Setting

Jim McAtear Headteacher The Benjamin Britten High School Blyford Road Lowestoft Suffolk NR32 4PZ

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School

Following my visit with Cathy Tooze, Ofsted Inspector, to your school on 13 and 14 April 2016, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to confirm the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave during the inspection and for the time you made available to discuss the actions which have been taken since the school’s previous monitoring inspection.

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School

The inspection was the fourth monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures following the inspection which took place in October 2014. The full list of the areas for improvement which were identified during that inspection is set out in the annex to this letter. The monitoring inspection report is attached.

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School

Having considered all the evidence, I am of the opinion that at this time:

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School

Leaders and managers are taking effective action towards the removal of special measures.

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School

The school may appoint newly qualified teachers before the next monitoring inspection.

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School

I am copying this letter to the chair of the interim executive board and the director of children’s services for Suffolk County Council. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Ofsted Inspector

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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place in October 2014

Improve teaching so that it is consistently good by: – investing in training that provides all staff with a thorough understanding of how to teach effectively and rigorously monitoring the impact of this training on improving pupils’ learning and progress – raising teachers’ expectations of what pupils are capable of achieving – checking that teachers’ planning includes tasks that enable disadvantaged and disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs to make good progress and also provides enough challenge for more-able learners – implementing the school’s procedures to manage pupils’ behaviour consistently – providing pupils with high quality feedback about the quality of their work and what they need to do to improve it – providing further opportunities to enable pupils in Year 7 to practise and improve their numeracy skills.

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place in October 2014

Improve the quality of leadership and management by: – engaging all staff and governors, as a matter of urgency, in talks to resolve the current breakdown in relations between school leaders and some teachers, and agreeing a corporate commitment to making rapid improvements to the achievement and welfare of all pupils – using the Teachers’ Standards to make all teachers fully accountable for the attainment and progress of all their pupils – thoroughly self-evaluating the school’s effectiveness, then putting in place detailed plans for improvement that include clear roles and responsibilities, timescales and targets by which leaders, managers and teachers can be held accountable for raising pupils’ achievement and improving their behaviour – sharing the good practice that exists within the school – adding much greater rigour to the procedures used by the governing body to manage teachers’ performance to improve the quality of teaching.

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place in October 2014

Raise achievement throughout the school by: – setting ambitious targets for pupils, with the expectation that the most able pupils will achieve at the highest level – using regular, accurate assessment to check pupils’ progress against their targets – ensuring that all staff use these checking procedures so they can take swift action to support pupils who fall behind – rigorously monitoring the progress and welfare of pupils taught off-site or on part-time timetables – using additional funding more effectively to prevent the under-performance of some of the school’s most disadvantaged pupils – improving the support for pupils eligible for catch-up funding in mathematics.

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place in October 2014

Improve pupils’ behaviour and safety by: – reaffirming the school’s policy and procedures for managing pupils’ behaviour – investigating why bullying occurs so regularly, and taking decisive action to stop it – reducing persistent absence and ensuring that pupils known to be disadvantaged regularly attend school.

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place in October 2014

An external review of the school’s use of the pupil premium should be carried out in order to assess how this aspect of leadership and management may be improved.

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Evidence

Inspectors observed the school’s work, scrutinised documents and met with the headteacher, senior and middle leaders, two groups of pupils, the chair of the interim executive board (IEB) and undertook a telephone conversation with a representative from the local authority.

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Context

Since the last monitoring inspection, the interim executive headteacher has been appointed to the permanent position of headteacher. One assistant headteacher and one member of the IEB have left their positions. The inclusion manager and a number of teaching and support staff have also left the school. The school plans to become an academy as part of a multi-academy trust later this term.

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Outcomes for pupils

Lesson observations and the scrutiny of pupils’ work undertaken by inspectors confirm that overall standards have continued to rise since the last monitoring inspection. School leaders believe that Year 11 pupils in 2016 will make considerably more progress from their starting points than they did in 2015. The school predicts that in 2016 progress will exceed the national floor standard. The school has continued to increase the amount of moderation of work it carries out in order to check current standards and to inform the predictions it makes about future outcomes.

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Outcomes for pupils

Pupils are currently making more progress in key stage 4 than they are in key stage 3. This is because the most effective teaching in the school has been used for key stage 4 classes. The school has also introduced a range of interventions and support in addition to normal lessons to ensure that pupils in Year 11 make the progress they should.

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Outcomes for pupils

Teachers and pupils have improved their understanding of the new assessment system recently introduced at key stage 3 and consequently, school leaders are gaining an increasingly accurate picture of achievement in the lower school in many subjects. However, in some subjects such as mathematics, a small number of teachers do not have the necessary skills or experience to make reliable judgements about pupils’ achievement. As a result, school leaders still have an incomplete picture of the progress pupils make at key stage 3.

