Setting

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.1

Scott Hudson Principal The Voyager Academy Mountsteven Avenue Peterborough Cambridgeshire PE4 6HX

p.1

Academy

Following my visit to your school on 20 May 2016, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. Thank you for the help you gave me and for the time you made available to discuss the actions you are taking to improve the school since the most recent section 5 inspection.

p.1

Academy

The visit was the first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement following the section 5 inspection in January 2016. It was carried out under section 8 of the Education Act 2005.

p.1

Academy

Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the last section 5 inspection in order to become a good school.

p.1

Academy

The school should take further action to:

p.1

Academy

 continue to strengthen the work of middle leaders so that they can play a full part in improving the school and make sound judgements about standards within their subject areas  improve the teaching and assessment of mathematics to sustain improving outcomes and make sure that pupils know what they are expected to achieve in this subject.

p.1

Evidence

During the inspection, I held meetings with you and other senior leaders, pupils from key stages 3 and 4 and learners from the sixth form, the chair and three other members of the governing body and two representatives of The Comberton Academy Trust to discuss the actions taken since the last inspection. I evaluated the school improvement plan. I visited a number of lessons to observe pupils’ learning, accompanied by two members of the senior leadership team. I also scrutinised the school’s records of recruitment checks of staff.

p.2

Context

There have been no contextual changes since the previous inspection.

p.2

Main findings

Your school improvement plan identifies strategic goals over a three-year period as well as proposed actions until July 2017. The plan is well written and covers all of the areas for improvement identified at the time of the previous inspection. It identifies clearly who is leading the proposed actions and how you will measure the success of these. The proposed actions are logically sequenced within a challenging but appropriate timescale.

p.2

Main findings

You are working well to challenge teachers’ perceptions of what pupils at The Voyager Academy can achieve. Previously, because pupils’ attitudes towards their learning were often poor, teachers planned their lessons cautiously, which resulted in teaching that was bland and lacking in challenge. Your records of the quality of pupils’ behaviour indicate that their attitudes towards learning have improved. Consequently, teachers are now able to plan lessons where they can take risks, and hence which engage pupils more so that they make better progress. Teachers are planning lessons which are better matched to pupils’ needs. Your improvement plan also includes appropriate strategies for motivating boys and identifies a named member of staff to lead this initiative. Your strategies to improve pupils’ attendance and to tackle their persistent absence are also achieving success. Hence, a greater proportion of pupils experience teaching which is steadily improving in quality

p.2

Main findings

because they attend school more regularly. I observed most pupils engaging well with their learning during my visits to lessons. Pupils told me that they typically engage less well in lessons which are taught by agency staff, and you continue to employ a number of these to teach mathematics, although you have recruited permanent staff for September 2016.

p.2

Main findings

Your work with the current Year 11 pupils has secured a greater proportion making expected and better than expected progress in mathematics, although this may well still be below the national average set in 2015. Planning for school improvement previously focused too much on outcomes in Year 11, but you have rightly shifted the focus to progress across all year groups, with an emphasis on key stage 3.

p.2

Main findings

There is much evidence of teachers marking work regularly and providing more detailed information about how pupils can improve their work. However, not all pupils are clear about their academic targets and the standard they are currently achieving, particularly in mathematics.

p.3

Main findings

The trust has been proactive in developing senior leaders new to their roles and in developing subject leadership. You established some non-negotiable requirements of subject leaders to ensure that teachers’ feedback on pupils’ progress becomes more meaningful and helps pupils improve their work. Subject leaders’ action plans tie in closely with the academy improvement plan. The trust has provided specialist support to the mathematics department to add to capacity and to improve the mathematics provision, as well as helping to recruit teachers in other shortage subjects. Subject leaders are becoming more skilled in assessing the quality of their provision through the support and challenge provided by the trust, but further work is required until they achieve their full potential and demonstrate maximum impact.

p.3

Main findings

The academy’s scrutiny committee, which brings with it a wide range of expertise, provides a high degree of challenge to the academy’s leaders. The committee is rigorous in checking progress against planned actions and in evaluating their impact. Plans are in place to continue this ongoing monitoring until the school’s re- inspection.

p.3

External support

The academy has brokered the support of another local school, which is not a member of the trust, to share good practice. This has involved tutoring 23 pupils in mathematics, which secured improved outcomes when they re-sat a practice examination paper. The academy has plans in place to extend this work to develop science and literacy and to support those pupils who speak English as an additional language.

p.3

External support

Ofsted may carry out further monitoring inspections, and, where necessary, provide further support and challenge to the school until its next section 5 inspection.

p.3

External support

I am copying this letter to the chair of the governing body, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Peterborough. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

p.3