lack of investigative work.

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This is an inadequate school

 Outcomes for pupils overall are inadequate. A significant group of pupils do not make the progress of which they are capable. Teachers’ expectations are too low and teaching does not meet the needs of learners effectively.  Leaders and managers have not ensured that all the regulations for independent schools are met, and this has an adverse impact on pupils’ progress.  Governance of the school is embryonic and has not yet had an impact on improving teaching, outcomes for pupils, or leadership and management. The school is not improving rapidly enough.  The school’s self-evaluation is weak. It does not capture its strengths and weaknesses well enough and, consequently, plans for improvement do not focus with enough rigour on the most important priorities for teaching and learning.  Pupils’ behaviour requires improvement. It is good at the Sara Park centre but requires improvement at the Tyseley centre.

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The school has the following strengths

 Some pupils at the Sara Park centre make good progress from their starting points and gain GCSE qualifications. This boosts their self-confidence.  Pupils develop a good understanding of their own and wider cultures, including British values.  Safeguarding is effective and pupils are safe.  When pupils leave school, all go on to some form of education, training or employment.  Pupils’ attendance improves rapidly during their time at the school.

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The school has the following strengths

The school must take action to meet the requirements of the schedule to The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 and associated requirements. The details are listed in the full report.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve teaching and learning so that they are good across both sites, and accelerate pupils’ progress by: raising expectations of standards and presentation of pupils’ work in books, particularly at the Tyseley centre improving the quality and consistency of teachers’ feedback to pupils, so that they know how to improve their work ensuring that teaching captures the interest of pupils for entire lessons using information about what pupils know and can do already to inform teaching, so that work is pitched at the right level for all pupils.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve the leadership and management of the school through: establishing effective governance arrangements, so that governors provide appropriate challenge to school leaders and check more closely the work of the school ensuring that leaders’ self-evaluation captures an accurate picture of the school’s strengths and weaknesses and informs improvement planning in order to secure developments in teaching, pupils’ outcomes, and leadership and management ensuring that all pupils study the full range of subjects, including science, physical education, and aesthetic and creative subjects ensuring that all the independent school standards are fully met.

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The school must meet the following independent school standards:

 Full-time supervised education is provided for pupils of compulsory school age (construed in accordance with section 8 of the Education Act 1996), and which gives pupils experience in linguistic, mathematical, scientific, technological, human and social, physical and aesthetic and creative education (paragraph 2(2)(a)).  All pupils have the opportunity to learn and make progress (paragraph 2(2)(h)).  Enable pupils to acquire new knowledge and make good progress according to their ability so that they increase their understanding and develop their skills in the subjects taught (paragraph 3(a)).  Lessons are well planned and there are effective teaching methods, activities and management of class time (paragraph 3(c)).  Teachers show a good understanding of the aptitudes, needs and prior attainments of the pupils, and ensure that these are taken into account in the planning of lessons (paragraph 3(d)).

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The school must meet the following independent school standards:

 A framework is in place to assess pupils’ work regularly and thoroughly and to use information from that assessment to plan teaching so that pupils can progress (paragraph 3(g)).  The proprietor must ensure suitable changing accommodation and showers are provided at the start of the school year for pupils aged 11 years or over who receive physical education (paragraph 23(1) (c)).  The proprietor should ensure that the school premises and the accommodation and facilities provided are maintained to a standard such that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of pupils are ensured (paragraph 25).  The proprietor must ensure that persons with leadership and management responsibilities at the school demonstrate good skills and knowledge appropriate to their role so that the independent school standards are met consistently and their responsibilities are fulfilled effectively (paragraphs

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

 Leaders have not been effective in establishing a culture of ambition. Although some pupils’ aspirations and self-esteem start to improve with the achievement of qualifications, others underachieve because teaching and learning are inadequate. Lesson observations, carried out by the headteacher to check the quality of teaching and to give teachers advice as to how to improve their practice, have not resulted in consistently good teaching across both school sites.  Not all the independent school standards are met, and in a significant number of cases, this has a negative impact on the progress, achievement and well-being of pupils.  The curriculum does not cover all areas of learning. Not all pupils have access to subjects such as science. The curriculum focuses too narrowly on English, mathematics, religious education and citizenship. Creative and aesthetic subjects such as art, music and technology are not provided for pupils.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