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Outcomes for pupils

The achievement of disadvantaged pupils is improving slowly. However, because the progress of their non-disadvantaged peers is accelerating more rapidly the gap between the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and others is widening. School leaders do not routinely analyse the progress of the pupils who are currently in the school in terms of their prior attainment. As a result, they are unable to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of strategies to accelerate the progress of the most-able pupils.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

The quality of teaching has continued to improve overall. Classrooms are increasingly calm and orderly environments and as a result, teachers are raising their expectations of the standard of work that pupils can achieve. However, there is still too much weak teaching, particularly among temporary and non-specialist staff. Improvements in the quality of teaching in mathematics and science have not been as rapid as in some other subject areas because of the high numbers of temporary teachers in these departments.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Teachers have increased the number of opportunities for pupils to write at length or in a variety of styles in subjects outside of English, including in humanities, modern foreign languages and science. This has supported the improvement of literacy skills, and increased the opportunity for pupils to develop other important skills such as analysis, evaluation and problem-solving.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

Teaching assistants are now used much more effectively in lessons. They have undertaken relevant training and the quality of their communication with teachers has improved markedly. This has helped teachers plan lessons which more effectively support the learning of pupils who have special educational needs and disability. However, there has not been a similar improvement in the effectiveness of teachers’ planning to accelerate the progress of the most-able pupils.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

The quality of written feedback has not improved since the last monitoring inspection. School leaders have not articulated a clear policy on how teachers should respond to pupils’ work and so it is difficult for teachers to know what is expected of them, or to be held to account by leaders for the quality of their marking. Therefore, while some marking in the school is highly effective, for example in English, there is too much which does not help pupils understand what they need to do to improve.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

The conduct of pupils within lessons and around the school is very positive. They appreciate the rapid and extensive improvements that have been made to the quality of the school environment and they look after their improved facilities well. The atmosphere around the site is almost universally calm and orderly. Incidents of minor poor behaviour are declining. Bullying is increasingly rare, and pupils know what to do when it does occur and they feel confident that teachers will deal with it effectively when it is reported. School leaders have made changes to ensure that pupils considered to be at risk of exclusion, who had previously been educated separately both on and off-site, are now taught in mainstream lessons. This transition has been effectively managed, and permanent and fixed-term exclusion rates have continued to fall and are now both lower than the national average.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare

Overall attendance remains broadly in line with national expectations, which reflects greatly reduced absence compared to last year. However, the proportion of pupils who are persistently absent from school is still too high and, although declining, remains above the national average.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Senior leaders have ensured that the school has made reasonable progress towards addressing the priorities identified in the last inspection report. They have drawn up focused and achievable plans for addressing these key issues which have resulted in overall improvements in teaching, behaviour and outcomes for pupils. Staff are highly positive about developments at the school and morale remains high, even during a period of considerable change.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Where senior leaders have set about improving the quality of middle leadership they have done so successfully. For example, the reorganisation of leadership responsibilities and the provision of relevant training in the area of special educational needs and disability have brought about rapid improvement in this area.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

However, the same level of support and challenge has not been provided for all middle leaders. As a result, the quality of middle leadership, particularly among teachers in charge of subjects, is still too variable. The more effective heads of department are rapidly driving forward improvements in their own areas. However, some heads of department are still at an early stage in developing their skills in self- evaluation, monitoring the quality of teaching and development planning.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

Senior leaders have clear procedures for monitoring the effectiveness of teaching staff. A large number of ineffective teachers have left the school. In almost all cases the school has appointed permanent replacements who have yet to take up their positions, and many lessons are currently being overseen by temporary staff. However, during this interim period not enough is being done to ensure that consistently effective practice is delivered by all teachers or to provide appropriate training to develop their professional skills and knowledge.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

School leaders have now evaluated the impact of the additional funding that the school has received, including pupil premium and Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up funding. As a result, they are now much clearer about the weaknesses in the way this funding has been used in the past. However, this evaluation, along with a considerable amount of other statutory information, is not currently available on the school’s website.

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The effectiveness of leadership and management

The expert and experienced IEB continues to contribute to the effective leadership of the school. The plan for the school to become an academy has not been completed in line with the timescales that were initially envisaged, and the IEB has necessarily overseen a complex range of consultations and negotiations. However, during this time, the members of the IEB have not lost sight of their core purpose of providing support and challenge for the senior leadership team in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning at the school.

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External support

The local authority has continued to provide effective support for senior leaders. It has provided effective advice and guidance in a range of areas including the development of more robust assessment systems. The local authority has also provided practical support and expertise in areas such as staffing and finance.

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