 The key issues raised at the last inspection, namely to further improve the use of feedback to pupils and to increase opportunities for practical science, have not been addressed with enough rigour.  The school's self-evaluation is not robust. It does not give a clear and accurate view of the strengths and weaknesses of the school.  School improvement planning is weak. It does not address the school’s priorities well enough and does not include clear monitoring or evaluation procedures.  Pupils receive appropriate careers education guidance that is impartial and helps them to make informed decisions, particularly in relation to which courses to follow when they leave school, and which college would be the most suitable to meet their needs.  Leaders place a strong emphasis on the values of equality and respect and on the importance of understanding other cultures. Visits to local places of interest, visitors to the school and good working

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

relationships with other agencies such as the local police, help to prepare pupils well for life in modern Britain.  Pupils gain an understanding of democracy and respect through visits to places such as the Birmingham Civic Centre. This helps pupils to understand how democracy works in Britain and has enabled them to compare this system with that in the United States.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

 The governance of the school  The governing body is newly formed and has not developed into a body that challenges, supports and holds leaders and teachers to account with enough rigour. Measures to help governors evaluate the effectiveness of the school are in the very early stages of development and have not yet had an impact in securing improvements. The headteacher is the acting chair of governors. This in inappropriate. This prevents the governing body from gaining an objective view of the provision.  The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. There is a safe culture in the school to ensure that all pupils are supported and safe. Effective links with parents and other agencies also support pupils and help to keep them safe. Safeguarding information and the training of staff reflect the latest statutory guidance. Staff receive good training to ensure that their awareness of how to protect children is raised.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management is inadequate

Staff recruitment procedures are robust and relevant checks are carried out, including on agency staff.

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is inadequate

 Pupils make too little progress because some teaching, learning and assessment are poor. The turnover of key staff has led to a reliance on temporary tutors and this has had a negative impact on pupils’ progress.  Tasks are not matched well enough to pupils’ ability. In larger classes, less able pupils struggle to complete tasks, while the most able are not challenged enough and are not given suitable activities when they have finished their work. As a result, many pupils lose focus and too much time is wasted.  Pupils spend too much time completing worksheets or using online computer programmes. Learning is not interesting enough, particularly for less able pupils, leading to a loss of concentration. There are not enough opportunities for pupils to apply their learning and to demonstrate that they have fully understood concepts.  The school holds accurate assessment information, but this is not used effectively by teachers to plan

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is inadequate

activities at the correct level. Pupils repeat skills and knowledge that they have already mastered. This leads to underachievement.  Teachers’ feedback to pupils does not tell them how they can improve their work. As a result, pupils do not make as much progress as they should.  Scrutiny of pupils’ work shows that academic expectations are too low, particularly for pupils at the Tyseley centre.  Relationships between staff and pupils are positive at the Sara Park centre, but less so at the Tyseley centre.  Where teaching and learning are effective, work is matched closely to pupils’ levels of ability and good use of questioning tests pupils’ understanding and probes their thinking. For example, in a computer lesson, pupils understood the role of operating systems in information technology, constructed an online presentation to demonstrate their learning and fed back to the rest of the class.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare requires improvement. It is good at the Sara Park centre but requires improvement at the Tyseley centre. Relationships between staff and pupils at the Tyseley centre are fractious. Staff spend excessive time and energy in cajoling pupils to engage them positively in lessons.  On arrival at the school, the inspector noted that some of the toilet facilities were not working properly and supplies of handtowels were missing. The cleanliness of these facilities was also raised as a concern. The current changing and showering arrangements for pupils are inadequate.  The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils is fostered well. Pupils are encouraged to have positive aspirations. Visits from local athletes help to promote positive messages about achievement and ambition.  Pupils’ personal and social development is also promoted through a range of community involvement

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Personal development and welfare

projects, such as feeding homeless people. Such involvement in the local community has a positive impact on most pupils’ well-being and they gain confidence and self-esteem. British values are promoted well and pupils gain a wider appreciation of their own and different cultures.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils requires improvement. Behaviour and attitudes to learning are good at the Sara Park centre, but require improvement at the Tyseley centre. A small number of pupils exhibit immature behaviour at the Tyseley centre and are reluctant to engage purposefully in lessons. Some pupils are slow to settle down to work and do not participate sensibly in discussions.  Pupils’ behaviour is good in and around school at the Sara Park centre, which is a calm and orderly learning environment. Attitudes to learning here are largely positive.  Prior to attending Blue River Academy, many pupils have not attended school for some time. With the support of staff, most pupils make good improvements to their individual attendance and punctuality.  Pupils are safe and say that they feel safe from bullying and know how to keep themselves safe online. There have been no exclusions.

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Outcomes for pupils are inadequate

 Most pupils join the school at key stage 4 with levels of attainment that are below average. Many do not make good progress from these starting points and so their attainment remains low. This is because teaching does not engage pupils in learning well enough to ensure rapid progress. The changes in teaching staff have also had a detrimental impact on pupils’ progress.  Outcomes are inadequate overall because there are too many pupils who are not doing as well as they should, particularly at the Tyseley centre. The standard of pupils’ work at the Tyseley centre is inadequate. Scrutiny of pupils’ work shows poor presentation with little pride taken. Pupils’ progress in English and mathematics and other subjects is inadequate. Pupils reported to the inspector that they are not able to study a wide enough range of subjects and inspection findings support this view. Pupils do not have regular, planned opportunities to study music, art, technology or physical education.

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Outcomes for pupils are inadequate

 Standards in science are not high enough. Not all pupils study science. There is not enough investigative work for those who do study the subject. As a result, pupils do not gain a good understanding of how to carry out and record experiments.  Some pupils at Sara Park achieve the higher A* to C grades at GCSE due to challenging and effective teaching. However, weaknesses in the quality of teaching overall mean that too few pupils achieve the qualifications of which they are capable.  All pupils move into further education, training or employment when they leave the school. A few return to mainstream schools.

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School details

Unique reference number 136513 Inspection number 1000625 DfE registration number 330/6213

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 109(1) and (2) of the Education and Skills Act 2008, the purpose of which is to advise the Secretary of State for Education about the school’s suitability for continued registration as an independent school.

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School details

Type of school Independent School status Independent day school Age range of pupils 14–16 Gender of pupils Mixed Number of pupils on the school roll 25 Number of part-time pupils 0 Proprietor Muhammid Abdullah Chair Muhammid Abdullah (acting) Headteacher Muhammid Abdullah Annual fees (day pupils) £158 per week Telephone number 0121 7667981 Website www.blueriver.org.uk Email address headteacher@blueriver.org.uk Date of previous school inspection 21–22 March 2012

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Information about this school

 Blue River Academy works with young people aged 14–16 who are out of mainstream school due to behavioural issues, are newly arrived in the country, or because they are unable to gain a school place. Most pupils have become disengaged with education, are at risk of exclusion or have missed an extended period of schooling.  The school is situated on two sites in Birmingham; the main accommodation is a former children’s play centre, located in Sara Park, and is rented from the local council. This accommodation has been recently acquired, but has not been previously inspected for a material change. At the time of the inspection, there were 15 pupils on roll at this centre. The second site is based at Tyseley Community Centre, where there were 10 pupils on roll.  The school was last inspected in March 2012, when the education provided was judged to be good. All except five regulations were met, which all concerned the premises and accommodation. The school

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Information about this school

produced an action plan in December 2012 and subsequently received a monitoring visit in April 2013, which found that it had addressed all the previous shortcomings. A material change visit took place in October 2014 to look at the suitability of Tyseley Community Centre as a base.  The school does not use any alternative providers.

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Information about this inspection

 The inspection took place with one day’s notice.  The inspector observed six parts of lessons, some of which were joint observations with the headteacher.  Pupils’ work, surveys, annual reports and other records were scrutinised.  The school’s documentation was examined, including planning for subjects, and records of pupils’ progress and the welfare and safeguarding of pupils. The inspector checked the school’s compliance with the regulations for independent schools.  The views of pupils were sought through individual discussions.  There were insufficient responses to the Ofsted online questionnaire, Parent View, but the inspector met with one parent, and took into account other comments and a school-based questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Frank Price, lead inspector 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

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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